I love books. Obviously.

I’ve loved books ever since I learned to read.

And since then, I’ve developed some pretty decided opinions as what makes a good or bad book.

And so, you’d think that when it comes to reviewing books—and because I’m a writer and editor, after all—I’d be a natural shoe-in. 

Nope. You’d be wrong. 

In this post I’m going to try to explain why I sometimes struggle with book reviews. (And yes, I see the irony in this: I struggle with book reviews, and yet I have a page on my website dedicated to them.) 

So, join me as I delve into the complexities of book reviews and the 5-star rating system, and why sometimes, the stars just don’t seem to align with the essence of a great read.

But, before I get down to the nitty-gritty of my struggle, I have to talk about the 5-star rating system. 

The 5-star rating system is basically a customer feedback questionnaire. There are numerous variations, but the concept is the same: customers are asked to rate a product, service or experience on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent or outstanding.  

It allows customers to give a quick and straightforward assessment (or, a “quick and dirty” assessment) of a product, service or experience while allowing businesses to collect data and to identify and weed out very low-quality products or suppliers. This may not be a big issue for marketplaces offering commodity products (I’m looking at you Amazon) and services, but it can be a serious problem for books and authors who are trying differentiate themselves in a very crowded marketplace. 

The 5-star rating system is what Goodreads/Amazon uses. (For those who don’t know, Amazon is Goodreads; and so, I use them interchangeably in this post.) Amazon asks for an overall rating (on a scale of 1 to 5) on your experience of a book, and if you’d like, you can also share a comment to elaborate on your rating. 

Here’s Goodreads’ and Amazon’s recommended metric for rating books as interpreted by me: 

• 5 stars  

• It was brilliant, amazing, perfect or near-perfect. 
• I’m a superfan and would tell everyone to read it. 
• I would re-read it again. 

• 4 stars  

• I enjoyed reading it, but I wouldn’t call it “perfect.”
• I would recommend it to anyone. 
• I would probably re-read it again sometime . . . maybe. 

• 3 stars  

• I liked it or parts of it. 
• It was a decent story—readable, but not very compelling. 
• I don’t think I would recommend it; after all, who would recommend an average book? 

• 2 stars  

• Meh 

• 1 star 

• I didn’t like it.
• I should have DNF’d it. 

• DNF (Did Not Finish)

• It wasn’t worth my time to finish it, let alone read a part of it. 
• Don’t ask. Just don’t. 

It’s easy to understand why so many people love and use the 5-star rating system. 

For the reviewer: 

• It’s simple to pick a number from 1 to 5. No math is required. 
• It’s quick and dirty. But as “quick and dirty” implies, it’s something that’s done quickly and therefore not perfectly (which may or may not matter to the reviewer).  
• Minimal energy is required. Not everyone has the time or energy to write a review. 

For the person reading/interpreting the rating: 

• The stars are a universal language. Whether you’re in Toronto, Tokyo or Timbuktu, everyone understands what 5 stars mean.
• The stars make scanning reviews a breeze. You can tell whether something’s a hit or a miss with a quick glance. 
• Seeing lots of stars can give people a warm, fuzzy feeling. It gives the potential buyer confidence in the product. 

But, like many others, I find the “one size fits all” approach, the black or white mindset, to rating books crude and unsophisticated. And so, I sometimes struggle with trying to fit books into a 5-star rating system.  

Stars can’t tell the whole story. There’s no room for nuance such as: 

• Well, I finished. That counts for something, right? 
• I liked the movie better.
• I would have rated it lower, but one star is the lowest Amazon would let me rate a book. 

Sometimes, you want to spill the tea on why you gave those stars. And sometimes, you want to spill the tea without giving stars. 

And there are other reasons why I think the 5-star rating system is problematic. 

Each person has their own understanding of what the stars mean and they apply their understanding when they rate books and when they interpret another’s rating. For example, to A, 4 stars means “a very good read,” but to B, it means “above average.” When A sees B’s rating of 4 stars, A believes B rated the book as “a very good read,” but B means to say the book was “above average.”

In other words, the star rating is open to personal interpretation and doesn’t adhere to a universal standard.  

The star rating system makes reviewing a book a mechanical and reductive task. There’s nothing wrong with this, but sometimes a reviewer wants to give a more personal, nuanced response.  

Book reviews are for readers. They should help readers find the right book for them.  

But a star rating system often fails to help a reader find book recommendations from people who share the same literary tastes and preferences because the number of stars does not signify the type or quality of writing in a book or the contents of a book. 

Several things come to mind when I think of this category. 

When it comes to evaluating a book, the interplay of the story elements contributes to the reader’s overall experience. But how do you assign the correct “weight” to these elements?  

To one reader, memorable characters are the heart of the story, but to another, an ingenious plot that captivates is what truly matters. Because they have assigned different weights to elements in a book, they would likely rate the same book differently (e.g., if a book focuses on the rich inner life of its characters and does not have a very compelling plot, the reader who sees great characters as the hallmark of a great story would rate the book higher than a reader who prefers plot-driven stories).  

Amazon’s global rating system is a cumulative score that’s been built by previous readers who have rated the book, but not all previous readers have rated the book. Without an incentive for providing truthful feedback, readers with either very bad or very good experiences are much more likely to leave feedback than readers who have had average experiences with a book.  

It’s no surprise that our personal taste and life experience in books play an integral part in our experience of a book. I mean, what’s the point of reading a book if not to interpret the story based on our own experiences? 

For example, take the below excerpt from a book I once read.¹ The main character (MC), a teacher, summarizes the happenings of the first night after terrorists have taken her, another teacher (GSV) and some students hostage at an all-girls school. GSV has been shot in the stomach.  

“It had been a night of hell. Throughout the long hours of darkness . . . the girls whimpered and cried, and . . . [MC] had also heard the cries and moans of fellow teacher [GSV] and another student coming from the room across the hall.”²

Let’s break this passage down.

• After being shot in the stomach, GSV was crying and moaning in pain all night.
• GSV was crying and moaning loud enough to be heard by MC, who was in another room across the hall.

Really?

A couple of pages later, the author tells us that MC has a brief and very lucid, conversation with GSV the next morning.

Again . . . Really?

A more likely scenario would be one where GSV would have either bled out or passed out in shock. Either way, GSV would be silent. (It’s disrespectful of an author to treat their readers as if they were stupid.) 

An example of where my personal taste would come into play would be in retellings. I love them . . . most of the time. I’m interested . . . uhm, usually . . . in how a familiar tale is reworked to be fresh and new. That is, generally speaking, I enjoy a new twist told in the comfort of a familiar tale. Sort of. 

But I totally dislike the complete upending of our ideas of villains and heroes. (This is a common theme in retellings. Why, oh why?). Like many others, I form emotional attachments to my favourite fictional characters; I like my heroes to be heroes.  

My approach to reviewing a book is generally more like a commentary than a mere summary of the work. In my book reviews: 

• I offer my opinion (which the reader may agree or disagree) and provide criteria on which I am basing my opinion. 
• I look at how effectively I think the author navigates the story elements, such as plot, theme and conflict.  
• I try to voice my experience of the book in a way that is honest and authentic, while pointing out what I think will appeal (and not appeal) to a certain audience.  

By reviewing this way, I see myself as a curator, not a critic. 

The goal of my book reviews is “to put the right book in the right reader’s hands.” It is never to stop a reader from reading a book for themselves.  

My book reviews generally have three components: 

1. A short summary of the content. For works of nonfiction, this would include a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument or purpose. 
2. An assessment of the work. This could include such things as my reactions to the work and what I thought was particularly noteworthy and why. 
3. Final comments. This would include my comments about whether or not I believed a certain type of audience would appreciate it. 

• How was the storytelling? Did I enjoy reading it? 
• For fantasy and science fiction, how was the universe or world-building? 

• What was the (stated) subject or topic of the book? Do I think the author missed the point? 
• What was the thesis or main argument of the book? 
• How did the author support their argument? How good were their sources? 
• How did the author structure their argument? Did the argument persuade or convince me? Did the argument make sense? 
• How has this book helped me to understand the subject? Or even, become a better person? 

• How useful is the information? 
• Are the instructions easy to understand? Can what the author is teaching be easily replicated? 
• How is the information presented? Is there a good balance of the technical (e.g., cooking instructions) and the artistic (e.g., photographs)?  
• How has this book helped me to understand the subject? 

1. I review the book in front of me, not the book I wished the author had written. I may point out a shortcoming or failure or two, but I don’t criticize a book for not being something it was never intended to be. 
2. I believe every book has an audience. Even books that have totally dismayed me could be a delight to others.  
3. Books and their authors are important to me. I try write my reviews in a way that honours books as the gifts they are and that respects the author and the hard work they’ve put into their work. 

1. I do not review: 

• poetry
• plays and screenplays
• erotica, horror or graphic novels (including Manga)
• books that depict abuse, torture or extreme violence
• books with and/or about psychic phenomena or other paranormal claims

2. I frown on books that have not been edited. I point out glaring editing errors in my reviews. 
3. My current policy is to not publish reviews on books I have DNF’d (i.e., Did Not Finish).

I firmly believe that book reviews are for readers, potential consumers/buyers of the book. 

But in my space, I also try to put something in my book reviews for my readers who are mostly writers. I don’t publish all my book reviews on my blog, just ones that I think you might enjoy and learn from. You will find these comments tagged as “Beyond the Storyline.” There, you can expect to find insights into the writing craft, book publishing, etc., and maybe, even inspiration for your next project. 

1. All my book reviews (and posts) are my opinion only. 
2. All information provided in the book reviews are for informational and educational purposes only. 
3. All my disclaimers may be found on the Disclaimers page. 

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. I know it’s a lot to take in. 

But I felt a certain responsibility to explain how I review books and what I post on my Book Reviews page. 

Do I throw the 5-star rating system out completely? The answer is, “No.” Although I prefer not to use a star rating system to review books, when I post my reviews elsewhere that demand I use one, I use the platform’s star rating system there. 

When I’m on my own platform for book reviews, for the reasons I’ve set out above, I have chosen not to use the 5-star rating system. 

So, now that I’ve said my piece, I’d like to hear from you! Do you ever feel like the 5-star rating system oversimplifies the complex experience of reading? Or maybe, you’ve also struggled to decide whether a book deserves 3 or 4 stars? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!  

Whether you’re a meticulous reviewer or more of a gut-feeling rater, your insights could really add depth to the conversation. 

Drop me an email and let’s chat about it!  

1. This is not so much a “life experience” example as it’s a “doing life” example. It’s from my watching way too many episodes of CSI. (CSI is a TV drama about forensic investigators and the criminal cases they solve.)   ↩︎
2. This is an excerpt from a published book. I do not reveal the name of the book or its author, not to protect them, but to protect readers. ↩︎