Pondering on Review Ratings

~ Louise H
Or why I don’t always trust every 5 star review of books

A recent Tell Me Something Tuesday prompt, one about when everyone else loves a book but you, sent me off on a tangent thinking about reviews, ratings and my own personal feelings towards them. Ultimately I believe reviews are for readers, not authors. When we leave a review, be it for a book, a restaurant or some other purchase or service, the purpose is to inform others looking to buy the same thing. If it helps improve the product or service then even better.


We all have one-click authors, books that we don’t need to read a single review – and sometimes not even the blurb – for. When a book or author doesn’t fall into that category then I, for one, turn to reviews to inform my purchase. I don’t want to be wasting my hard-earned money on a dud of a story, not when there is a budget to consider. This means honest reviews are very important to me. Habit has me using Goodreads as my go-to site; if any of you know of anywhere better, that isn’t Amazon, do please tell me!


Being an arc reader myself I have no objection to the process but I have noticed that some arc reviewers seem to never give a book anything other than 5 stars. Every single time and without deviation. Perhaps, for them, every book they read is an amazing and awe-inspiring experience. Their criteria and expectations will vary from mine which is both understandable and acceptable – we don’t all seek the same things from a book. For those of us who use reviews when choosing our next purchase however this practice is really not helpful.


The problem is particularly prevalent for books written by indie authors, very likely stemming from the fact that they will have, arc teams populated by their fan base. ( And I speak as someone who has been on a few of those very arc teams for some years). There are those readers I am sure who genuinely do enjoy every book the author writes. Others who perhaps struggle to be impartial, subconsciously believing that anything less than 5 stars is letting the author down. Some may believe they are somehow helping the author by always giving the top rating.


Even for my auto-buy authors, I don’t love every book, whilst I will enjoy them only the very best earn those 5 stars. I need to have been emotionally involved in the story, I have to bleed for the characters, and the world around me should fade to nothing as I read, leaving me unable to put the book down. Others just need to have liked the book to hand out 5 stars, and I respect their belief that it was worth the top rating. But, and this is quite a big but, I believe the constant awarding of 5 stars makes those reviews lose value. My reasoning is that there has to be some variation in the level of enjoyment. After all, we can’t appreciate the good without experiencing the bad.


Strangely I feel more confident buying a book that has a few lower ratings/reviews on it. The conundrum is that very often it is in the two, three and four-star ratings that you get a true feel of the book. The only time I tend to read a 5-star review is if it is written by a friend (so that I can comment on their review), it is written by a reviewer who I have learned I can trust or it is written by someone who I know enjoys the same type of books as I do. I also read 1-star reviews to see if the reasons given are triggers for me or, conversely, are elements I enjoy in a book. I know some reviewers feel unable to leave a negative review/rating, and I respect that choice – even if I wish they felt differently 😂.

16 thoughts on “Pondering on Review Ratings”

  1. I tend to look at a sampling of all levels of reviews. Like you, I find it very informative to see what people didn’t like about a book. The only problem I have is when people give a low rating and only read a small percentage of the book. If it is a book I’ve read, I can tell that they missed so much that might have changed their mind or that they made assumptions that were just plain inaccurate. And then, there’s the opposite side of that – people who are friends of the author and give it 5 stars saying things that are just tried and true phrases but really are inaccurate for the book. Reviews are tricky, aren’t they? Excellent post, Louise!

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    1. Thanks. I might read the DNF reviews but don’t often use them when making my final choice. I know I’ve gone back to a DNF, finished it and totally changed my mind but equally I’ve gone back and continued to struggle or skimmed to the end and still been disappointed. I DNF’d a book in a buddy read recently, just about everyone else loved it. They all saw a sheltered and naïve heroine where two of us found her to be stupid and irrational, so I think the reasons for DNF’ing in particular are very subjective. And mood driven.
      It’s the generic blandness of the reviews that really make them pointless – as you say phrases that don’t really match the book.

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  2. I even question myself when I look back at some of my 5 star reviews. Did I really like it that much? If so, why didn’t it stick with me for years? But I still tend to give a good number of books 5 stars, although I am not afraid to rate an ARC low if that’s what it deserves. I feel bad giving any book lower than 3 stars, yet I still do if it’s what I feel. I just know that most authors put their blood, sweat, and tears into their writing and I hate when it just doesn’t work out for them.

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    1. I know that if I re-read some of my older 5-star books I would probably drop the rating. It’s funny how our tastes change over the years – or perhaps it’s also a little to do with what’s in fashion.
      It is tough giving low ratings sometimes. Some of the best “debut” indie authors I’ve read have spent many years writing on Wattpad and similar sites, so have not only received a lot of critical feedback already but have also honed their skills before hitting publish. As long as the criticism is focused and constructive (the nasty rants that get personal and abusive are never ok) I do think it can help an author improve.

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  3. I do like reading bloggers’ reviews and I do pay attention what the blogger rates a particular book. Most of the time, however, I’ll still add a book to my TBR if it sounds interesting even if a blogger’s review is not very good. I usually like to give a book a chance because I might feel differently than others.

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    1. I only tend to put positive reviews on my blog. Goodreads is my go-to for reviewing everything and you will find the good, the bad AND the ugly on there. I help run some buddy reads and two of us DNF’d a book fairly quickly whilst the rest of the group loved it, so yes we do often feel differently to others. I think that’s why I like the 2 and 3 star reviews best – if they mention things that annoy me (like instalove) I’ll put the book on my maybe list. If their gripes are things I actually enjoy then it can make me WANT to read the book.
      In terms of blogs I just enjoy reading their (your) views. Often it’s a genre I know I won’t even try but I like seeing what worked and what didn’t.

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  4. Excellent thoughts, Louise. Even as an author, I believe reviews are for readers. I do learn things from reviews (which I hope to apply to the next book), but mostly I rely on my editorial team to help me make each book the best it can be. It’s my job to grow and learn as a writer; it’s not a reviewer’s job to teach me (although I’m always happy to learn new things).
    When I look for a new book to read (and I read a lot, 200+ books a year), I often read reviews, and although I’m interested in the 4 and 5 star reviews, I more often look at the negative reviews (1 and 2 star). If those reviews are banging on about the thing that reader hated that I happen to love (“too much s3x” is my personal favorite – I’m all over that book), I know I’ve struck gold. If the 1 and 2 star reviews talk about my personal pet peeves (the heroine being a Mary Sue is right at the top), then I might scroll to the next book.
    I think the star rating system is artificial. What’s a stellar, stand-out, 5 star read to me may be a ho-hum, run of the mill, 3 star to someone else. It’s very subjective and I’m sorry both authors and reviewers get hung up on it.

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    1. I use those lower ratings in exactly the same way. I’ve even looked for spoilers because you can see from reviews the book contains something controversial (at least to some). Reviews that mention typo’s and grammar don’t put me off, but weak characters or slow pacing do.

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  5. I have two thoughts on seeing some reviewers always rating books 5-stars. 1. They are so good at picking books they will love, or 2. They embellish too much. For me, I DNF and don’t rate DNFs, therefore, people seldom hear about the stinkers I picked up. Goodreads is my go-to, but I don’t always trust the ratings because, you know, hate-rating. When people rate books they never read or to be part of the drama, etc. I do trust readers I have followed there for years though.

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    1. I do think I’m super picky and very mean with my star ratings. A book really has to be something special to get 5 stars on Goodreads. I am more generous on Amazon though as 3 stars is considered a negative rating, so it doesn’t leave much room for manoeuvre! I do think finding someone (or a couple of people) who you trust is the best way.

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  6. Most books I review end up with 4 stars – B/B+ I pick books I think I’ll enjoy, so it makes sense that most receive favorable reviews. But I have had 2-3 stars, just not as often.

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    1. As I narrowed down the sub-genres and authors I choose to read I found that to be the case a little more too. Then I wanted some way to differentiate between those 4 star reads – I wish Goodreads would allow half stars.

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