What’s the Purpose of a Book Review?

The book review star rating system is meaningless. The sole purpose of a book review is to inform the potential buyer about the contents of books. A good review allows that buyer to know if the book being reviewed is one they’re looking for. The object of a review is neither to support nor attack the author. One that does is not worth reading.

In my last post, I wrote about a kerfuffle over an author’s response to a book review—one that caused a pile-on of GoodReads reviewers giving one-star reviews to a book they hadn’t read. These indignant folks did so as a way to support the bruised reviewer. The story is complicated by the facts that:

• the reviewer had been very positive about the book. 
• the (Twitter famous and bestselling) author was punching down–always a bad idea. 
• the author’s upbringing and childhood trauma might have affected her response.

Forget the Stars

Think about it: Amateur–and sometimes professional–book reviewers don’t follow any particular standards. We all have different criteria for the stars given. Those stars are essentially meaningless.

I wish all review sites would eliminate the option of giving stars to books, so reviewers would stick to writing about what works, what doesn’t work, and why. 

I often see reviewers give three stars to books they truly enjoyed because those books are not literary masterpieces. They feel it’s not fair to treat a who-done-it like a literary classic, and so three stars is a great review. But the thing is, most books are not attempting to be literary masterpieces. And a book with a review average of three stars will be passed over by readers. I have often reviewed books that would never have been reviewed by professionals in trade journals–books that have no literary significance, will never be bestsellers, and whose authors are virtually unknown. I do this because I think there are readers who need reviews of all sorts of books. Reviewers who give crappy three-star reviews, and then follow the three stars with all the reasons they enjoyed the book, are helping neither readers nor authors.

Think of a Book’s Purpose

A good example of a type of book that isn’t professionally reviewed is the ‘hi-lo’ for teens who have below-grade-level reading skills. Many books written at low lexile levels have subject matter meant to appeal to teens. Lots of teachers and librarians want to know which of these titles their students will enjoy. I’ve reviewed this sort of book in the past. (Here are three reviews in one post. Here’s one with a female main character.)

Other books I enjoy reviewing often have a niche audience and a Southern California focus.

Straight-up Unfair Book Reviews

Another problem I’ve seen is reviewers reducing the number of stars for a review of a good book when it’s not the book the reviewer wanted to read. (Well, okay, I’ve seen professional reviewers do this as well.) For me, that’s a ‘get over it’ situation. Worse, I’ve seen one-star reviews because books arrived in the mail with the cover bent. To think that an author may have toiled over a piece for years only to have its rating dropped over something that has nothing to do with the quality of the writing–and something they have no control over–is deeply unfair. 

Most terrible of all are the trolls who haven’t read the book but have a grudge against the author. This is the case mentioned in the first paragraph. I’ve also seen it happen to feminist books. A good example is Julie DiCaro’s Sidelined: Sports Culture and Women, which I reviewed here.

I’m Easy

I tend to write a lot of five-star reviews, including for books that are far from literary masterpieces. Because I think reviews should answer this question: did the book meet its goals? So, if we look back at the hi-low teen books: does this easy read appeal to teens who are struggling with a second language? Do they come back to the library to get a second book from the series? Goal met. Five stars.

Apply this rating system to all books. A who-done-it with enough red herrings and a real culprit who is active enough in the book that the reader might be able to guess who they are? Five stars. Inspirational books that do inspire? Five stars. How-to books that helped you make a significant change? Yup.

So, honestly, it’s the star rating system that’s the problem. The system makes it seem like every book receiving five stars is a treasure to be passed down to the grandkids. I don’t eternally treasure most of the books I give five stars. After I read them, I promptly give them away to my book club, or donate them to the Prison Library Project or my local library for their used-book sale. Goal achieved. Onward and upward.

You May Say I’m a Dreamer

If we just skipped the stars and wrote a few paragraphs about what we feel the book’s goals are and whether they’re achieved, we would be giving truly useful information to the reader of the review. All authors deserve better than snap judgments.