Is It Okay To Give Books High Ratings? Let's Find Out!

One star, two star, three star, four star, five star. As reviewers, we're so reliable on star ratings to help us convey how much we enjoyed a book. EVERYONE rates books on a different level. It could be based off of how much one enjoyed the book while another could base if off of how good the writing was. Over at Alexandra @ Literary Legionnaire's blog, she talked about why giving high ratings was okay. I have to admit, I do give pretty high ratings. Call my reviews BS or biased of whatever, but I'm here to set everyone straight because it is okay to give high ratings. 
**WARNING: High controversial and opinionated**

My Average Rating of 2015 = 4.3 stars (accord. to Goodreads)

Oh, I love you Robert..
4.3 stars? That's a really high number. You're probably thinking now: Alex is a BS reviewer, let's just go home. Before you go I would like a chance to explain myself and be the voice of others who may think they give books high ratings as well.

Tell us... why do you give books such high ratings?

Maybe I'm not such a good reviewer. Maybe I'm not critical enough to give a book a low rating. Some can even argue that because I give books such high ratings, I'm not cut out for this #bookbloggerlyfe. 

Why do I give books high ratings? I have no clue. But as Alexandra stated in her post, I read books that I know I'll actually love and that sound super interesting to me. I don't think there's ever been a book I picked up that didn't interest me. If you recommend me something and I find zero interest in it, chances are I won't pick it up. I choose what sounds good to me! The cases in which I've given ratings lower than 3 have probably been review books, where I get sent unsolicited copies from publishers and decide to pick it up because of their generosity. I may not be 100% interested in it, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to give that book a chance, even though it may receive a lower rating from me in the future. 

Another point I want to make is that I simply don't like to post reviews about books I've given bad reviews on this blog. It's not because I'm afraid authors and publishers will see it and then they won't give me free books. Heavens, no. In fact, publishers love honest reviewers who are hardcore and straight to the point. I started this book blog without any knowledge of what an ARC was. I didn't even know what TBR stood for! 

It's mainly due to the fact that if it's not good it's probably not worth hearing about. Some may disagree and say that if I gave it a bad rating, wouldn't it be nice to share so readers know to stay away? I've thought about that a few times but what would be the good in telling you about a book I hated. Wouldn't it be more beneficial for you to hear about the books I truly loved and recommend? 

How I Write My Reviews

I put more effort into the writing that explains why I've given a book X amount of stars rather than the actual rating. So if you've ever read any of my reviews, you know that I like to do it in a sandwich method. I always start out with a brief summary of the book in my own words. This doesn't just make it easy for you guys to understand, but it also lets me outline everything that happened. 

I then proceed in saying what I loved/liked/enjoyed about the book. This part is really open-ended, and I usually go into a wide variety of aspects from plot, to character development and to world-building. Once in a while, I'll add in quotes  to enhance you're understanding  and how the characters speak. 

Then I will state the problems I came across. Any qualms (I love that word ;P) worth mentioning and basically anything that pissed me off. With the negatives, I like to point out what the author did that I didn't enjoy and leave a suggestion for improvement. 

Sure, my reviews aren't perfect and 100% grammatically correct but my sole purpose of writing them is so that you could hear how a fellow fangirl feels about something you'd be interested in reading. 

The slogan of my blog is "bee the reader you want to be". I didn't let that slogan pass for no reason. I think it's imperative that bloggers aren't judged too harshly on the number of stars they're rating a book but more on why they're giving it that rating. If I give a book 5 stars but I can tell you exactly why I rated it that high, then what's the real problem here? 

Let me know what you think!



You may also like:

7 comments

  1. I think it's okay to give books high ratings. Like you said, we read things we're interested in, so chances are we're going to love them. And if we love them, of course we would give them high ratings! Personally, I do post bad reviews on my blog, I think it's a way to "warn" people, like why I don't enjoy that book, so readers could know what they're getting themselves into and decide if they still wanted to read it or not :) Great topic! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly and that's totally fine that you post the bad reviews to warn people. Thank you so much for reading and understanding my argument.

      Delete
  2. I think part of being a reader is discovering the books you'll love and it's smart, honestly, to find and read books you'll enjoy. I don't always succeed in that and I've fallen into the trap of reading just about everything I can get my hands on just because it's new or an ARC without thinking about whether I'll love it so your method is much more intelligent. I've been on a streak with reading books I've been rating highly lately and I definitely agree that it's just because I actually know I'll enjoy these novels. Wonderful discussion post, though--you bring up so many good points!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for reading and contributing your own experience. I just think it's important for people to understand why I do what I do. EXACTLY! I usually just read ARCs because of the fact that I received them and it would be nice to review them, but usually end up giving them bad reviews.

      Delete
  3. I do not think that high ratings are a bad thing. Personally, I rate most books three stars or more and there is nothing wrong with that. I write both good and bad reviews on my blog, but most of them are positive reviews. You can definitely be a book blogger that just posts positive reviews! I think that it is amazing that you have found the books that you love to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for much Tessa for the reassurance. I made this post with an intention for other people to speak out and admit they do the same. I hate feeling alone :( <3

      Delete
  4. Great post and discussion! I think it's ok to give high ratings and to have a high average rating -- the most important thing is to be honest! I really think other readers can tell if you're not genuine in your reviews and there's no crime in liking what you read!!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting and go ahead, leave some comments! I'll answer in a jiffy.

© The Book's Buzz . Design by MangoBlogs.