Over the last two years, I have been reading and writing book reviews, and I realized that I have never explained my criteria for rating books, so here we go.
Books that receive a 1 Star rating are books that I thought have several issues:
- They are predictably dull and full of cliches
- The writing style is challenging to get through- no flow
- The characters have no depth
- The overall unenjoyable reading experience
- Poor narration – making it difficult to listen
- I would NOT recommend
Books that receive a 2 Star rating are books that I thought were just okay.
- I won’t reread
- It wasn’t good, wasn’t bad
- The writing style is hard to get through
- The characters weren’t anything special – they lacked depth
- It has an interesting premise but disappointing execution
- I probably wouldn’t recommend
Books that receive a 3 Star rating are books I thought were good.
- They have an exciting premise, but the execution could have been better
- The characters lack depth and complexity
- The plot is superficial
- The themes could have been handled better
- There is some momentum – slow in parts but overall good
- It is not a particularly memorable story
- I would probably recommend it with caveats
Books that receive a 4 Star rating are books that I like, and thought were very good.
- I enjoyed the book from start to finish
- The writing style flowed well – great momentum
- The characters were solid and had depth
- There are deeper themes -thought-provoking
- But it is missing the cherry on top – it didn’t blow my socks off entirely.
Books that receive a 5 Star rating are books that I absolutely LOVED and thought they were great.
- I can’t stop thinking about the book and the characters. I thought about them when I wasn’t reading them and continued to think about them afterward.
- The story filled me with emotion, making me think about things, laugh, cry, or both.
- There are memorable, multifaceted characters with distinct voices – I would be sad my time ended with them when the story was over.
- A great writing style that brings everything to life in multisensorial ways.
- It is a unique or exciting plot or story that’s well executed
- The ending is satisfying, yet it makes me want more time with the characters.
- The story transcends its genre.
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