What Is a Short Story Review

A short story review is an evaluation of a short story designed to convey an impression

for the target audience. You can see that if you look at any short review example
presented on our site. This is a small text containing a survey and analysis of a short
story. Today we will mainly talk about short story reviews, although much of what has
been said can be projected onto films, games, music, etc.

The review can be:

 Official – printed in a government or departmental publication on the occasion of the

publication of a short story of national importance. It is written with observance of all
norms of etiquette, with neutral or restrained laudatory language.

 Functional – to compose an impression of the short story according to specific tasks

and goals: how much the product is suitable for a particular publishing house and
series, how well it can be sold, and whether it covers any specific issues. It is written
clearly and intelligibly, and the content is more important than the form. You will notice
this if you look at a short story review template presented on our site.

 Informative – for potential readers and buyers, in order to help make a decision, this
type focuses on whether it is worth reading or not. It is written simply, but it is possible
to beautify the words slightly, and make some analysis. It is recommended to add a
couple of quotes in greater detail.

 An essay on the topic – this is a discussion of the futility of everything with the use of
the short story as a starting point. The more beautiful and mysterious it is written, the
better. The reviewer’s development of thoughts is limited only by their presence.

 Publicistic – the author focuses attention on the problem from which society suffers. It
is written brightly, harshly, and is necessarily disputable.

 Critical – the work (and often the author) is anatomized, dissected, and disassembled:
what he/she said, what he/she wanted to say, what the readers thought, which of them
were wrong, and how a clever reviewer noticed all this. The main requirements are to
follow the logic, to not go down to a simple presentation of the argument, and to argue
the position. And also it is necessary to ensure that in the text of the review there were
no mistakes: a critic who knows the material worse than the one criticized is miserable.

 Paid – this is an obviously laudatory or insulting review of the short story. When writing,
it is important not to overdo it with laudatory sentences, otherwise it will even repel the
customer, and he or she will not pay.
 Private response – this is a subjective impression of a story, without attempts for
objective criticism or analysis. It is written in a lively language, and jargon and slang are
acceptable (in all other types of reviews they are not welcome).

A professional reviewer always knows for which target audience he or she is writing,
why he or she chose this particular work and precisely this format of submission, what
goal he or she wants to achieve, and in what way. And, of course, those who do not
read the short story before writing a review deserve shame and desecration. We
emphasize – read other reviews, but do not look through and steal other people’s
thoughts and opinions.

Structure of Short Story Review Examples

The review has a head, neck, body, and tail. The head is the name of the text: distinct,
catchy, and at the same time related to the theme of the short story. The neck is the so-
called lead, two or three dense introductory lines that set the tone and outline the
subject of the conversation. The body is the actual text of the review. The tail is the
conclusions of the reviewer, his or her resume. Without a tail, the review looks lonely
and harsh – do not offend the poor thing! Each story review example you can find on
our site has all these structural elements.

Be sure to indicate authorship, the title of the short story, and, for published works,
output data. You should write whether this is a novelty or a reprint, and whether the
short story is marked by some significant awards. Denote the genre in form (short story,
in our case) and in content (fantasy, drama, alternative story, etc.). Describe the main
story line (but without spoilers!), list the main characters, places of action, and key
moments of the story. Try to understand and convey to the readers the main thoughts of
the work (not necessarily, but it is better to do). While writing a review, it is possible to
use several approaches: external observation, non-evaluative analysis, critical analysis,
and polemic with the author. It is also possible to use a short story review template to
understand how to write your own review.

A review is not only intended to discuss the story. You can also include thoughts,
feelings, and philosophies. Short sentences, a minimum of adjectives, a clear meaning,
and an unambiguous conclusion are the main features of a good review. A review of up
to a maximum of 5,400 words is the ideal format for calm and thorough reasoning of a
single work. You can talk about the place of the story in the author’s work, draw
parallels, add your impressions and conclusions, analyze in detail the merits and
demerits of the text – and at the same time not tire the reader.

However, a review of more than 5,400 words is simply obligated to aim at more than
just the problems of one story. Write about the literary process and tendencies of the
genre, compare it with similar works, analyze the work of the author in general, actively
quote and add your thoughts – you can not do without them in a large text.
Criteria for Evaluation in Short Story Review
Examples
What can be taken into account when evaluating and analyzing a story? The overall
impression of the story can be whole, fragmented, powerful, weak, pleasant, or pathetic.
The plot – how logically is it presented, and are there any moments that do not work for
it? The narrative may be dynamic, unhurried, protracted, chased, or tattered. How do
the dynamics of the narrative correspond to the genre and tasks set in the story?

For the characters – how detailed and authentic are they, and is their psychology
natural enough, could they do these actions under the given circumstances? Are these
characters sympathetic to the reader? Do they provoke empathy or disgust? And for
language and style – consider them in general and in the context of the task.

Consider reliability in general and in detail. Are the laws of nature and science violated
in the story? Did they wear such clothes at the appointed time, did they talk in that
language at the appointed time, and does everything in the story sound right? And on
the assumption of fantasy – what were the fantastic elements, how competently were
they designed, and how necessary? Is it possible, without prejudice to the story, to
remove princesses with dragons, space travel, or plasma guns from the setting?

For discussing the psychology of relationships, do the characters have internal

motivations for actions? Are these motivations sufficient, and do they behave in a
variety of ways or rigidly follow standard reactions? Is the main idea of the text ethical,
clever, and original? What does the story teach the reader? What does it want to tell the
reader? Is it possible to isolate the author’s idea from the text from the first reading?

In terms of originality – how banal is the idea, from where and what the author borrowed
his or her ideas, and who is quoted or paraphrased? If it seems that the book opens a
new genre or direction, certainly mention it. Catch and show mistakes and blunders to
society. Of course, you should do this if you are sure that the author is mistaken, and
not purposely distort events and realities. And if it also happens that an unprofessional
editor has worked on the story – their mistakes are comparable to the mistakes of the
writers themselves. However, each story review example that you can find on our site is
absolutely free of mistakes.

Pay attention to public significance – the text may indicate moments useful for, say,
patriotic upbringing or national identity, and describes complex ethical issues and
choices. Extra-literary merits, for example, contain historical, ethnographic, or social
significance. A mediocre written story can still be interesting as a source of information.

Focus on relevance – whether the topic is relevant, whether it is interesting to the

public, and for what audience the story is written for.
How a Short Story Review Template Can Help You
Our examples can take an important place in your life if you don’t know how to write
reviews. If you feel you can’t write a decent short story review, you need to read through
the examples we presented. It is not necessary to read all of the samples, just choose
the ones that are more suitable for your topic.

To become a reviewer, one must remember: the review should be written after you read
and completely understand the work you need to review. Don’t use absolutely all the
clever words you know in your review. Writing a review is not a method of self-
expression; you can see that if you read reviews on our site written by professional
writers.

The right to review short stories needs to be earned – only the opinion of very few
reviewers is interesting to readers. The reviewer must know the material at least as well
as the author of the story. It is better not even to speak about grammatical, stylistic, and
other mistakes. As you can see, our samples don’t contain any mistakes.

In order to avoid getting into an idiotic position, we check all literary, scientific, technical,
and other terms – both how they are written and what they mean. When we write our
samples, we are convinced that we do not make any errors, as only in this way you will
see that our writers will not make any mistakes in your papers.

When we write our short story examples, we carefully read the names of the characters,
places, and objects. We don’t confuse all of the names, as we know that the credibility
of the review will be lost. We follow the style. Poor language and jargon are
inappropriate in the review – that’s why our samples don’t have them.

Professional terms are hardly suitable for short story reviews, which is why our samples
avoid using them. The review will not do without filigree work with language. Our
reviews are not rude, vulgar, or deliberately messy with mistakes. As you can see in our
samples, we do not mix different styles within the boundaries of one text.

The smaller the volume of the review, the more concise and simpler the sentences
should be. We avoid superfluous epithets and complex structures. We try to put one
thought into one small paragraph. You can see in our short story review examples that
we carefully and accurately build reasoning.

If the style of review does not involve the clearly expressed subjective position of the
reviewer, we sacrifice our feelings and thoughts in favor of pure information. We share
our position and objective criteria. The story can be objectively good, but boring for a
writer personally, but nevertheless our professional writers are able to write high-quality
samples on any story.