BI&BW
My Rating System
I've had a hard time articulating my rating system in the past, but given I want to post book reviews I'm going to give it one more go here.
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I've found that a simple star-based rating system doesn't work very well for me, no matter how big the scale is. This is because books are built up out of so many different things, and as a writer it's difficult for me to find an amount of stars that accurately represents my feelings on each subject.
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So, I've broken it down into some categories in hopes that I can better portray my opinions of a book. Please keep in mind that these categories are meant to accompany a review, and the review would then expand upon each rating with more specifics.
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Each of the below categories (excluding the last one) operates on a scale of 1-10. Because to go over each item would be exhausting, I will tell you what 1/10, 5/10, and 10/10 mean in each category, and trust that you can interpret everything in-between.
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Last note: While I do try to be objective, and think that I am fairly capable of it, it is of course impossible to rate anything without your own opinions and preferences playing a part in it.
That being said, while the below may be worded as if I am stating facts, I am very aware that all of it is, in the en, subjective.
Quality
This category refers to the general value that a book has in my eyes. Not emotionally, but practically. This refers to the constructiveness of the book - how arcs, plots, and the world are portrayed and how good the print itself (grammar, spelling, formatting) is. It's the clinical critic aspect of my reviews.
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1/10 - It is impossibly poorly written. Not only is the story unintelligible but so is the print.
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5/10 - Amateur at best.
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10/10 - Leaves nothing to want.
Quills
This category may be somewhat controversial, but it's perhaps the most important one to me. It refers to how well a story accomplished what it intended to. This is the most difficult part of my system to explain.
I believe the fairest way to find the proper value (or rating) of a book is to compare it to itself, not to another book. What did it try to accomplish? Did it accomplish it? Did the character arcs end where they should have? Did the plot resolve the way that is true to the story? How well did it do all of these things?
These are, of course, tainted by my own opinions and creative differences, and I do believe that no one knows the story better than the author. But I do believe that every story has a certain way it should go, regardless of if I like as the reader like it or not.
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1/10 - It made no sense, nothing aligned, no two things went together, there was no defined character, no defined plot or goal, it was basically a pile of random words.
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5/10 - It was cohesive, but it could be refined. The character (both as in the players in the story and the story itself) lacked personality and there were quite a few loose ends.
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10/10 - The characters, the plot, the story overall tied together incredibly. The story evidently accomplished what it was trying to, the heart of the story is clear and strong.
Enjoyment
While Quality refers to the critic aspect of my system and Quill refers to the creative part, Enjoyment refers to the experience. Both Quality and Quill could have low ratings while enjoyment has a high one (though this certainly is affected by the former categories to an extent).
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1/10 - I did not enjoy it at all.
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5/5 - It was okay, but it wasn't for me.
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10/10 - I absolutely adored it.
Overall Rating
This the typical scale to summarize all of the above, I'm sure you can accurately assume what each number means.
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1/10 - Overall, it was absolutely horrible.
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5/10 - Overall, it was okay.
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10/10 - Overall, I loved it.
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5-Star System
On my blog, I will likely never use the 5-star system. However, when I review books on other platforms I often have to give the book a rating on that scale.
Typically when I do this I'll specify in the review my rating based on a 10-star scale, but when I don't this may be useful for you to know, if you are someone who follows my reviews.
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1 - I hated it.
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3 - It was fine but I didn't love it.
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5 - I really liked it or I loved it. (basically, I'm highly satisfied with it).
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5 stars is not "I loved it" because it really just doesn't accurately portray that. 5 stars on a 5 star scale might be 8 or 9 stars on a 10 star scale, so 5 is not the proper equivalent of 10.
That being said, I rate quite a few books 5 stars even if I don't particularly love them simply because I believe that is the rating the book deserves.
So if I loved a book but can only give it 5 stars, I will say I loved it in the review.
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I hope this helped you understand my rating system better. I know that rating systems can be horribly confusing at times - for reviewers and readers alike. Because of this, this system may change sometimes as I find new and better ways to rate and review books.
If you have any questions about any of the above, please feel free to ask them via my contact form.
