The Spring 2024 class developed a rubric for our star rating system that will hold across all ratings on this site, as a way to norm different readers’ responses to their novels.
Five stars mean
- A truly life-changing read that the reader can’t stop thinking about, even long after they’ve finished it
- A book that is either a nearly perfect example of the genre or that successfully and compellingly pushes its genre(s) into new territory
- A persuasive setting populated by fully realized, psychologically plausible and identifiable characters within an immaculately confected plot
- A book written in exquisite prose that is also exceptionally successful in its novelistic elements (plot, setting, character)
- Not just a not-put-down-able book, but a book that you wish you could have the experience of the first read all over again [i.e., book crack – see My Darkest Prayer ch. 10, Nate Waymaker on “the first hit” – but I won’t put that live on the blog]
- A book that rewires your brain, changes who you are as a person, and/or has become a defining element in your life
Four stars mean
- An excellent book in nearly every way, but not a life-changing one
- An enjoyable book, but not one that sticks with you after you’ve read the last page
- A book that is highly successful in its setting creation, character development, and plotting, but that perhaps stumbles in one or two areas on occasion
- A book whose exquisite prose helps make up for deficiencies in novelistic elements (setting, plot, character)
- A book that you personally adored but you recognize may not be widely appreciated in the same way
- A compelling book that makes you want to read more by the author/in the series
Three stars mean
- An enjoyable, fun “beach read” or “plane read”
- A compelling storyline and/or character(s) that pulls you through the experience of reading but that you feel no need to revisit later – that is, a book that you enjoy in the moment, and then immediately forget after a week has passed
- A solid performance in at least two of the setting/plot/character development triad, but may fail in one area
- The prose probably doesn’t move your soul, but neither is it distractingly bad
- The reader feels no strong compulsion to pick up another one of the author’s novels, but neither would they avoid that author in the future
Two stars mean
- The novel has serious limitations at least two aspects of the plot/setting/character development triad
- The prose is often overwrought and/or distracting; the dialogue is often stilted and/or implausible
- A novel that is boring, to include major pacing problems or being extremely derivative
- A novel that you personally disliked, but you recognize that others may appreciate
- A novel that you recognize has potential in concept, even if it failed in much of its execution
- A novel you would not recommend to others
One star means
- A novel riddled with plot holes, populated with implausible characters, and set in an unbelievable world
- Poorly written on the level of dialogue and wordsmithing
- A novel that needed substantive editorial intervention before it was published
- A novel you really wished you’d DNF’d
- A novel that aimed to be offensive or provocative for no apparent purpose other than to be offensive or provocative