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So, the other day I was thinking about reviews and ratings and such, and I began to question why I have so many 5 star ratings, whilst everyone else seems to not.
And then, I figured it out. So I’ve decided to present to you all a fully comprehensive guide to how I rate books.
5 Stars
This is actually my default rating. It took me a while to figure that out, but for me, a book is automatically 5 stars unless it proves to be undeserving of that 5th star.
A book gets 5 stars if I absolutely loved it, and if there were no dragging points in the book.
4 Stars
As mentioned above, there has to be something missing from the book for the rating to be lowered to 4 stars. Something which made me enjoy the book, but not absolutely love it. Usually this consists of parts that dragged, characters I don’t like, etc.
A book will get 4 stars if I liked it, but it was missing something that was needed to make me love it.
3 Stars
This is the rating given when I couldn’t really care for the book. This is actually quite a negative rating from me…like, I legitimately feel bad for giving books 3 stars.
A book will get 3 stars if I was able to finish it easily enough, but I wouldn’t go around throwing it at people telling them to read it.
2 Stars
This is a severely low rating. I haven’t read many books that have earned two stars, but I have to really not like it to be willing to give it two.
A book will get 2 stars if I struggled to finish it because of how much I didn’t like it.
1 Star
I actually don’t think I’ve ever given a book one star. Because 2 stars is ‘I struggled to finish it’, which means that if it’s likely to end up as a one star book, I don’t even bother finishing it. And I don’t rate DNF books.
So, that’s my system. I know it’s a bit different for a lot of people, but that is honestly how my brain works.
What do you think? Does my system make any sense to you, or do you think I’m completely mental? Let me know.
The Magical Adventures of Cassie the Weird 
To be honest, doesn’t make much sense to me! Just my personal opinion.
To me I need real words to describe books. I might like something dearly in a book which I actually dint like and vice versa.
I never really understand the numbers/stars for rating.
I definitely need words as well. That’s part of the reason for this post…just giving the stars wasn’t enough. I wanted to explain them.
And I do usually write up a proper review. The stars are more of a guide as to whether the review is going to be positive or negative. Also, it’s for the people who don’t want to read the actual review, but still want to know what I whether I liked the book.
Yeah..that makes sense!
I have a superharsh rating system. The majority of the books I read fall into the three-star area — which does mean I enjoy it, BTW — but it’s not uncommon for meto rate something two-stars. One stars happen, but not as frequently, and five stars happen very, very rarely. I love reading these posts, though. It’s great to have an insight into people’s rating systems!
Yeah, since I’ve started blogging, I’ve noticed that 5-star reads are really uncommon for a lot of people. Which got me trying to figure out why it’s so common for me.
It also took me a while to adjust to the fact that, for most people, 3 stars is not a negative rating.
Which is why I love reading about other people’s rating systems, too.
Cool post Cassie!!!! I usually rate my books 3 stars if they are good but I haven’t immensely enjoyed them (but I’ve still liked them enough to read them and appreciate it.) But my 4 starers are to good books and then my five starers are to my MIND BLOWING OMG EVERYONE ACTUALLY HAS TO READ THIS RIGHT NOW GUYS GUYS I WILL SHIP MY COPY TO YOU kind of ratings. Usually I am very hyper about those sorts of books. Now, my 2 star ratings aren’t THAT bad. It’s books that I just were okay but a bit meh. Cliche for example. AND 1 star is just a plain ol didn’t really like it that much rating. I haven’t ever read a book that I JUST HATE SO MUCH AND CAN’T BEAR TO READ ANYTHING MORE OR EVEN HEAR IT’S NAME. I guess I learnt to star rate on goodreads so then I’ve just gone from there. 🙂
I guess everyone then reads star ratings differently on blogs and such so it could get a little confusing. But in ads for books, they never show the star ratings unless it’s a 5 star rating…usually it’s praise because that’s what the people want to hear more, and preferably un-cliche phrases too.
Thanks for sharing Cassie!!!