Starting today, I am officially ended the use of star ratings for book reviews. There are a variety of reasons for this decision. First, I find them wildly meaningless. Second, I regularly and routinely DNF books. Lastly, there is no standard amongst readers and reviewers of what a star rating means. I have a video on this subject, it will be live on 2 June 2023 on my channel.

Meaningless

Why exactly are they meaningless to me? Well, when the average review drops below 4 on Goodreads, which I do not regularly use, the vast majority of users find them to mean that the book is bad. Out of five potential stars, a three rating would be average but somehow if the book has an average star rating across all users of 3.99 it is “bad”. This makes no sense to me and it is entirely unfair to authors. If you expect every book to be perfect for every reader than I don’t know what to tell you. Books are as wide and varied as those that read them and so are the opinions about them. Refusing to read a book because it’s average rating is below four stars is insanity.

DNF

I regularly set aside books and never return to them. A book has fifty pages to hook me with the storytelling and characters or I am moving on to another. Thus, it is incredibly rare for me to read a book that isn’t four or five stars. That being the case, what actual value does a star rating hold? My regular readers will know that if I take the time to review a book or talk about it on my channel, I liked the book. My time, just like yours, is valuable and my TBR is far too long and never shrinking to waste my time reading books I am not drawn into immediately. Is it possible I am missing out on a book that has potential? Of course it is possible. But it is also far more possible that the book will just continue to not work for me and I will have read myself into a reading slump.

Standards

What do star meanings even mean? No honestly, what do they mean?! I am not consistent in my own use of them, and I don’t expect anyone else is either. It is an arbitrary rating that has no objective basis. There is no scale that is agreed upon by a large percentage of readers as to what constitutes a one star read versus a five-star read. There is no way to give half star ratings on most of these sites either. So, what exactly is the criteria utilized to determine the quality of the book?

Conclusion

I am no longer using stars. I will tell you if the characters are welcome into the pub or if sitting down with them for a conversation would be fascinating. I think, at least for me, that is a far more helpful indicator of how engaging the story was for me as a reader. I love books, I love characters, and stories. I don’t love assigning an arbitrary rating to a book that is utterly meaningless to others. If books I review sound interesting to you, then pick them up and give them a try. Read fifty or hundred pages and decide if the characters and story work for you, rather than relying on some anonymous reader whose taste and judgment are a crap shot of how a book will or will not resonant with you personally.