“I’ve decided to try a new thing here on Goodreads. Basically, unless I think something is a 5 or a 1, I won’t be giving it a star rating.
There are a couple reasons, and I’ll list them here in the interest of full disclosure:
First and foremost, I’ll be putting in a proposal to Boss Fight Books, and I’m hoping to interview the publisher for LitReactor. And while I still want to talk about some of the contents, I’m not going to tear apart a book from a publisher I’m going to try and work for/with. I guess you could view this as the death of my honesty, but I don’t see it that way at all. I think this is me being honest about how it’s impossible for me to be objective in this situation, and I’m proud to be able to tell you and be upfront about it. My objectivity is pretty questionable when I’m reviewing a small press I want to work for, and I think I’ll better serve everyone by being honest about it.
Second, for me personally, I think the star system doesn’t really work. I can only tell you what I thought of something, but I think I’d rather use my words in the space provided than just click a star. It’s just too easy to make a snap judgment and give something a two-star rating, when really it might deserve more. And while that doesn’t matter much to me, it probably really sucks for the author.
Now, all that said, I’m still going to 5-star and 1-star stuff. The reason being, 5-star books deserve 5-star attention. If I give something 5 stars, it’s because I think it’s truly great. And I’m not too generous with those. I’ve got 87 5-star ratings on here, which amounts to 8% of the books I’ve starred.
Also, 1-star reviews will still be happening. Because I believe in that too.
So cheers to a new system, and we’ll see how it goes.”