{"id":64,"date":"2024-04-09T14:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/?page_id=64"},"modified":"2024-04-09T14:00:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T14:00:32","slug":"what-stars-mean","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/what-stars-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What Stars Mean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217; responses to their novels.<\/p>\n<p>Five stars mean<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A truly life-changing read that the reader can\u2019t stop thinking about, even long after they\u2019ve finished it<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A book that is either a nearly perfect example of the genre or that successfully and compellingly pushes its genre(s) into new territory<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A persuasive setting populated by fully realized, psychologically plausible and identifiable characters within an immaculately confected plot<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A book written in exquisite prose that is also exceptionally successful in its novelistic elements (plot, setting, character)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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 &#8211; see <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My Darkest Prayer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> ch. 10, Nate Waymaker on \u201cthe first hit\u201d &#8211; but I won\u2019t put that live on the blog]<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A book that rewires your brain, changes who you are as a person, and\/or has become a defining element in your life<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Four stars mean<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An excellent book in nearly every way, but not a life-changing one<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An enjoyable book, but not one that sticks with you after you\u2019ve read the last page<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A book whose exquisite prose helps make up for deficiencies in novelistic elements (setting, plot, character)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A book that you personally adored but you recognize may not be widely appreciated in the same way<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A compelling book that makes you want to read more by the author\/in the series<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Three stars mean<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An enjoyable, fun \u201cbeach read\u201d or \u201cplane read\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A compelling storyline and\/or character(s) that pulls you through the experience of reading but that you feel no need to revisit later \u2013 that is, a book that you enjoy in the moment, and then immediately forget after a week has passed<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A solid performance in at least two of the setting\/plot\/character development triad, but may fail in one area<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The prose probably doesn\u2019t move your soul, but neither is it distractingly bad\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reader feels no strong compulsion to pick up another one of the author\u2019s novels, but neither would they avoid that author in the future<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two stars mean<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The novel has serious limitations at least two aspects of the plot\/setting\/character development triad<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The prose is often overwrought and\/or distracting; the dialogue is often stilted and\/or implausible<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel that is boring, to include major pacing problems or being extremely derivative<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel that you personally disliked, but you recognize that others may appreciate<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel that you recognize has potential in concept, even if it failed in much of its execution<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel you would not recommend to others <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One star means<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel riddled with plot holes, populated with implausible characters, and set in an unbelievable world<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Poorly written on the level of dialogue and wordsmithing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel that needed substantive editorial intervention before it was published<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel you really wished you\u2019d DNF\u2019d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A novel that aimed to be offensive or provocative for no apparent purpose other than to be offensive or provocative<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217; responses to their novels. Five stars mean A truly life-changing read that the reader can\u2019t stop thinking about, even long after they\u2019ve finished it A book that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/what-stars-mean\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What Stars Mean<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1791,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-64","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/ugareadscrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}