How I Rate Books

The main goal of this site is to inform you, the reader, about media that I think is worth your time. While most reviews come with a short description of what I did and didn't like, I also make sure to include a star rating to help you quickly understand how I felt about a book.

My rating is a grade between 4 and 1 stars. A high score indicates a strong recommendation, the middle two are "yes but" and "no but" respectively, and the lowest is reserved for books I absolutely couldn't stand.

Rating books with this method can be tricky. There are plenty of popular books that don't do it for me, or widely panned books that I love. It's important to remember that my rating is not a measure of something's objective goodness; it's whether I thought it was worthwhile and think people with similar tastes will as well.

It's also worth noting that my ratings skew high: I get to choose what I read and I tend to choose things I think I'll enjoy. Keep that in mind when you see how many things earn a 4. It's a very different grade than a perfect 10 on something like IGN's rating system.

With that out of the way, let's go through what exactly each score means and provide some concrete examples!

: Yes!

A 4 star rating is both my highest and my most common score. Books in this bracket can be recommended emphatically. They may not be perfect, but I never felt bored while reading them. A 4 usually means that a book excelled in multiple areas and the result is more than the sum of its parts. Another way to earn a 4 is to succeed so highly in a specific area (such as characters or prose) that any concerns are dropped by the wayside; they didn't stop my enjoyment.

If you want to see the absolute cream of the book crop, you can check my list of books that were been the best thing I readed that year

Here are some recent books that earned 4 stars:

Surely You Can't Be Serious

An in-depth look into the history of ZAZ and the production of Airplane!. The audio is good and there are a lot of voice cameos from producers, comedians, actors, and other people involved in the movie. It really was groundbreaking!

The Tainted Cup

Is a wild mix of Sherlock Holmes, Pacific Rim, and cyberpunk-style body notifications. Really beats you over the head with fantasy terminology. But, you're rewarded with a dense, intertwined murder mystery. The characters are original anda lot of energy goes into interrogating the role each of us plays in society and what society owes us in return. I just would have appreciated it a little more if there were a glossary up front.

First Lie Wins

A satisfying mix of heist, espionage, and crime. Won't win any awards for prose or character development, but it's a tight read that keep me turning pages (just like it promised)

: Yes, but...

Most books that earn a 3 could have been a 4, but something held them back. Maybe it was a plot that didn't quite line up, poor pacing, or bad prose. Whatever it was I was annoyed enough about its shortcomings that I have to qualify this recommendation with a "I liked it, but wish they hadn't done XYZ".

Here are some recent books that earned 3 stars:

The Pelican Brief

Too many characters, weak personalities, and a little heavy on the skeeviness kept me from enjoying this to its fullest. But there was some fun corruption and a focus on good journalism which made it at least a decent beach read. Not one of Grisham's best though.

Eight Perfect Murders

A fun concept (blog post of famous literary murders that are happening in real life) but struggles to live up to its promise. Characters are flat and story ultimately feels unresolved. The mystery itself is underwhelming. It takes some big swings at the psychology of killing, but it mostly misses. Is clearly a love letter to detective fiction, but doesn't feel like it has the spark that made its inspiration great. Also, it spoils a ton of other famous mystery fiction (some Christie, strangers on a train, etc), so proceed with caution.

The Sisters Brothers

Sort of an interesting, ambling western. More contemplative than adventurous, it was enjoyable without being enthralling. I liked what humor there was and the characters grew on me eventually. The prose was pretty matter-of-fact but the story didn't feel like it had much of a point.

: No, but...

Welcome to the bottom half! Books that earn a 2 have more hits than misses, but there are redeeming qualities. It can also mean I would have scored it higher, but I was so put off by something (such as bad writing) that I couldn't rate it higher. If you're a fan of this genre you might still find the book worthwhile, but I'd start elsewhere.

Here are some recent books that earned 2 stars:

Nomadland

Really superb journalism. Does a good job capturing the allure of the open road, as well as the drawbacks. But, as a read? It's... hard to follow and sort of boring. Too many people and places mentioned. Only a very thin narritive throughline. I'm super curious to see how they turned this into a movie.

High-Rise: A Novel

I liked it less than I thought I would. It was bleak and matter of fact, but didn't quite sell me on the descent into the mob. It was an interesting enough take on the social structures that emerge in the lack of anything else, but one clearly written by an old white guy. I don't think he earned the brutality that played out. I did like the absurdity of some of it, but overall it didn't land for me.

John Dies at the End

Honestly, I liked a lot of the writing but I felt like it switched to too many gears and ran way long. The horror elements weren't quite my cup of tea, but that was a nice change of pace. There were some very funny passages.

: No!

The lowly 1 is my rarest rating. Because I mostly read things I (hope to) enjoy, for something to earn a 1 it's got to really fail across multiple areas. As long as a book has reasonable plot, cast, or characters, I'll usually find enough to like about it that it earns a 2. Earning a 1 means I feel bad for having spent time on this book at all.

Here are some recent books that earned 1 stars: