Something has been happening when I finish a book lately. I don’t want to rate it. I’ll have plenty of thoughts on what did and didn’t work for me but when it comes to that one to five star rating, my mind starts running in circles. If it’s good at what it does but what it does isn’t something I enjoy reading, is three stars really fair? How many minor quibbles take something from a 3.75 to a 3.5? Am I being overly stingy with my five star ratings or sufficiently picky? And how can a rating capture all the nuances of what I think about a book anyway?
I’ve found myself analyzing my reading more and more this year, in large part due to writing this newsletter. Along the way, I’ve also developed a better sense of what works for me but may not necessarily work for other readers and vice versa. There’s something wonderful about that—a reader for every book and a book for every reader—and also something elusive that a star rating just can’t capture. There’s no option for “3.5 stars for me but could be 5 stars if you like literary horror” or “I care deeply about this aspect of a book but you may not”. I can also give two books the exact same rating and mean something entirely different for each one. Three stars can be fine but forgettable or uneven but compelling.
I’ve thought of star ratings as a convenient shorthand yet when I go back to books I read years ago and didn’t bother to review, that rating ends up meaning very little. I’m left staring blankly at my computer screen, trying to remember just what kind of three or four-star rating a particular title was. Of course, sometimes it’s easy. I read Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller last week (more to come on that in my May reading recap), which was proclaiming its five-star book status by the halfway point. However, my inevitable detailed gushing about it will ultimately mean more (I hope) to curious readers than those five stars on their own. I started off this year talking about how I wanted to find more specificity in my romance reading and unsurprisingly, I’ve found myself wanting more specificity in my reviewing as well.
I’ve left off ratings entirely on Goodreads/the Storygraph/in my paper reading tracker for a few books I’ve read recently and it’s felt so freeing. I probably won’t be abandoning ratings entirely, at least not with titles they come naturally for. But I’ve decided to give myself a bit more space. To waver, to debate, to follow a thread to its natural conclusion and then double back again. And to be gloriously, elaborately specific.
Currently reading: A Rogue’s Rules for Seduction by Eva Leigh, where an earl’s daughter and her former betrothed are stuck at a house party on a remote island together. Emotions and tensions are already running high and it’s delicious.
What’s bringing me joy this week:
I went to London! Possibly my favorite place in the world. I saw three excellent shows, was mesmerized by the Rossettis exhibit at the Tate Britain, wandered along the Thames to a historic house, ate a lot of cake, and bought a mighty stack of books to haul home with me.
It’s prime reading in the park with an iced beverage season, aka my favorite time of year.
The perfect guide for said park reading: the Paperback Summer Reading Guide from Sara at Fiction Matters. There’s thoughtful picks for every reading mood and I already have a long list of titles I can’t wait to read.
I love these thoughts on star ratings, Natalie! It's something I've thought about as well, but haven't quite figured out yet. I had a spreadsheet where I track my reading and in that space I don't use star ratings, instead using "it wasn't for me, it was okay, i liked it, i really liked it, i loved it, important read" which is an idea I got from @laurenlovesto on Instagram. It's not perfect, but it does feel a bit more freeing. Also, love a big book stack from London bookshops! The best.
Interesting insights, and you are so right that rating a book with stars is hard to capture the nuisances that we like or may not like about because there’s so much complexity to one’s reading experience, that a simple rating like that is hard to capture.