How I Rate Books

Ratings are funny things. Everyone has their own idea of what a five-star book is and what deserves the dreaded one-star review, making rating systems very subjective and sometimes unreliable tools for picking out the gold from the fool’s gold. I know of a lot of authors that consider anything below 4 stars to be a death sentence (or in a few special cases, even a form of “hate”, which is completely ridiculous), and there are swaths of readers that won’t even give a rating if they can’t give it a 3 or higher. This results in a swamp of books being highly rated when really they’re just kinda alright and the truly wonderful tomes being lost in a sea of thousands of four and five-star rated books.

How many times have you picked up a critically acclaimed book, or one with hundreds or thousands of four and five-star independent reviews, only to find that it wasn’t even close to one of the best things you’ve ever read? Sure, it’s bound to happen from time to time due to personal tastes being different from those of the general public, but I think people’s fear of giving books lower ratings has watered down the market for great writing. If everything is great, then nothing is great.

There are tons of amazing reads and beautiful worlds that deserve attention and praise currently floating in the void, unnoticed, largely because less polished works are crowding the spotlight. I feel for those authors with brilliant stories that have been unfairly glazed over while readers try to wade through this endless swamp of 3+ star books. They may never be discovered because people are afraid to be honest about what was an enjoyable read and what was not.

As an aspiring author myself, I understand that writing a book is hard. Many of the people that decline to rate a book poorly site the argument that writing is difficult, and while it is certainly true that crafting any story is no walk in the park, I do not think that it is a sufficient excuse to deprive that author of honest feedback or potential readers of an honest impression of the story in question. I’ve never been a fan of sugar coating, because I think it always leads to far more harm than good in the long run. I would never want my readers to tell me sweet lies, or worse, leave me in silence for fear of offending me. I want their genuine take on my work whether it be in form of praise or criticism. How else am I supposed to track my own growth or flaws as an artist if all I ever receive is false (or real) niceties and praises?

All this to say that I tend to rate “harshly” compared to some. I never give low ratings with the intent to drag a book or author down, but rather to lift up the books that I think shine above the rest. I want my five-star reviews to mean something, to stand out from the crowd, because that’s what rating systems are supposed to do: bring the best and the brightest to the front. At the end of the day, no one can completely take the subjectivity out of the system, nor do I think it should be removed, but I think consistency can at least be attempted.

Because of this, most of my ratings hover around the 3.5 mark (the ‘average’ mark), and yes, I’m silly and like to use decimal points to be overly specific, giving a range of 41 possible ratings. I do round up if the rating hits a _.7 or above, that way there’s still a little wiggle room within the 5-star category.

So, here’s how I rate:

5 Stars: Outstanding

This is excellent and I have minimal to no complaints. Again, just something to note for many of the indie authors I read from: don’t feel bad if I don’t give 5 stars on a book. I reserve 5 stars for books that are my personal all-time favorites such as Lord of the Rings and The Myst Reader. However, if I do give it five stars, then you just won a lifetime fan! These are books I can’t and won’t shut up about, and I will shove them into everyone’s faces at any opportunity.

4 Stars: Wonderful

This is a great book with lovable characters, a good plot, and all around well-developed world-building. Maybe it’s got some shortcomings or didn’t cover all the things I wish it had, but it’s certainly worth the read.

3 Stars: Average

This could do with some work, or maybe it isn’t really my kind of story, but I can still enjoy it for what it is. It’s about what you’d expect from picking up a random book from a library shelf.

2 Stars: Eh…

This needs some help. There are probably critical flaws that break the story or the characters are contradicting themselves. Not hopeless, because something intriguing is keeping it above 1 star, but what potential there might be for the story is being drowned out by the flaws for me.

1 Star: Oh boy…

This must be really, really bad. Maybe it’s the plot, maybe it’s the characters, or maybe I can’t stand the premise. Either way, this doesn’t really deserve money or attention. I don’t give this out lightly, and it will likely be just as rare as the 5-star ratings.

DNF: ‘Did Not Finish’

I don’t normally DNF books. I try to read them through even if they’re bad, and I want to give books a chance to recover from a rough start… but if it’s just that bad or so long that I can’t reasonably dedicate that much time to it, then I will eventually set it down. I try to read one-quarter of a book before DNFing, and honestly, if it takes that long for a story to get interesting, then no matter how the rest of the book is, it’s already lost any potential readers. These fall somewhere between 1 and 2 stars.

All books are subject to praise, criticism, and memeing, even for (if not especially for) my favorites. Sometimes it’s nice to just have a laugh about things we tend to take very seriously, so I do frequently make memes about the books I’ve read. There is no story in existence that cannot be memed, because we are all human and we all leave openings for a humorous jab.

I am prone to ramble, so these will likely be long reviews. I’ll often give the short review at the top, and then for anyone that wants to hear a rant, I’ll have the long version, spoilers, and memes at the bottom.

Happy reading and writing!