Book Review Competition winner Shivona Chellakootty (UK) believes in letting your passion guide your writing. Not only does this lead you down unique and esoteric paths, but passion is contagious and will help ignite an interest in your reader. As Shivona says, “Figure out the reason for YOUR passionate feelings and spread it like wildfire!”
Below, she gives us her tips for writing reviews and tells us about her current writing projects!
How did you discover this book, and what made you decide to choose it as the subject of your book review?
I found this book whilst listening to a geography podcast. I chose to review it because of how unique it is—I’ve never seen a book like it. It takes years, decades, to accumulate all the materials needed to create a nonfiction book like Nowherelands, and the author inspired so much passion within me—it had to be shared!
As Guest Judge Megan Daley notes, this is more of a “niche” book, but your enthusiasm and deep engagement with the topic is contagious—we all wanted to read Nowherelands after reading your review! How can other writers, when exploring or reviewing a topic that’s a little more esoteric, spark this kind of curiosity in their readers?
Well, as an example; I hate mathematics. I’m not particularly good at it, so trying to sell me an ‘art of quadratics’ book would seem like a waste of time. But how is it that so many people love the subject? If you dig down deep enough, you’ll find that every topic—humanities, art, science, etc.—has underlying, wonderful qualities that can inspire anyone. Equations are the foundations of so many major discoveries. Isn’t that feeling of progress wonderful? Don’t you want in on that? I think all you need to do is find these points and exploit them to persuade and open the reader’s mind.
Figure out the reason for YOUR passionate feelings and spread it like wildfire!
If someone wanted to write a book review for the first time, what would be the top-three tips you’d pass on to them?
The first tip would be to figure out exactly what you like about the book and WHY you like those elements. Let this act as the base for your review and, eventually your passionate feelings will become a common ground between you and the reader.
Next—as much as you love the book, try to identify what kind of audience might appreciate it less, and be as honest as you can. I think counter-arguments always make the final point stronger.
Finally—treat your review as its own piece of beautiful literature—it is! Readers always want to be swept up in whatever they’re reading, so you can use many literary techniques to create imagery, which lets the readers’ imagination juices flow, flow, and flow!
What other genres do you enjoy writing in?
The world we live in is so fascinating, and learning about it is the closest we can get to experiencing it at the moment. I love writing about what I learn and am fond of the documentation style of writing. After exams, I hope to start a website/blog where I write about all the things I learn whilst researching geography. Aside from this, writing letters is my favorite way of expressing myself. There’s a timeless, quiet atmosphere to letters that helps me remember and appreciate the beauty of human emotion—our minds are wonderful!
