My Personal Rating System

By Jay Flood

Despite what some might think, rating books can be very challenging. There is no standard for rating books as everyone’s concept of what a five-star book looks like is different. Some people rate almost every book they read five stars while others rate almost none of the books they read five stars. Some rate books based on objectivity while others rate books based on subjectivity. There is no universal rating system, so it can be hard to determine how good a book is based on others’ ratings unless you know their personal rating system. It’s unfair of me to expect you to read a book I gave five stars if you don’t know why I rated it five stars. Conversely, it is unfair of me to expect you to consider reading a book I gave three stars even if it might have been five stars for you. Therefore, I will be defining my personal rating system by explaining my thought process behind every rating.

One Star ★☆☆☆☆

In my entire life, I have only ever rated two books one star. One-star ratings are reserved for books I absolutely despised and had to force myself to finish the book. There are gaps in my life when I didn’t track my reading on Goodreads, so there are probably a lot of books missing, which means there could be more books I would have given one star, but I can’t remember. But both books recorded as one star were books I hated. In order for me to rate a book one star, I have to feel so strongly about it. I feel bad about rating books so low because I know the author worked so hard and I don’t ever want to diminish someone’s art that took time and effort. So it is very rare for me to give books one star.

The two books I gave one star were Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman and Peter Darling by Austin Chant. Call Me By Your Name was a very popular book and film adaptation that was marketed as a queer romance, and I had loved Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli because they made me feel represented and seen, as queer representation in any form of media, especially young adult fiction, was rare. But Call Me By Your Name was not a cute queer romance, it promoted grooming. The characters are 17 and 24 years old, which is a seven-year age gap. Age is not just a number when the maturity levels and life experiences are so vast. Portraying gay people as predators, groomers, and pedophiles in the media is a common method used by homophobic and transphobic people in order to dehumanize queer folks by depicting them as dangerous and evil. This book disgusted me and the only reason I forced myself to finish it was so I could accurately defend my opinion. 

The only other book I gave one star, Peter Darling by Austin Chant, is also marketed as a queer romance. Peter Darling is a reimagining of Peter Pan, in which Peter Darling is a trans, gay man who left Neverland ten years prior to take care of his brothers, John and Michael Darling. He returns to Neverland to escape a life where he will never be accepted for who he is, but when he gets there, the only person who missed him was Captain Hook. Before I read this book, I had recently read another Peter Pan-inspired story, Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise, and loved it. I thought Peter Darling would be just as good, but I was mistaken. First of all, this book put me in a reading slump and I had to force myself to finish it. Second of all, most of the book is so action-packed that there’s no time for any character development or exploration. There was never a single moment I felt connected to the character. Peter Darling ran away from home, changed his name, and struggled with body and gender dysphoria, I should have been able to feel connected to and represented by him, but I felt absolutely nothing. It was barely talked about because every scene was full of action, which wasn’t exciting to me at all. 

Those two reasons aren’t enough for me to hate a book and I probably would have given it two or three stars if this last reason didn’t exist, but it does. The thing that made me despise this book enough to give it one star is, just like Call Me By Your Name, an inappropriate age gap. Peter is ten years older now, which makes him in his twenties. His enemies-to-lovers romance with Hook would have been okay if Hook was also a child when they met, but he wasn’t. Hook knew Peter when Peter was a child and Hook was a grown man. In the book, Hook talks about Peter’s youth so often that it’s difficult to picture Peter as an adult, and instead, I kept picturing him as a child because so did Hook. That just made the explicit scenes so uncomfortable and wrong. 

There is one more thing that made me hate this book, and it was the ending. In the end, Peter and Hook leave Neverland and Peter is suddenly not in a “man’s body” anymore and it’s implied that he had to “give up” his “fantasy” because they were no longer in Neverland and needed to “grow up” and “stop pretending.” Whether the author meant to be transphobic or not, this is disgusting. I could not, in good faith, rate this book anything higher than one star. The only two books I have ever rated one star misrepresented and harmed the LGBTQ+ community by feeding into predatorial stereotypes. I will never support any form of media that feeds into or promotes harmful stereotypes against the LGBTQ+ community or any other marginalized community because that is wrong and against my morals. So, if I ever rate a book one star in the future, it is because the book is harmful and I feel so strongly about it.

Two Stars ★★☆☆☆

As I said before, it is rare for me to give low ratings on books because I don’t want to diminish or put down someone’s art that they spent time and effort creating. I have only given 13 books two stars in my life, and those were all pretty recently because I am trying to get myself to be more honest with my ratings. When I rate a book two stars, it’s because I just simply did not care for it and would not recommend it to anyone. These aren’t books I hate and I don’t feel strongly enough to rate them one star, but they are books I don’t really like and did not enjoy reading. Rating books two stars is more of a recent development of mine because I used to just rate any book I didn’t love three stars. But, three stars should be average and two stars should be books I don’t like. 

It’s difficult for me to rate books anything lower than three stars because I know that my opinion is not the objective opinion and just because I don’t like a book doesn’t mean it’s bad. I feel mean giving a book two stars because I feel like I’m giving the author two stars. When I don’t care for a book, I struggle with making my rating reflect my opinion rather than an objective opinion. For example, if know that a book is objectively good and that a lot of people with different preferences than me would like it, but I personally just didn’t like it, it feels wrong to give it two stars. But I know I need to be honest with my ratings, so I have been working on rating books two stars if I just didn’t like them, even if I know objectively that it was a good book. 

Three Stars ★★★☆☆

When I rate a book three stars, it’s because I liked the book but it wasn’t memorable in any way. Books that I’ve rated three stars are books I enjoyed reading but forgot about immediately after. Looking through the list of books I’ve rated three stars over the years is funny because the books are all so different from one another and there are different reasons for the rating. A lot of books I’ve given three stars are books I thought were “meh” and “okay” but not great and not bad. Other books I rated three stars are books I forgot I even read. Any book I didn’t feel particularly strongly about was given three stars. Not great, but not bad either. 

Four Stars ★★★★☆

Shockingly, I have given more four-star ratings than any others in my life. Any book I give four stars is a book I really loved and would recommend to people, but it wasn’t perfect. There are even books on my four-star rating list that I have reread. A four-star rating is a really good book in my eyes. When I finish a book and am deciding how to rate it, I am usually deciding between three and four stars. I decide to give it four stars if I had so much fun reading the book, felt really connected to the characters, and felt so many emotions while reading it. If I love a book so much, then why am I not rating it five stars? Because…

Five Stars ★★★★★

Five-star ratings are reserved for books that are truly perfect and the gold standard. These are books that I compare other books to, knowing they won’t be topped. When I say “This is one of my favorite books of all time,” chances are I gave it five stars. Shockingly, this is actually my second-highest rating category, but it’s because I used to give any book I liked five stars and just haven’t gone back and updated my rating. For example, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, multiple Harry Potter books, and Divergent by Veronica Roth all made my five-star rating list. Those books are good, but I would not give them five stars now. 

There are some books on the list that I would not give five stars if I read them now, but agree with my younger self giving them five stars. For example, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli are books I probably wouldn’t give five stars if I read now, but they were so impactful when I read them that it makes sense for me to have given them five stars then. 

Then obviously there are books on the list that are just my favorites of all time and think are the best books I have ever read. But there are also books that I objectively think are gold-standard books and deserve five stars, even if my own personal opinion differs. For example, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter, and Son by Lois Lowry are all books I personally loved and would have personally given four stars but were so objectively brilliant that they deserved five stars. There’s also a college textbook I gave five stars just because I thought it was funny because I actually did read every page of it for a class and wanted to mark it as read on Goodreads, so I gave it five stars just to be funny. 

I think recently I have become stricter with my five-star ratings and only rate books five stars if they became my new favorite or simply just deserved five stars. In 2023 so far, I have given 12/47 books five stars (25%), in 2022 I gave 13/50 (26%) books five stars, and in 2021 I gave 9/19 (47%) books five stars. Before 2021 I didn’t consistently track my reading on Goodreads, so there are definitely books missing. But I am being more selective with which books I give five stars now. 

Final Notes

My rating system has definitely changed over the years, especially because as a kid I didn’t really think about it much, and now I want to be more accurate with my ratings. Not only are everyone’s rating systems different, but individual people’s rating systems evolve over time due to their own growth and development in their experience as a reader. As you read more books, you have more to compare others to. The more books you read, it becomes easier to make the distinction between a book you really liked and a book that is now one of your favorites. As you grow up and read more books, your perception of what a good book is becomes more complex and detailed. In middle school, I thought every book I enjoyed reading was a good book. Now, I decide something is good based on writing quality, plot holes, pacing, uniqueness, character development and likability, realistic dialogue, and yes, obviously, whether or not I enjoyed reading the book. 

My rating system now is completely different from what it was a year ago and might be completely different a year from now. My rating system is different from my friends, especially because what we want to get out of reading is different. My mom might rate a memoir or self-help book five stars because she got what she needed from it, which is perspective. Every memoir I’ve read, yes all three of them, were three or four stars because I still don’t really get the point of memoirs so I rate them based on if I enjoyed reading them or not. My friends who love romance might rate romance books five stars because they got what they wanted out of it, which is to know there are still happy endings. 

Everything I’ve ever wanted to get out of reading can be connected to escapism. I go through phases where I want to read series’ because I want to connect to characters and live vicariously through their friendships, and only series’ provide the time for that to happen. I go through phases where the only thing I want to get out of reading is to have my worldview challenged. I go through phases where I want to read darker books and the only thing I want to get out of it is to feel something, whereas other times I only want to read lighter books because I want comfort and ease. But the reason for wanting to get those things out of reading is the same: I want to escape from real life. 

Some might base their rating system on objectivity rather than personal interest, but most people rate books based on how much they liked a book rather than if they thought it was objectively good or not. Since most rating systems are based on personal enjoyment, everyone’s rating systems are different because everyone’s preferences are different. I don’t like reading romance books, so I might not give a romance book a high rating because I did not personally enjoy it. But my friends who love romance books might give it a high rating because they did personally enjoy it. I think this topic is so interesting because it can tell so much about a person. If you’re trying to get to know someone who loves to read, ask them about their rating system!