Discussion: Writing Reviews – What My Star Ratings Mean to Me
Do you ever find yourself overthinking what rating to give a book you’ve just finished reading? Usually the rating comes to me pretty easily, but there are definitely times when I find it hard to settle on one. It always gets me into that deep thought mode where I really start to think about what those star ratings even mean for me. What makes a book a 5 star rating vs. a 4 star? If I rate a book 3 stars, what am I really trying to say about that book? If I was able to finish a book I didn’t particularly care for, how low does it make sense to rate it? Should I even rate a book I didn’t finish? What would it take for me to actually rate a book only 1 star? Yep, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I tend to overthink things a bit.
For me, I think the easiest ratings to settle on are the 4 star reads. I give 4 stars to any book that I really enjoyed. If the writing is good, the characters are dynamic and complex, and the plot is interesting, you can pretty much count on me giving at least 4 stars. I looked on Goodreads and I think the majority of the books I’ve reviewed over the years have been 4 star reads.
So if a good book is at least 4 stars, what does it take for me to award 5 stars? These are usually pretty easy for me as well because for me, it’s an emotional reaction. Is this a good book or a book that really blew me away? Did it make me cry, or better yet, was it an emotional roller coaster ride for me? For me, the 5 star reads really resonate. They tend to be the stories that stick with me long after I’ve finished reading. I’ve also gotten stingier over the years about giving out 5 star ratings and have a tendency to award many more 4.5 ratings than actual 5s. More and more I feel like those 5 star ratings should be saved for books that I think are really special.
The 3 star rating is the one I struggle with the most. Why? Because I actually kind of hate it. Even though in my mind, 3 stars indicates that I liked the book but didn’t love it, it still feels like I’m really just sitting on the fence and not stating a firm opinion on the book. Looking back through my ratings over the years, I actually seem to choose one side of the fence or the other. Rather than give a lot of 3 star ratings, I instead tend to go with either 3.5 stars or 2.5 stars. Either I lean toward liking it, or I lean toward it not being a good fit for me.
I usually reserve 2 star ratings for books that I was able to finish but that just weren’t my cup of tea. I’ve actually not had many of these over the years. I seem to have either gotten pretty good at picking out books that work for me or else I’ve gotten better about DNFing books that aren’t working. I don’t rate books that I’ve DNFed unless I made it to at least the halfway point.
1 star ratings are pretty easy for me too, mainly just because I rarely, if ever, give them. I think I would have to have an extremely negative emotional reaction to a book to actually slap a 1 on it and that just doesn’t usually happen. As I mentioned, I don’t tend to rate books I DNF and if I am able to finish a book even if it’s not a good fit for me, I feel like the fact it was compelling enough to finish ought to allow for at least a 2 star rating.
What I also find interesting is that as I’m reading, I do find that I assign a tentative rating as I’m going along and kind of adjust it up or down as I go, depending on how much I’m connecting with the story. So sometimes a book starts off slow and feels like it could be a 2, but then it starts to pick up and the ending feels like a 5 star. I ponder those for a while and usually settle on some kind of average like maybe a 3.5 overall.
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So, what about you? Do you find yourself thinking about what your star ratings mean? Do you struggle with certain star ratings more than others?
Review: THE GIRL IN RED by Christina Henry
The Girl in Red by Christina Henry Also by this author: The Mermaid
Published by BERKLEY on June 18, 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Retelling
Pages: 304
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
THE GIRL IN RED Review
Christina Henry’s latest novel, The Girl in Red, is everything I didn’t know I needed in a fairytale retelling. The Girl in Red is not just a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood; it’s also a postapocalyptic survival story that features a deadly virus that has wiped out thousands of people, and an ax-wielding, modern day Little Red Riding Hood character. The world doesn’t resemble the world Red grew up in. Survivors are desperate and the rule of law has pretty much been thrown out the window, but Red is determined to survive and make it to the safety of her grandmother’s house, no matter who or what stands in her way.
Red was of course my absolute favorite part of the story. I just truly loved everything about her. She’s smart, sassy, resourceful, and incredibly determined to survive no matter what. She also has an extensive knowledge of post-apocalyptic survival skills, much of which she has acquired from the many books and horror movies she has watched. Her family actually mocks her for her obsession with being ultra-prepared to survive an apocalypse, but I have to say after reading just a few pages, I was convinced Red was just the person I’d want in my corner if the unthinkable were to ever happen. I loved that she was so practical and that she managed to stay calm no matter what was going on around her.
I also loved the way that Henry unfolds this riveting tale. She uses a dual timeline format where we are presented with “Before” and “After” chapters. Each “After” chapter is presented first and illustrates that something major has happened, and then that chapter is followed by a “Before” chapter that shows the lead up to the event from the “After” chapter. When the story first opens, for example, we see that Red is traveling on her own but we learn soon afterwards that she and her brother were initially traveling together. We then follow along and learn what has happened to separate Red from her brother. I loved this technique because it creates so much tension and suspense. As soon as I realized Red’s brother had been with her but wasn’t anymore, I just had to know what had happened to him.
I don’t want to give away any major plot points so that’s all I’m going to say, but if you enjoy retellings, gripping post-apocalyptic survival tales, or just really want to read a truly unique story, I highly recommend Christina Henry’s The Girl in Red.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a post-apocalyptic take on the perennial classic “Little Red Riding Hood”…about a woman who isn’t as defenseless as she seems.
It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn’t look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.
There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there’s something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined.
Red doesn’t like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn’t about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods….
About Christina Henry
CHRISTINA HENRY is the author of the CHRONICLES OF ALICE duology, ALICE and RED QUEEN, a dark and twisted take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as well as LOST BOY: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN HOOK, an origin story of Captain Hook from Peter Pan.
She is also the author of the national bestselling BLACK WINGS series (BLACK WINGS, BLACK NIGHT, BLACK HOWL, BLACK LAMENT, BLACK CITY, BLACK HEART and BLACK SPRING) featuring Agent of Death Madeline Black and her popcorn-loving gargoyle Beezle.
ALICE was chosen as one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year in Science Fiction and Fantasy for 2015. It was also a Goodreads Choice Award nominee in Horror and one of Barnes & Noble’s Bestselling Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of 2015.
She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on and watching movies with samurai, zombies and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.
Midyear Audiobook Challenge Check-In
So it’s time to see how I’m doing on my audiobook challenge. I’m actually really proud of my progress on this one because my goal for the year was to read 16-20 audiobooks and at the midway point, I’ve actually managed to read 18! That’s huge for me since up until last year, I hadn’t had any luck trying to read audiobooks. So here’s what I’ve read so far (oh and 16 of these are also doing double duty for the Beat-the Backlist Challenge so consider this an update for that challenge as well.
The first four books I read were the The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. I was a little nervous about it going in since I had read but not loved her more recent book, All the Crooked Saints. Thankfully I ended up really enjoying the series, with each book being a four star read. I really loved all of the characters in the series, especially Ronan Lynch and it just feels good to have The Raven Cycle off my TBR since it had been there for about 3 years.
Books 5-8 have been some of my favorite audio reads so far in the challenge, especially The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is all around one of my favorite reads of the year to this point. It was 5 stars all the way! What If It’s Us was a super cute 4-star romance for me, while Crazy Rich Asians was 4 stars of crazy fun. And I highly recommend the audio version of On the Come Up. I think it makes Bri a more likable character than just reading the print version, plus you get to actually hear her rap, which was so cool That was a 4.5 star read for me.
Books 9-12 were some fantasy reads that I tried on audio and really loved. Plus it was nice to make some progress on my series reading too. I really enjoyed Catwoman: Soulstealer on audio, so much so that I may go back and try Marie Lu’s Batman book that way since I skipped over it after hearing meh reviews. Catwoman was 4 stars for me, as was City of Ashes, the second book in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. I’ll probably continue that series on audio as well. I had actually been in a fantasy slump for a couple of months until I read Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes on audio, which I loved and rated 4 stars. The biggest surprise out of all of these fantasy reads for me was Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. I was just writing in a recent Top Ten Tuesday post how his books were really hit or miss for me. Well, this one was a huge hit with me. Gaiman himself narrates it and the story is just beautiful. It actually reads like a fairytale, which just made the audio version seem like the perfect way to enjoy it. Stardust was a 4.5 star read for me and is now my favorite Gaiman book.
Books 12-16 are a hodge podge from different genres. Murder on the Orient Express was my favorite from this group. I thought the narrator was fantastic and the murder mystery gripping. It was a 5 star read for me. The Song of Achilles was a lovely read as well, one that I would recommend to anyone who loves Greek Mythology. I rated it 4 stars and look forward to reading Circe from the same author soon. Pride was such a fun read. It’s a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in modern day Brooklyn, and it’s filled with sass, snark, and romance just like the original P&P. I gave it 4 stars as well. Queenie was the one disappointment from this lot. It started out so good but then I just became so frustrated with the main character and her pattern of making bad choices, all the while admitting she was well aware they were bad choices. It got to the point where I just wanted the story to be over so I didn’t have to hear from her anymore, lol. I rated 3 stars, just because I did enjoy the first part of it.
And finally, books 17 and 18. Lily and the Octopus was an interesting read. As a pet owner, I found it a very emotional read, but from a more objective standpoint, it was a little hard to get into, just the whole concept of referring to what was on the dog as an octopus was a little jarring. I ended up rating it 3 stars. Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere was a fantastic and moving read. I loved the way the story unfolded and thought the narrator was great. I read somewhere that this book is being made into a limited series and I can’t wait to watch it. I rated the book 4.5 stars.
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Are you participating in the audiobook challenge? If so, how are you doing on it? I have to admit that I’ve been somewhat of an audiobook junkie now and look forward to seeing just how far I can surpass my original goal in the second half of the year.