Writing Book Reviews

Share what you thought of a book with the other members of your libraries. The main action is to recommend a book (tap the star); adding a written review is optional. A review is a short blurb (up to 500 characters) — think “how this book impacted me” rather than a full essay.

Where your review appears

When your profile is visible, your reviews are shared with members of the libraries you belong to. They show up:

On the book’s detail page — the In your community section shows up to two members’ recommendations with their reviews; tap See all to read everyone’s
In your community activity feed
On your profile, in the Reviews section

If your profile visibility is turned off, your reviews stay private to you. You can change this anytime in Settings → Privacy.

Reviews are tied to your profile-visibility setting — there isn’t a separate public/private switch per review.

Writing a review

You can recommend and review any book at any time — even one you haven’t started yet.

Open the book’s detail page
Tap Add your recommendation in the In your community section, just below what other members recommend — the star fills and the button becomes Recommended
In the dialog that opens, optionally type a short review
Tap Done, or dismiss the dialog to skip — your recommendation stays either way

The quickest moment to recommend or review is right after you finish a book: when you mark it finished, the You finished screen has a Recommend it button. Tap it to recommend the book and, if you like, add your thoughts.

Editing or removing a review

Open the book’s detail page (or find it in My Books or Reviews)
Tap the filled Recommended button in the In your community section to reopen the dialog. When See all is shown, you can also open it and tap Edit on your own entry at the top
Update your review text and tap Save, or tap Remove recommendation to un-recommend
If your recommendation includes a review, removing it asks for confirmation first — the review is deleted for good
Removed a recommendation without a review and changed your mind? Right after you remove it, tap Undo in the message at the bottom of the screen to put it back

Seeing all your reviews

To browse your reviews in one place, open My Books and tap Recommended at the top of the page — either the Recommended link in the row of My Books sections, or the Recommended count (the number is how many books you recommend). You can search by book title, author, or review text, and edit any entry from there. If you’re mid-book, the View reviews shortcut on the home screen’s Currently reading section takes you to the same page.

Marking a review helpful

Found another member’s review useful? Tap Helpful under it — the count shows how many members that review has helped, and the most helpful written reviews are the ones shown first on the book’s page. Tap again to undo. You can’t mark your own review, but you’ll see how many people found it helpful, just below your Recommended button.

Reporting a review

If you see a review that’s inappropriate, open the ⋯ menu in the corner of the review, choose Report review, and tell us why. Library admins and our moderators review reports and can remove a review if needed.

Tracking your reading progress

Still Need Help?

If you have questions about reviews, contact support.