And Now a Word About Book Reviews
What 5 stars can't tell you - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Recently I’ve shared about how I want to start reviewing books here in this space but almost immediately I came up against several different questions about star reviews in particular, that felt like a sort of philosophical debate with myself.
The three main questions were:
Just because I did enjoy this book doesn’t mean that someone else would necessarily love it, right?
Just because I didn’t particularly love this book doesn’t mean that someone else might not love it, right?
What am I “grading” these books against? Is there a rubric floating around that I don’t know about?
The answers I came up with are:
That’s fair.
Yes, thats true too.
Nope. No rubric. And, believe me, I have googled.
Despite all of this, star ratings remain. Ever since Siskell and Ebert (anyone else remember watching those guys before church on Sunday morning? Just me?), society has been flinging out stars like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in their afterschool special.1
The only thing a star rating tells you is one person’s experience with what they expected out of a book.
A star rating doesn’t tell you:
What the person was going through while they were reading the book. Did their cat just die? Did they just get a positive report from their oncologist? Life context WHILE reading the book matters. Especially since, unlike a movie, it takes days or weeks or months to finish. Life happens during that time and that life experience will undoubtedly color that person’s experience of a book.
What topics are covered or what, if any topics, you personally might find deplorable. I can’t do graphic violence, gore, or most anything dystopian (though I did enjoy “Ready Player One” because escapism is also my preferred coping mechanism.) Anything that has loads of those three things will likely not even get on my star-review radar, and if they were, they’d probably turn into a “Did Not Finish” review. This doesn’t mean they’re bad books.
The content or writing style. There’s so much that could be used as an example but I’m going to use - action vs backstory. I’m married to a man who is wholly unconcerned about backstory (someone who literally fast-forwards to the “good parts” of a movie in order to get to the action) while I watch sports tv solely for the inspirational context in which these super athletes live their lives. I love backstory, he loves action. Are the backstory heavy books I love, “bad books” just because he prefers action? No.
A reader’s personality. My son was telling me about how when he and another friend of his start to bicker at school their third friend will literally walk away. Dude #3 is low conflict. I have a similar personality and my reading tastes reflect that. I recognized this recently when members of my romance book club were all “give me more conflict!” For them, it makes the story more interesting. For me, meh. I just want to see these folks love story take place.
The only thing a star rating tells you is one person’s experience with what they expected out of a book.
And also : everyone’s “grading curve is different”.
I’m an extremely generous grader by nature.
Did I root for the characters and were my (potentially boring) expectations met?
I will happily give you four stars all day. Probably 5.
Did something surprise me and now I can’t stop thinking about the world, the characters, the plot twist?
Congratulations you have 5 and I might go to the trouble to write a review.
Did it take me a while to get through and I didn’t really love it but it wrapped it self up nicely and I finished it?
3 stars. Great job.
And if I didn’t finish it?
Well maybe my expectations were off but that doesn’t mean that someone out there won’t enjoy it and who am I to bring someone’s Amazon rating down with one or two stars? I don’t post a star rating at all.
The only thing a star rating tells you is one person’s experience with what they expected out of a book.
What I’ve come to realize:
We have star ratings because our society’s desire for ease, convenience, collective attention span being the same length of a gnat.
A star rating tells you one thing: how well a book met the expectations of one person (ie. their unique personality and life experience and cultural context) and how well this book tracked with those expectations
My 5 stars does not mean anything except that people who have the exact same taste as me would enjoy the book.
So: Unless you’re familiar with the tastes of the reviewer and consider yourself to be a reader with similar tastes, go ahead and feel free to ignore a star review. Pay more attention to review posts which compare this book to that book/ movie or give you specific references or are longer than one sentence.
Is this a justification for my super wordy book review posts to come? Probably.
Do I feel better about not giving out star reviews when I know how hard it is to put your creative work out in to the universe? Definitely.
What about you? Stars or no stars?
(Look at me! Being open to potential conflict. #smallwins)
Two early 90’s TV references in on sentence- I think I just hit a new writer’s goal of shame.