PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Book review

How to Cite a Book Review in APA 7

An APA 7 book review reference starts with the reviewer's name and the date, then the review's title, then a note in square brackets: [Review of the book Title of the book, by A. Author]. It ends with where the review ran: the journal, magazine, or newspaper in italics (with volume, issue, pages, and DOI for a journal), or the website's name and URL. The in-text citation names the reviewer, not the book's author: (Boerner, 2010).

The format

Reviewer, A. A. (Year). Title of the review [Review of the book Title of the book, by B. B. Author]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), page–page. https://doi.org/xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Add a book review with the form, not the reference search. A review's DOI comes back from PERRLA's search as an ordinary journal or magazine article, with the book's details run into the title and no bracketed note. Choose Reviews. Under Choose a type, pick Review in a journal, newspaper, or magazine, Review on a website, or Review on a blog. Then set What kind of article are you referencing? to A book.

Add the person who wrote the review as the Reviewer, and the book's writer as Author of Reviewed Work (use Editor of Reviewed Work for an edited book). Type the review's headline in Review Title and the book's title in Reviewed Book Title, both in sentence case. If you type either one in title case, PERRLA offers Fix it for me. Then fill in the Publication Date and where the review ran: Periodical Name, Periodical Volume, Periodical Issue, Review Page Numbers, and DOI for the Review for a journal, or Website Name and URL for the Review for a site. PERRLA writes the bracketed note, the italics, and the in-text citation.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Reviewer

Start with the person who wrote the review: last name, a comma, and initials. The book's author doesn't go here. They're named inside the brackets later.

Boerner, L. K.

Two reviewers are joined with an ampersand, the same as any two authors. No reviewer named? That's common in The Economist and in trade review sites. Leave the reviewer out, and the review's title moves to the front of the reference. Don't write Anonymous unless the review is actually signed that way.

2. Date

Use the date format of the place the review ran. A journal review takes the year only. A review in a magazine, a newspaper, or on a website takes the full date.

(2010).

(2014, October 4).

A review published online first and later in an issue takes the year of the issue.

3. Review title

Give the review's own headline in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. In a journal, magazine, or newspaper the title is plain type. On a website (not a periodical) it's italic.

Of HeLa and human lives

Many journal reviews have no headline of their own. They're topped by the book's title and its publishing details instead. That heading is the book's title, not the review's, so leave the title out and let the bracketed note stand in its place.

4. Bracketed description

Right after the title, with no period between them, add a note in square brackets: Review of the book, the book's title in italics and sentence case, a comma, then by and the book's author with initials first.

[Review of the book The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by R. Skloot]

Two authors are joined with an ampersand: by J. Groopman & P. Hartzband. For an edited book, add the editor in PERRLA's Editor of Reviewed Work role, and PERRLA puts Ed. after the name. The period goes after the closing bracket.

5. Source

End with where the review was published. For a journal, give the journal name and volume in italics, the issue in parentheses, the page range, and the DOI as a link.

Science, 327(5969), 1081–1082. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1186755

For a magazine or newspaper read online, give its name in italics and the review's URL. For a review on a website that isn't a periodical, give the site's name in plain type and the URL. Never add the database (CINAHL, ProQuest, JSTOR) you found it in.

Examples

A journal review with its own title

Leigh Krietsch Boerner's review of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book assigned in many nursing ethics and research courses, ran in Science under its own headline. The headline comes first, then the bracketed note.

  • Parenthetical citation(Boerner, 2010)
  • Narrative citationBoerner (2010)

A journal review with no title of its own

Stacie Bloom's review of the same book in The Journal of Clinical Investigation is headed only by the book's title and publishing details. It has no headline of its own, so the bracketed note takes the title's place. Her review is one page, so a quote cites that page.

  • Parenthetical citation(Bloom, 2010, p. 2252)
  • Narrative citationBloom (2010, p. 2252)

An unsigned review in a magazine

The Economist doesn't sign its reviews. Its review of Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, a staple of palliative and end-of-life care courses, has a title but no reviewer, so the title moves to the front, and the in-text citation uses the title in quotation marks. A magazine review takes the full date.

  • Parenthetical citation("Helping Hands," 2014)
  • Narrative citation"Helping Hands" (2014)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a book review names the reviewer and the year the review was published. You're citing the reviewer's words and judgments, so the book's author doesn't go in the parentheses.

  • One reviewer: (Boerner, 2010) or Boerner (2010)
  • Two reviewers: both last names every time, joined by & inside parentheses and by and in your sentence
  • Three or more reviewers: the first reviewer and et al., starting with the first citation
  • No reviewer: a short form of the review's title in quotation marks and title case: ("Helping Hands," 2014)
  • A quote: add the page: (Bloom, 2010, p. 2252). An online review with no page numbers takes a paragraph number instead: ("Helping Hands," 2014, para. 4).

Writing about the book and the review together? Name both in your sentence, and give each its own reference: the book as a book, and the review as a review. For example: Skloot (2010) traced the family's story, and Boerner (2010) praised how she told it.

Common mistakes

  • Skloot, R. (2010). [Review of the book ...]Boerner, L. K. (2010). Of HeLa and human lives [Review of the book ...]The reviewer is the author of a review. The book's author goes inside the brackets, after by.
  • Bloom, S. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. The Journal of Clinical Investigation ...Bloom, S. (2010). [Review of the book The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by R. Skloot]. The Journal of Clinical Investigation ...Reference search tools, PERRLA's included, bring a review in as a plain article and use the book's title as if it were the review's. Without the bracketed note, a reader would think the journal published the book.
  • [Review of the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot][Review of the book The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by R. Skloot]The book's title is italic and in sentence case, and its author takes initials first, the way editors are written in a reference.
  • Anonymous. (2014, October 4). Helping hands ...Helping hands [Review of the book ...]Use Anonymous only when a review is signed that way. An unsigned review starts with its title.
  • (Gawande, 2014)("Helping Hands," 2014)Gawande wrote the book, not the review. An unsigned review is cited by its title.

Quick checklist

  • The reviewer first, or the review's title if no one signed it
  • The year for a journal review, the full date for a magazine, newspaper, or website
  • The review's own title in sentence case, or nothing when it has none
  • [Review of the book Title, by A. Author] right after the title
  • The journal, magazine, or newspaper name in italics; a website's name in plain type
  • A DOI for a journal review, the URL for one read online, never a database name
  • The reviewer (not the book's author) in the in-text citation

Questions students ask

What if the book review has no title?

Leave the title out and put the bracketed note right after the date: Bloom, S. (2010). [Review of the book ...]. Many journal reviews are headed only by the book's title and publishing details, and that heading belongs to the book, not the review.

How do I cite a book review with no author?

Start with the review's title, then the date, then the rest. In the text, use a short form of the title in quotation marks with the year: ("Helping Hands," 2014). Only write Anonymous if the review is signed Anonymous.

How do I cite a Kirkus Reviews or Publishers Weekly review?

These reviews are usually unsigned and untitled. With no author and no title, APA 7 puts the bracketed note first, then the date, then where it ran and the URL: [Review of the book ...]. (Date). The in-text citation uses the bracketed note: ([Review of the book ...], year). That's the pattern on the APA Style website's missing reference information page.

Do I cite the book and the review separately?

Only if you use both. If you only read the review, cite only the review. If you quote the book too, the book gets its own book reference, and each in-text citation points to the one you're using.

I found the review in CINAHL or ProQuest. Do I include the database?

No. A journal review is cited like a journal article: give the DOI if it has one, and end after the page range if it doesn't. Database names don't go in APA 7 references for journal content.

Is a book review a scholarly source?

A review in a scholarly journal is published in a scholarly source, but it's an opinion about a book, not research. If an assignment asks for peer-reviewed research, a book review usually won't count. Check your assignment or ask your instructor.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.14, 8.17, 9.8, 9.12, 9.14, 9.19, 9.21, 9.25–9.30, 9.34, 10.1, and 10.7, and the APA Style website's missing reference information and italics pages. Example reviews verified on October 21, 2026, on each review's own page (Science, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and The Economist) and through their DOIs.

PERRLA writes the [Review of the book ...] note for you, italics and all, from the reviewer, the book, and where the review ran.

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