3 Stars – Good or Bad?
What does a 3-star rating mean to you? When I rate a book 3-stars, I’ve noticed some people think I did not like it, while in reality I did like it, it was just missing some kind of element to make it “great”. At worst – low end of 3-star – it would mean I was a disappointed with it (mostly due to expectations), but I still don’t consider those bad books. I noticed this because almost every time I post a 3-star review, I get comments on it that go something like “I’m sorry you didn’t like this one”. Obviously not everyone reads the full review of those books or they would clearly see I did like it, but that’s beside the point. I’m curious as to why there is this notion that a 3 star is a negative rating?
I understand that a 3-star is less likely to make someone purchase a book than a glowing review. And obviously authors much prefer seeing 4 and 5-star reviews than falling splat in the middle. But for most of my blogging and reviewing friends, a 3-star does not fall in their “bad book” shelves. And to be honest a lot of my 3-stars went through a “3 or 4?” debate before I decided. I see many 3-star reviews where the only reason it did not hit a 4 is for reasons of personal preference for that particular reader. For instance, the book was in 3rd person, or there was too much romance, not their usual genre etc.; reasons for which many would still enjoy it. Some of my 3 star reviews I have even personally recommended to friends and family. And yes, I have read a book after reading a 3-star review before (it was too gory for them! Score! :D). Also, obviously there are lower and higher spectrums of the 3 star itself (especially if you’re stubborn like me and don’t use half-stars). I guess this proves the importance of judging based on reviews, not just ratings.
So what do you think? Is it because some people use 3-stars in their own negative spectrum that the general consensus is that 3-star = crap? Are there too few of us that use a 3 for a “good but not great” rating? Even Goodreads define a 3 star as “Liked it” (when you hover on it).
In general, this is what my ratings mean (I had it listed on the blog a while ago):
- 1 Star: I absolutely did not like this book. It wasn’t for me, and most of the time I won’t bother finishing it.
- 2 Stars: I didn’t like it much, but I didn’t hate it either. It was either boring or just had many flaws.
- 3 Stars: I liked this book, it was good, but there was something stopping me from loving it.
- 4 Stars: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who was looking for what to read next.
- 5 Stars: I absolutely Loved it. It blew me away and evoked a lot of thought, excitement and/or emotion. I will remember this book for a long time.
What does a 3-star mean for you?
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Latest posts by Giselle (see all)
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Ashley
I don’t think three star reviews are bad, but from an author’s perspective I can see how they would be. Because as a blogger who has a TBR shelf that’s through the roof, I would never pick up a book that all my friends gave three stars. Three stars means it was “okay” or they “liked it but didn’t love it”, and when picking a book to read I’d rather take a chance on a book I might “ABSOLUTELY LOVE” rather than “just kind of like”. So three star reviews never make me want to buy or read the book for myself. I always just think, “Why bother, when there are other books out there that got higher ratings that I might like more?”
It makes me feel kind of bad, but if I have two books to choose from: one that averages 3 stars from my friends and one that averages 4.5, I’m going to pick the one with the higher rating every time. It’s one of the ways that I try to manage and wade through my massive TBR pile.
Julie
Glad to know I’m not the only person asking this question. I have a similar topic scheduled for an upcoming discussion post. I think the main issue is with Amazon calling 3 stars as “okay”. Goodreads uses 2 stars for that “okay” rating. In my mind, 3 stars is a good book, not great, but not bad. Sort of what you said. We even go on to say in our rating system that 3 stars is a book we wouldn’t likely sell back to half price books. In fact one of my book clubs had a skype meeting with author Diane Chamberlain and she said she learns the most from 3 star reviews.
Pamela DuMond
Julie: I think you hit the nail on the head with the GR 3 stars vs. Amazon 4 stars. It’s a bit confusing.
Nick @ Nick's Book Blog
3 stars definitely doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book for me at least. I usually rate books that I liked but didn’t entirely love 3 stars. I never think of 3 stars as crap but I can see why people think of it like that.
Great post, Giselle.
Kelsey
I absolutely agree! People seem to think a three star rating is a bad thing, but it’s not. Maybe the book was more meh than I expected. I wouldn’t ever say I disliked the book. If I didn’t like it, it gets a 1 or a 2 star rating. They most likely aren’t something I’m going to yell at everyone to read, but I’ll recommend them to specific people. Like, with me? I can be very particular about what I like in contemporary YA. I have some stellar ratings for some, and three stars for others. It most likely wasn’t the book, but me. I’m relatively new to the genre and I have particular interests. Great post!
Kristen@My Friends Are Fiction
I get this as well…I don’t think 3 stars is bad. Like you say—good but not great…something was missing. Typically, I DNF something if it’s really horrible so 3 tends to be my lower rating. Maybe that’s why folks think it’s a poor rating? Like others have said, I tend to keep 3 star books too. I love this discussion post and look forward to reading more comments.
Lindsay Galloway
The best way I can describe my feelings over a three star review, is with a series. Three stars and I will still continue with the next book. Two stars and I don’t see it as worth it.
Kristilyn (Reading in Winter)
I wouldn’t say a 3 star rating is bad to me, just kind of so so. I liked the book but didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it … you know, a ‘meh’ book. Or I still could’ve enjoyed reading it, but it might not have been that memorable to rate it higher.
Mary @ BookSwarm
Definitely agree with your 3-star assessment. It’s a like. It was good. It even means I’ll recommend it to someone who might like it. However, I didn’t love it, didn’t fangirl over it. Two or one-star, however, now that’s not a good thing. That means I came close to DNFing it but powered through for some reason or another.
ailyn
that is why I don’t star my reviews in my blog… usually I just give 2, 4 or 5…
Tammy @ Books Bones & Buffy
I know lots of bloggers who use a 3 star rating just like you do. I almost never give out 1 or 2 star ratings myself, because I’m very careful about the books I select. So for me 3 stars means I didn’t enjoy it. Or I enjoyed parts of it, but it was mostly flawed. My 4 stars is for loved it and 5 stars is for above and beyond love. I guess everyone does stars a little differently!
Kelsey
I never understood why a 3 star seems to be so negative, I don’t really see it that way. I always thought it was more of a neutral rating, meaning you liked it and didn’t hate it. I use a 3 star for a book that I liked but didn’t love, and I consider it a good book too.
Anya
I used to use 3-star as “it was okay” but then decided I wanted to stretch out my positive side of the rating spectrum and now use 3-star like GR, “I liked it.” I even put a little flavor text underneath my star rating graphic that says “I liked it!” and I still get those comments saying I didn’t like it. That’s a bit odd to me when I can scroll up a tiny bit and see quite the opposite statement, haha, oh well. Since switching how I use 3-stars, I now interpret them differently as well and still will check out a 3-star rated book for sure. I think people generally just interpret ratings how they use them instead of how we mean them to be *sigh*
Berls @ Fantasy is More Fun
I completely agree with your rating system. Even a 2 star means the book was ok in my book. I personally didn’t like it, but it was good enough that I pushed through it hoping it would get better. First books in series can be three stars for me a lot of the time, because they are so busy establishing things that a lot of plot elements fall flat. But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep reading! Quite the opposite, I usually am in a hurry to pick up that next read. Great post!
Jessica
Wow! Our rating system is pretty similar!
To me, the rating system is not that important; what’s important is the review. Because in the review, I would be able to find out what worked and didn’t work for the reader. From there, I would have a good idea of whether I might like the book.
Tina
I agree with your ratings… 3 stars means I liked the book. I still feel bad only giving 3 stars if I liked the book, but it’s probably because I feel like people will think I didn’t like it. 3 stars to me means I had some issues with the book but I still enjoyed the book. 4 stars is I really liked the book and 5 is that I LOVED the book. Usually for 5 stars something really WOW needs to happen or I need to completely relate to the characters where I’m shocked. This was a great post idea as I was literally just thinking about making a key of what my rating system is on my blog, haha.
Annette
I’ve found the same thing. I’ve had people comment “so sorry you didn’t like this one” when that’s not true at all. I use a 3.5 a lot, I think because of this. There’s two ways to look at it: 3/5 is MORE THAN half, so it’s good, right? But, since I NEVER give 1/5, then is 3/5 really more like 2/4 (which is half…)
I don’t know. It’s only my opinion. I hope people READ my comments rather than just looking at the rating…
Interesting post. Thanks.
AH@badassbookreviews
I don’t see anything wrong with a 3 star review. The book is OK and most people will either love it or hate it, it’s smack in the middle. If I see that a book has only 4 and 5 star reviews, I tend to get suspicious and wonder if there was some tampering with the ratings. Reading a book is a subjective experience and most books will have ratings from 1-5. With regards to reviewing a book that got a 1 or 2 star from us – it kind of depends on the book – sometimes we review it on the blog, other times we don’t.
If I DNF a book, I don’t give it a star rating. I will write a short review explaining why the book didn’t interest me.
Pili
A 3 star rating is a good rating for me, not spectacular, not mind blowing, but still good and enjoyable.
Alexia @ Adventures in Reading
Excellent topic! Everyone has different interpretation on the three star topic. Mine is a bit unique as it means that I was pretty indifferent to it. I didn’t like it but I didn’t not like it either. Those are usually based on multiple factors including: character development, plot, editing etc Sometimes a plot can be a little jerky but the characters are interesting. So something that could have gotten a lower rating,gets a little higher because I put more value on interesting and well developed characters.
Molli
YES. Oh my goodness. This happens to me all the time. I’ll log in to a new comment saying “so sorry you didn’t like this one,” and I honestly wonder if they read my review. Usually a 3 star is “okay” for me, and had enough flaws that I couldn’t really get into it/the characters. But it’s not a BAD review. SMH. I think it’s because places like Amazon or GR are so strict with their ratings – 3 stars IS negative to them, so people learn to think that way. It’s why even though I star on Goodreads, I don’t on my blog.
Candace
This is a great discussion because I agree, I think people do misunderstand that. Even some authors don’t understand that it IS a positive review still. Yeah, there are some negatives, but like you said, quite often it’s personal preference. I tend to be a little afraid of labeling a book 3 stars because people automatically think I didn’t like it, and that’s not really true at all.
Ruthsic
In my reviews, 3-stars is a good enough book. Not recommended like ‘read-it-now’ but more like ‘see-if-you-might-like-it’, 4-stars mean ‘go for it!’ and 5-stars is ‘what are you waiting for?’
Eileen @ Singing and Reading in the Rain
I totally agree! My three-star reviews don’t mean that the book is BAD by any means, but it doesn’t mean that the book isn’t amazing, either. I feel like a lot of people think that a three-star rating is really bad, and for some people, three-star ratings are negative ratings. I feel like the three-star rating is the most taboo out of all the ratings and it really depends from blogger to blogger. I always don’t know whether to say “Sorry you didn’t love this one but glad you still liked it!” or “Sorry this one was a disappointment for you” so I really need to like specifically read the review to figure out where they land on the scale. I feel like authors and publishers definitely don’t like three-star reviews as much though, because it’s in the middle of the scale and it’s like a 60% on a test. I definitely am more prone to read a book if it has a four/five star rating, but three-star books are definitely not terrible. Fantastic post, thanks for sharing, Giselle! <33
Henrietta
I like your view, Giselle! I recently read a blog post by Maya Banks (http://mayabanks.com/blog/2013/12/reviews-and-such/) and she talked about how she appreciated 3-star reviews when she was in the mood to seek out info about books that she had a desire to read. Personally, I often ignored the ratings when I read reviews and I’ve bought and loved a fair amount of books that had ratings below a 4.
Kelly
The way you rate books is the same for me! A three star review means I liked it but it just didn’t have the “wow” factor for me but it might for someone else. Anything below that means I didn’t really like it and a 1-star means I didn’t finish. I’ve also bought books based off of 3-star reviews. I’m pretty sure I’ve bought one off of one of your 3-star reviews, I just can’t remember which one it was haha
Sophia Rose
When I’m in shopping mode, I actually gravitate toward the three-star rating b/c I feel this ones going to point out the components of the story to help me decide if it contains stuff I’ll like and/or tolerate or if its not for me. It also helps me with expectation unlike a bunch of five stars that get my hope up only to dash it later.
When I’m just in browse mode, I’m not as caught by a three star as other books particularly when its rated by someone I trust and respect.
Personally, I like it when a reviewer puts their rating at the bottom of their review so I’m not influenced by it so much until after the book has a chance to grab me with its blurb, its cover and the reviewer’s thoughts. This is because even if the three star indicates the book is okay; it still means its lacking something.
My own three star rating means there are things I like and things I found a problem. I try to detail it out so others can decide if the problems are or aren’t problems for them.
Fun discussion, thanks!
Amanda @ Book Badger
I don’t consider 3-star reviews good or bad, I just consider them books that somebody has liked. For me, if a friend has given a book 3 stars, I will consider the themes, genre and style and then decided whether I could enjoy it either the same or a little more, and if not, I’ll skip it. My 3 star rating is that the book was okay, and I enjoyed it, but it could have been better in places. I can understand the wariness of a 3 star rating, but I can also see it from a bloggers point of view 🙂 Great topic ladies!
Laura
My 3 Star rating means: This book was good, but not my favorite. I LIKED it, but it has some issues.
I actually prefer to read 3-star reviews against the ones who ALWAYS get a 5star rating, because with the 3 you know a lot of thought went into that. Options were weighed against each other and most of the time once you give a 3star, you really go into detail and that is what I love. If you read a 5star it will probably be something like: this was the best book evah blahblah.. So I dont really give much credit to that…If that even makes sense at all 🙂
Whitley
I used 3-star to mean neutral. A lot of people’s ranges go straight from “like” to “dislike,” with just varying degrees of each, but I have a lot of books where my only reaction was “eh, it was a book. It passed the time.” I didn’t like it. I didn’t not like it. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad, either. It was simply…three stars.
Melliane
it’s quite the same for me, I like it but it’s not extraordinary, so if I see 3-stars-books I confess it’s not something I’ll add to my wishlist
Jenea @ Books Live Forever
I don’t think 3 star reviews mean that someone doesn’t like them. I rate some 3 stars, and it is not because the book was bad, or would have gotten less of a rating. It means there was something that I did like and enjoy, but it didn’t blow me away. Some good and some maybe not so good stuff in it. 🙂
Kelly
I mostly follow the Goodreads star system (1 – did not like it, 2 – it was ok, 3 – I liked it, 4 – I really liked it, 5 – it was amazing) which means that some of my 2 star reviews aren’t necessarily “bad” reviews. It means exactly what Goodreads suggests – it was ok, nothing to write home about.
I have no idea where this notion that 3 stars is a bad rating came from – to me, it always meant that it was enjoyable, but not overly so.
Sassy @ My Never Ending Pile
For me 3 stars also means good, or more likely “just ok”. Like you, it can mean I was disappointed with the story, but 3 stars doesn’t mean it was a sucky read.
Alexa S.
My interpretation of the 3 star rating is pretty much exactly the same as yours. I liked the book, but there was something that prevented it from being a “great”/”excellent” book to me on a personal level. I wish more people were willing to check out 3 star reads, since sometimes what didn’t work for me might work for someone else!
D. @ The Nerdy Journalist
I get comments like that, too. Most books I read end up getting 3 stars. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it; it means that I enjoyed the book, but it’s not particularly memorable. After a few months, I will probably have difficulty remembering the details of the book. Let’s face it, when you read over 100 books a year, you don’t clearly remember EVERY book. You remember the 4/5 star books and the ones that you really hated.
Actually, now that I think about it, even 2 star books aren’t neccessarily BAD, they’re… meh.
JennRenee
My 3 star rating means it was good, I enjoyed it, but it didn’t have the wow factor. I think 3 stars are good but I have seen what you are talking about. Many readers think 3 stars means it wasn’t a good book. I admit, my most common rating is a 4 star, I can see why others may see my 3 stars as I didn’t like. But its so not true. It was just missing one or two elements that would make it a wow for me. Great topic.
Lauren
I agree with your 3 star sentiments exactly – three is definitely a like for me just not a LOVE. And that means often I’m just not the right audience, but I can respect what the author did, and would recommend it to the right audience. I’m not sure if it’s because GR reviews are so inflexible that often 2.5 reviews get rounded up, and then the content of the review seems more negative than positive, but it seems to be an overall perception that 3 is not positive which couldn’t be more wrong. Great discussion post!
Alysia @My Little Pocketbooks
For me a 3 star review/rating is Just ok! Not love not like. Just ok! More like a 50/50. Goodreads makes me look like I liked the book a bit more than I actually did. LOL! I was thinking about doing a post about this too but I could put it into words. Excellent post.
Chrystal @ Snowdrop Dreams of Books
I pretty much agree wit your rating system, though I don’t use one on my blog for my reviews. I only use them on sites like Goodreads etc because you kind of have to.
Tarah Schaeffer
First of all thank you for posting on this topic! I used to go by numbers in terms of my reviews, but I don’t anymore for this very reason. I want to be honest about how I feel about a book, but I would feel so bad if someone did not like the rating I gave! Now I just in my last paragraph explain the pros and cons about a book.
Angie F.
Aahh, I absolutely hate getting the “I’m sorry you didn’t like it” comments on my 3-star reviews! 3 star books are firmly in the “I liked it but…” category. Like you said, it’s usually just some personal preference of mine.
Just this morning I wrote a 3 star review for a book. I liked it, but I wasn’t impressed with the world building. There was nothing wrong with it, per se, but it wasn’t what I expected or wanted out of it. I still thought the book was fun and action packed, but I couldn’t rate it higher because world building is important to me.
As was mentioned above, there’s some conflict between what 3 stars means on different sites. I actually hate that Amazon says 3 is okay and 2 is didn’t like. Oddly, sometimes I do like books I rated 2 stars, but there was just something so wrong with it that I can’t rate higher. But I don’t really mind if someone thinks I didn’t like a 2 star books, since for the most part I didn’t. But with 3 stars, I feel bad, since I did like it! But….
P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
I have the same rating system as you. I wasn’t always like this though. I used to have everything adjusted up 1 star, with 1 star being a book I absolutely loathed. Eventually, I realized I’ve never loathed any book and I was giving too many books that didn’t deserve five stars, five stars and I’m happy with this system, even if it is a little harsher.
In general though, I think stars are arbitrary and it’s really the review that matters.
Mara A. @ The Reading Hedgehog
Yeah, I don’t know why so many people consider a 3-star rating as a negative thing. Whenever I give something 3 stars, I mean it as a compliment, because it means that I did enjoy the book. It wasn’t spectacular or just out-of-this-world amazing, but I found it to be a pleasant read that I will more than likely buy and would definitely recommend to my friends. Which is why I always read a review rather than depend on the rating, and I always tell people to read my reviews and not just go off the rating, because it’s not enough. Like you, I have a low 3-stars and a high 3-stars (I don’t do half stars either).
A Canadian Girl
To me, a three star rating means that the book was decent. I might have enjoyed it in the moment, but will probably never think about it again. Since I use half stars, I sometimes end up having to debate whether a book should be 3 or 3.5 stars.
ShootingStarsMag
Interesting topic! I do think 3 stars means different things to different people. It also doesn’t help that people that give books stars often have varying criteria for each level. I don’t really see 3 stars as bad, and I try and read most of someone’s review anyway, so their star rating doesn’t matter so much in the end. I’ve read a slightly negative review of a book before and thought “that would be a good book for me” because what the reviewer didn’t like, I enjoy in a book, like you and the gore. 🙂
Kaley @ Books Etc
I absolutely agree with you! A lot of my reviews are three stars only because they don’t stand out too much for me. They’re good and I won’t discourage anyone from reading them but I won’t go shouting about them from the rooftops, you know? I’m also incredibly stingy with my five stars. Glad to know I’m not the only one who thinks three stars are ok!
Elizabeth M.
I’ve grown up in school and taught that getting As are wondeful Bs are okay and just don’t get Cs or Ds or Fs. So for me years of telling me and thinking that I can only get As is hard to break and for stars that’s also how I see it. So a three star review kinda looks to me the equivalent of a C – okay and decent but I see that as a negative thing (sorry years of school are hard to break like I’ve said, I still have a hard time when I get a B, please don’t hate) and so I know a lot of people think 3 stars are okay but it’s hard for me to see that even though I’ll read the reviews. Also I’m ones of those people who love everything, it’s really hard for to hate anything and this really applies to books. I have a really hard time finding a book bad. When I review I normally have 4-5 stars cause a 4 star to me means that I liked it and it was a really good book but was missing something but still really good and recommend…so yeah that’s my take…
Lizzy
Short comment since I’m typing on my phone.
Most of my 3 star reviews mean not for me. I’ve highly recommended 3star books to others.
My rating system is subjective. Unless I specifically say that the book is unreadable, due to grammar or serious plot issues, I’m sure that there is a notchaudience out there that will like the book. I review to help people find the books they will like and keep them from the books they wwon’t like. And yes, one of your 3 star reviews actually made me check out a book because Icould tell that it wwasn’t for you but it was for me.
Savannah
Giselle, I can’t even tell you how much trouble I got in a while back for a three star review. I’m, not sure if you saw it go down on twitter or whatnot but here is the link: http://bookswithbite.net/review-darkness/
The comments are horrible and just wow. I could not believe that, that was happening to me. And all over a review that wasn’t even bashing. Anywhoo, I left it all there for others to see. But yeah, a three star rating got me called names, bashed me on facebook, etc. SMH
Michelle
Completely agree. My 3 stars means “I liked it.” Basically, it was enjoyable, but it wasn’t particularly noteworthy beyond that enjoyment. It’s not a bad review. In fact I don’t really have any ‘bad reviews’…there’s different scales of like and only one rating where I don’t like it, but it’s not a bad review. I think sometimes people can be a little over-sensitive and not understand the true scale of rating and reviews.
Aaron
I think a 3 star review can often turn people off a book because it’s not an extremely positive review. For me though I think a 3 star review means the book is good, but that’s all it’s going to be. There’s nothing spectacular about it and yet there’s nothing overly bad about it.
Mel@thedailyprophecy
I’ve noticed the same on my 3-flower reviews.. and I clearly state under my rating that it was a good book, but there were a couple of things that bothered me. 3 means it was an okay book. Good, but nothing special.
Charlotte @ Thoughts and Pens
I know I am bad, Giselle. But I always look at book rating as if they’re a student’s grades. I don’t know what’s the grading system in your schools but majority of our schools follows the number system. And a number 3 grade always means that a student just barely passed the subject. For me, that isn’t good enough. *facepalm*
I always try to be open minded but when a book is given a 3 stars, I always have this idea that the author didn’t study well and got sloppy with his/her homework. And then, I would start asking myself, why should I give a 3 starred book my time when the author didn’t even try hard to give it her all? God, I really feel awful about my views.
At the moment, I define 3 stars as Average. I enjoyed you but you could have done better. Your flaws equate to your redeemable qualities. But please don’t expect that I’m gonna read you again.
Lovely post, Giselle! <333
Pavan
I love this post because this is how I view star ratings!! I like some books but don’t LOVE them so I give them 3 stars but I still want people to check them out because they are good books! But it also depends on the reviewer because their version of 3 stars could mean something completely different.
Jeann @ Happy Indulgence
I’ve seen this discussion in games as well where if it was rated a 7.0 or below, people would think it was horrible. I guess the standards for good books these days is a lot higher, so when people see a 3 they probably won’t waste their time.
Aman
3 stars are definitely not a bad rating, for me it says that I couldn’t care less about the book. It was good but I either didn’t feel it, didn’t connect with the character or wasn’t happy with the direction of the story, which is totally fine if it’s a first in a series because then we have some room for improvement, but it’s a standalone and I see someone give it a 3 star rating, I would be less likely to pick up that said book. It really depends on the review.
Sara (of The Page Sage)
To me, 3 star ratings equal (like you said) good but not great, or sometimes it just means the book was meh. I definitely wouldn’t say it’s a bad rating!
Amy @ Book Loving Mom
I love this post. I completely agree with you about misunderstanding the rating. I find that the majority of books I read end up being 3 stars. Obviously if I didn’t like that many books, I probably wouldn’t read so much. I think that 3 is a good rating. It’s just a middle of the road type of thing. I liked it, but didn’t love it. Like you said, there’s just something missing that would make it great and lovable. Fabulous post muffin!!
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
I am the same way as you, 3 stars doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the book, but it rather means there was something that made me not totally fall in love with it. And actually, 3 star reviews (and even lower ratings – unless the overall average is very low) won’t make me NOT pick up a book. If the thing that made the blogger give a certain book 3 stars is not something that bothers me, I would realize that it could easily be a 4 or 5 star read for me, and thus I’d definitely pick it up.
I also think that sometimes, 3 star reviews are the most balanced reviews, because they are in the middle of the spectrum, so there are several things that were both enjoyable and maybe a little annoying in the story, and most bloggers I follow are very good at pointing out both – and that also really helps me when I want to find ever more books to read.
Great topic, Giselle 🙂
Melanie
3 star reviews are a little tricky to explain because I like some 3 star books more than others. Generally, for me it’s that I liked it enough to finish but it was just an okay read. A lot of books that fall to 3 stars have more to do with personal preference or it dragged more than I would’ve liked.
Mulluane
I agree that 3 stars mean middle-of-the-road okay but nothing special. The problem, from atleast an author’s perspective, might be the balance of 3, 4, and 5 star ratings.
Lets say I wrote a book. I just read three 4 star ratings, four 5 star ratings,and I’m on top of the moon. Then I see yours for 3 stars. Balanced against the other nine reviews I might immediately jump to the conclusion that you didn’t like it. I might even concede the point that you liked it but…. but…. its my baby! I want you to love it!
Either way a three star is going to disappoint me.
As far as me as a reader/reviewer goes, I’m going to go over a 3 star review much more carefully than 4 or 5. Especially if I gave it a higher rating. I’d be very curious to see why you gave it a 3. Was it a matter of taste, a personal pet peeve or did I miss something I should have noticed.
IMO, 3s can be priceless!
Wendy Darling
My rating scale is pretty much the GoodReads one, similar to yours: 3 stars does mean I liked it, but it didn’t blow me away.
I think part of the issue with 3 stars is that yeah, authors definitely want to see 4 or 5 star ratings. And within the blogging community, I think we all read SO much that sometimes if we see a lot of 3 star ratings from people we trust, we may not want to waste our time with something that’s just so-so. I know I’ve been guilty of occasionally seeing a friend’s 3 star review and saying, “Oh no, how come?” but it’s with the understanding of what it means. So authors looking for ego strokes get upset over it–but you know, they shouldn’t be reading reviews anyway if they’re obsessing over them.
This conversation has so much relevance after all the crap that went down on Twitter yesterday. So dumb.
Leslie
Three star reviews to me mean that a book was okay, but I probably would never think to recommend it to people because it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression. I don’t look back on the time spent reading the book as a waste, but there wasn’t anything for me to feel passionately about either positive or negative. It was just in the middle.