The Book Wench

Read. Rave. Review.

A Change in Reviews

✴︎

3.19.2017

Hello friends and fellow bookworms! I hope everyone is doing well.

I have a small announcement to make in terms of how reviews will be presented from now on on the blog.

I have always had a hard time assigning ratings and stars to books I read, whether out of five stars or ten. While it’s not usually difficult for me to justify to myself the rating I give, I feel like it’s not fair to the author or potential readers if they choose not to read a book I give particular ratings to. Just because I didn’t enjoy a book or didn’t enjoy it to the degree I expected doesn’t mean that it’s not a good book and someone else won’t love it. I’m not the end-all, be-all in reviews and ratings, trust me. When I set out to create a review blog, my ultimate goal was to have something nice and positive to say about each and every book I read, even if it’s not a book that I end up enjoying completely. I want to encourage, not discourage, readers to read more. To that end, I will not be rating books in my reviews any longer. I will let my reviews and explanations speak for themselves on my thoughts on the book.

I hope this doesn’t cause any issue with any of my readers.

Let me know your thoughts below!

xTheBookWench

17 responses to “A Change in Reviews”

Bookmark Chronicles

commented on

March 19, 2017

Sorry to hear you won’t give ratings anymore. I totally understand why although I personally feel that individual ratings are important. It doesn’t have to be fair it’s supposed to be honest. I do give ratings but I usually try to find a way to relate it to other people. Like the most recent series that I read had a lot of poetry which I found annoying but in my review I mentioned that if you like poetry it would be great for others you know?
Since you won’t be including ratings will you tell whether or not it’s a book that you would recommend?

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1. The Book Wench
  
  commented on
  
  March 19, 2017
  
  Don’t be sorry! For me, it feels liberating.
  It always felt weird to talk about how much I enjoyed a book and then give it less than a full star count, even when it was warranted (and explained in my review).
  
  And trust me, I will be fair and honest. If I donut like something, I will say so without hesitation. I just don’t believe in berating a book or it’s author. I will try to elevate it’s merits along with my true and honest feelings -does that make sense?
  
  I will! I’ll also mention who I recommend it for and why!
  
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  1. Bookmark Chronicles
    
    commented on
    
    March 19, 2017
    
    I see what you mean! If you makes it easier for you then I am glad you’re doing it. It is hard to give a review when it doesn’t live up to your own expectations but there’s always going to be someone who loves it.Glad to hear that you’ll still do recommendations, I look forward to your next review!
    
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Beth

commented on

March 19, 2017

Fair enough! Though personally I’ve enjoyed every book you’ve recommended to me over the years, which I attribute to having similar and agreeable personalities, for which I say thank you!

Love the site, keep being who you are love!

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★ Bentley ★

commented on

March 19, 2017

I think that’s a really fair decision, and definitely a personal one. I rate just because I think it helps me quantify where I think a book falls on a spectrum, but I definitely agree with you in that I want my reviews to encourage more reading, never to deter. I think that’s really admirable. 🙂

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1. The Book Wench
  
  commented on
  
  March 19, 2017
  
  Thank you so much!
  
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Gem

commented on

March 19, 2017

As I have read from an article online before (I forgot where haha), reviewing books give us the chance to encourage genius and stop mediocrity at the doorway. It’s nice that you’ve reconciled to see things in the positive light! 😊

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thebookcorps

commented on

March 19, 2017

Interesting! Personally, I love star ratings and always judge a book based on the average rating on Goodreads (the opposite of what you are trying to promote). Despite this, I always say the things I liked in a book that I am giving a low rating and then go on to give my feelings as to why I didn’t like it.
I like to think my reviews are professional and, like you, I hope that people don’t always take my word for it. I see that on Goodreads a lot. Many people completely blacklist a book based on a few reviews. With reviews like that, you usually see a lot of swearing and CAPITAL LETTERS which I quietly get angry over. It’s really not fair to that author and, as somehow who hopes to become an author one day, I feel for them. I feel like, to judge a book properly, you need to give it a chance yourself. But then again, it’s everyone’s prerogative to read what they want. It’s a catch 22, I guess!!

Great post! I look forward to seeing you implement your new system 😀

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chataboutbooks

commented on

March 20, 2017

I don’t use a star rating in my blog reviews either. x

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1. The Book Wench
  
  commented on
  
  March 20, 2017
  
  Glad to see I’m not alone! How have you found your system to work? Did you ever use star ratings at one point?
  
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  1. chataboutbooks
    
    commented on
    
    March 22, 2017
    
    No-one has ever commented one way or the other. I did use star ratings when I first started blogging. I’m not actually sure when I stopped!
    
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Diana

commented on

March 20, 2017

I stopped using star ratings in my reviews early last year. I used to struggle with them and so I decided to just write well-balanced reviews without ratings. I hope this change works out for you too.

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1. The Book Wench
  
  commented on
  
  March 20, 2017
  
  That’s my plan as well! I’m glad to see it worked out for you!
  
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Ravenclaw Book Club

commented on

March 20, 2017

I personally like seeing star ratings, but I completely understand why you chose not to include them anymore. 😊

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LizScanlon

commented on

March 21, 2017

I use star ratings, mostly to help me set the tone for the review and decide exactly where the book ‘falls’ for me… however I don’t usually take notice of the star ratings myself when looking at a potential book to read. Thus, I can understand why you want to drop using the stars. Stars really are not the be-all, end-all and we all approach our next potential reads in unique ways (as I can also gather from above comments where some feel star ratings are important and others don’t).

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Adoptabookaus

commented on

March 26, 2017

Star ratings arn’t something i really look for in reviews anyhow there have been plenty of 1 star review that have gone in detail about a character and I’ve though hmm I’d probably like them and heaps of 5 star reviews that have gushed and I’ve realised I would probably dislike the book. Great post and I actually like that you won’t be focusing to heavy on star ratings anymore 😀

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yaykisspurr

commented on

April 19, 2017

Really brave of you! I like it! I started off rating less too as I was a really tough star giver…then when I reviewed for netgalley it was mandatory so I started adding star ratings (when I remember) to those posts… I’m still unsure whether I want ratings or not but some book bloggers swear by them. Good luck!

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