A high-level checklist for evaluating the substance of a novel for adults
When reviewing a book, whether for an awards program or for the purpose of writing a review, you’ll want to consider all the essential elements that go into the making of a fine story. And to do that, you’ll want first to consider the category of fiction it is. From there, you dive into the story.
Questions to consider
The questions here are generative: meant to help cue and prompt. Reading through them before you begin, or occasionally as a refresher, can help you focus your attention on the most fruitful aspects and — where you sense a weakness — to diagnose cause.
Holistically
Did the book pull you in? Hold your attention, keep you engaged? Did you sink into it like a dream? Or perhaps remain aware of the act of reading, but most delightfully so? (In literary fiction, typically this has to do with the language and the delight that language can evoke.)
If a realistic novel, does it feel natural? If a parody, is it smooth, clever, spot-on, unforced? If an example of magical realism, are the observations sharp, the quotidian “magic” resonant? Whatever its type or genre, how closely does this novel succeed at what it sets out to do? Does it fulfill its aim?
Are the characters sharply drawn, clear, unique? True to life, yet indisputably themselves? Is the narrative voice fresh and engaging? Strong and individual?
Then, category. Does this work read like a literary novel? Like something you’d expect to see in a university classroom or an MFA program? Like something students would study, or book clubs tackle using a readers’ guide? Does it strike out into new territory, bend or subvert conventions, color outside the lines? Does it require a bit of work (not unusual, in literary work), and if so, is that work amply rewarded?
Or does it read more like genre (that is, commercial) fiction, even if very fine commercial fiction at that?
Or does it read like either general or contemporary fiction, as defined in the info sheet on fiction categories?
. . .
Titles
Does the title of the novel forecast or reflect the substance of the narrative in some way?
Is it creative or intriguing? Further revelatory once the book has been read?
If chapter titles appear, do they likewise forecast or reflect? Do they promise what is then fulfilled?
Are they creative, intriguing? Do they add to the story?
Foreword, preface
These are far less likely in fiction, outside of well-known and classic works.
If either (or both) of these appear, are they distinct and to standard? (That is, the one isn’t misconstrued for the other, one doesn’t duplicate or overlap with the other, and a person appropriate for the task has written the foreword.)
Are they useful or artfully creative? Or do they seem superfluous or ill-advised?
If appropriate, to standard, and useful, are they also well-written?
Story structure and development
Premise
Is the premise of the story strong? Unique?
Prologue
If there is a prologue, is it used well?
Some possibilities, used in various combinations: Offering a different POV or different character’s perspective. Providing a glimpse of a moment displaced in time. Introducing an antagonist in a way that counterbalances what we’ll see of him/her in the story itself, perhaps also an antagonist who won’t put an appearance in until late in the book. Effectively providing backstory. Effectively foreshadowing.
The prologue ought not to be long or boring. It ought not to be artificially or mechanically designed to “hook” the reader, such that it is not organic to the story. It ought not to be an info dump. It ought to engage the reader with questions relevant to the central plot. It ought to drive the story forward.
Framework
Does the novel as a whole deliver on the promise of the first chapter?
Are the chapters and scenes well-conceived? Do they form useful building blocks? Artistic building blocks?
Does the novel continue engagingly from start to finish? Or does it lose narrative drive, or falter in other ways, at any point?
If there is a subplot, is it related organically to the main plot? Does it further the main plot, act as a foil to it, or in some way delightfully complicate it? Or does it instead feel tacked on or forced in any way?
Is the conflict sustained throughout? Most particularly in genre fiction, do the stakes continue to evolve in complexity? Do they continue to ratchet up?
Is the emotional cadence varied throughout? Most particularly in genre fiction, are there upswings and downswings, highs and lows? Or is the pacing and tension one-note? If the latter, is this being used well in literary fiction to develop or drive home a theme?
Are scene and summary used effectively and artistically? Appropriately for the genre?
Does the author avoid info-dumping? (Noticeable chunks of exposition; awkward, perhaps prolonged, flashbacks; or “As you know, Bob” dialogue.)
Is POV handled well? Does it serve to tell the story the author wants to tell? Does it work well, given the genre? Is it maintained throughout?
Character and plot
Do the main characters have depth? Are they richly layered, complex, believable? In other words, are they well-rounded rather than flat characters? Do they seem real?
Are the main characters distinct from one another?
As appropriate for the story, do the needs and wants of the characters — and their personalities, who they are — drive the plot? Such that the plot unfurls organically and seemingly inevitably? That is, do the characters seem to have autonomy? And do their own tangles create the story? Or do they instead feel like puppets in the author’s hands?
Does the main character (and other primary characters) change throughout the course of the novel? Or, alternatively, are these characters confronted with the need, presented with the opportunity, to change and turn from it? In other words, do they have an arc.
Most particularly for genre fiction, are the goals and motivations of the most important characters clear? Are the conflicts suitably developed?
Most particularly for literary fiction, is the main character (or are the main characters) fully explored? Are they deep and richly textured characters, well-handled in the story?
Is the dialogue natural and believable?
The endpoint
Is the resolution of the story, whether open-ended or closed, satisfying? (Does it seem to arise organically out of all that has gone before?
Is it both believable and in some way delightfully surprising? Does it bring the story to a close in the best and most satisfying way?)
Does it answer the main narrative question(s) of the story? Or if not, is that deliberately and artistically done? Does it serve the story?
Writing style
Is the writer’s voice strong and clear? Individual, compelling, unique?
Whatever the writing style, is every word in the sentences doing work? Such that language is distilled and compressed.
Does the writing seem to be highlighted, foregrounded, as would be the case with literary fiction? And if so, does that work? Is there enough strength in the writing for that treatment?
Alternatively, does the writing tend to fade into the background such that the story “tells itself” or does it simply take a back seat to a compelling story? And if so, does that accord with the story’s aim? Is this a work of genre fiction?
Does the style of the narrative, and its voice, hold steady throughout? Or does it waver, does it change?
Does the level of diction hold steady?
Does the style work for the story being told?
Is it engaging?
Final thought
Would you recommend this book to a friend?
To a friend who is a careful and exacting reader?