PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Book review

How to Cite a Book Review in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a book review starts with the reviewer's last name and first name and the review's title in quotation marks. Then comes a description: Review of, the book's title in italics, and by with the book's author. It ends with where the review ran: the journal, magazine, or newspaper in italics, with vol., no., the date, and pp. for a journal, and the DOI or URL. The in-text citation names the reviewer, not the book's author: (Boerner 1081).

The format

Reviewer Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Review." Review of Title of the Book, by First Name Last Name. Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Day Mon. Year, pp. #–#, https://doi.org/xxxx.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th 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 Review of description. 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, or leave it empty when the review has none, and the book's title in Reviewed Book Title. 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 Review of and by, puts both titles in title case, and handles the quotation marks and italics.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Reviewer

Start with the person who wrote the review, not the person who wrote the book. Give the last name, a comma, and the first name as the review prints it, then a period.

Boerner, Leigh Krietsch.

Two reviewers: invert only the first name, then write and and the second name in normal order. Three or more: the first reviewer, a comma, and et al. No reviewer named, as in most Economist reviews? Skip the author and start with the review's title.

2. Review title

If the review has its own headline, put it in quotation marks and title case, with the period inside the closing quotation mark.

"Of HeLa and Human Lives."

Many journal reviews are headed only by the book's title and publishing details. That's not a review title, so leave this part out and go straight to the description.

3. Review of the book

Describe what was reviewed: Review of, the book's title in italics and title case, a comma, and by with the book's author in normal order (first name first). End with a period. The description itself takes no quotation marks or italics.

Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.

For an edited book, use edited by instead of by.

4. Where the review ran

The journal, magazine, newspaper, or website is the container, so its name goes in italics, followed by a comma. Keep "The" when it's part of the name.

Science,

5. Volume, issue, date, and pages

For a journal, write vol. and no. with their numbers, then the date as the issue gives it, then pp. and the page range (p. for a single page). Weekly journals and magazines get the full date, written day, month, year, with the month abbreviated except May, June, and July.

vol. 327, no. 5969, 26 Feb. 2010, pp. 1081–82,

Past 99, the second page number keeps only its last two digits.

6. DOI or URL

End with the review's DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link, or the URL for a review you read online, and a period. A URL drops the https://.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1186755.

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 the 26 February 2010 issue of Science under its own headline. The headline comes first, then the Review of description.

  • In-text citation(Boerner 1081)
  • Narrative citationBoerner points out that … (1081).

A journal review with no title of its own

Stacie Bloom's review of the same book in the July 2010 issue of 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 entry goes straight from the reviewer to Review of. The review fills one page, and the Works Cited entry already gives it, so the in-text citation needs no page number.

  • In-text citation(Bloom)
  • Narrative citationBloom notes that …

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 entry starts with the title. In the text, use the title in quotation marks: ("Helping Hands").

  • In-text citation("Helping Hands")
  • Narrative citationThe Economist's review "Helping Hands" argues that …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a book review names the reviewer, because the review is what you're quoting. Add the page when the review has page numbers and runs longer than one page.

  • One reviewer: (Boerner 1081)
  • Two reviewers: both last names joined by and.
  • Three or more reviewers: the first reviewer and et al.
  • One-page review or online review: the name alone: (Bloom)
  • No reviewer named: the review's title in quotation marks, shortened if it's long: ("Helping Hands")
  • Name in your sentence: give the page alone at the end of the sentence: Boerner points out that … (1081).

Quoting the book itself rather than the review? Cite the book, by its author, in its own Works Cited entry.

Common mistakes

  • (Skloot 1081)(Boerner 1081)The in-text citation points to the review, so it names the reviewer. Skloot wrote the book, not the review.
  • Boerner, L. K. (2010). Of HeLa and human lives [Review of the book The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, by R. Skloot].Boerner, Leigh Krietsch. "Of HeLa and Human Lives." Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.That's APA. MLA spells out first names, puts the review title in quotation marks and title case, drops the square brackets, and moves the date after the volume and issue.
  • Bloom, Stacie. "Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."Bloom, Stacie. Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.Review of is a description, not a title, so it takes no quotation marks. Only the book's title goes in italics, and the book's author follows by.
  • (Helping Hands)("Helping Hands")A review is a short work, so its title goes in quotation marks in the text just as it does in the Works Cited entry.
  • Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Skloot, Rebecca.Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.Only the first name in the whole entry is inverted. The book's author goes in normal order.

Quick checklist

  • Reviewer first, last name inverted, or the review title if no reviewer is named
  • Review title in quotation marks and title case, if there is one
  • Review of, the book's title in italics, and by with the author's name in normal order
  • Journal, magazine, newspaper, or website name in italics
  • vol., no., date, and pp. for a journal
  • DOI or URL, ending with a period

Questions students ask

Do I cite the reviewer or the book's author in MLA?

The reviewer. The review is the work you're citing, so the reviewer goes first in the Works Cited entry and in the in-text citation. The book's author appears only after by in the description.

How do I cite a book review with no title in MLA?

Leave the title out and let the description take its place: Bloom, Stacie. Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. Then give the journal and its details as usual. Don't put Review of in quotation marks or italics.

How do I cite a book review with no author in MLA?

Start the entry with the review's title in quotation marks, and use that title in the text: ("Helping Hands"). If the review has no title either, start with the description, Review of and the book, and cite it in the text by the first word of the description: (Review).

Do I need to cite the book too?

Only if you use the book itself. If you quote or paraphrase the review, cite the review. If you also quote the book, give it its own Works Cited entry.

How do I cite a book review I found in a database?

MLA treats the database as a second container. After the journal's details, add the database name in italics and the review's DOI or stable link, as in JSTOR or Academic Search Complete.

How is MLA different from APA for a book review?

MLA spells out first names, puts the review title in quotation marks and title case, and writes the description as Review of Title, by Author with no square brackets. The date goes after the volume and issue, and the in-text citation uses a page number, not the year.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, descriptions in place of titles, containers, and in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answers on sources with no author, one-page sources (its untitled review example, "Review of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray," cited as (Review)), and reviews of performances. Example reviews are the ones verified for the APA 7 page on each review's own page and DOI; the MLA issue dates (26 Feb. 2010 for Science vol. 327, no. 5969, and July 2010 for The Journal of Clinical Investigation vol. 120, no. 7) and the reviewers' full names checked in Crossref on October 27, 2026.

PERRLA builds the review entry from the form, with the reviewer up front and Review of written for you.

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