What Makes a Good Book?

Find almost any book on Goodreads and have a look at the reviews and you’ll see that not everyone agrees on what makes a good book, but regardless of our personal preferences, a truly good book will have the following elements.

  • Dramatic tension – two or more of the following:
    • Conflict
    • Mystery
    • Suspense
    • Surprise
    • Tension in relationships
    • A task to complete or not
    • Humor
  • Three-dimensional believable characters.
  • A well-paced, unpredictable plot with a satisfying ending.
  • A vivid setting
  • In fantasy – a world that makes sense within the parameters of that world.
  • Creativity
  • The awesome ones will also be moving, inspiring or thought-provoking.
  • Good writing

But what is good writing? 
A publisher friend of mine said something like – Beautiful writing is when every word is the right word, in its right place and there for a reason. There is nothing extraneous. The words flow so smoothly that the reader is transported beyond the words. They even forget they are reading. So if any of the words pull you out of the story, it’s likely to not be very well written.  

Things that good books don’t have are:

  • Boring bits.
  • Scenes, plots and descriptions that go on too long or wander without purpose
  • Plot holes
  • Characters acting out of character
  • Unrealistic dialogue
  • Formula or predictable plot – acceptable to some degree in romance.

My personal dislikes are:

  • Unpronounceable names
  • A convoluted plot
  • Language written in a strong dialect
  • Heroes and heroines that do really stupid things or talk about their clothes, hair or how sexy their boyfriend is all the time.
  • A world that is so dark and miserable that it’s painful to read about
  • Cliffhanger endings
  • Plot holes
  • Poor writing

I can put aside my personal dislikes and still give a book a high rating if I cannot fault it on any of the elements a good book needs. An example of this is Hunger Games; this is a great book, but I didn’t like it because I didn’t want to spend time in that cruel repressive world, but that doesn’t make the book bad, just not to my taste. 

Guest post by Tahlia Newland