How I Rate Books

So, I've gotten a few comments and messages asking me why I rate books the way that I do. To be fair, it's a fair question. Some people see a rating of 3.7 at the end of a review, as opposed to 3.5 or 4.0 and wonder what exactly that means. Maybe my rating system only makes sense to me, but I thought I might as well talk about it.

Why I Rate Books This Way

I'm not going to lie. I rate books this way for mostly selfish reasons. Let's say there are 10 books I've given five stars to on Goodreads. If I only go by whole stars, or halves-of-stars, how will I know which one is my favorite? If it's been months since I've read some of those books, there's a chance that I might have forgotten how much I liked it. So, I rate books in smaller increments so that I can go back and know exactly which book was my favorite in a given month or year. Because, by definition, in a group of books, there has to be one that was my favorite and one that was my least favorite.

As I said, the ratings are mostly for my own sanity, but the system also helps me for Goodreads if I feel so-so about a book and can't decide if I should give it, say, 2.5 stars or 3. It helps me split the difference. 

How Ratings Are Determined

My system might be more complicated than it needs to be, but I'm a big believer in doing whatever works for you. This system works for me and I like it better than other methods I've tried so I've stuck with it. I have a rubric for every genre I read, because a thriller is obviously going to have different plot elements/tropes than say a fantasy novel or science fiction. There are also elements every book has, such as pacing, writing style and characterization. Every book starts out at 5 Stars and I deduct points from there for any serious criticisms I have and based on my overall enjoyment. As long as I finish the book, it gets at least 1 Star. Books I don't finish don't get reviews or scores.

I know that might sound negative, in that I'm not giving points for what I like but taking points away for what I dislike, but that's the method that's easiest for me. I tried doing the reverse, but it just didn't work very well for me. For some reason, it's a little easier for me to explain why I took points away than why I added them. Maybe my brain just works in a weird way

Anyway, that's the basics of how I rate books. I know I'm probably putting in more effort than is strictly necessary, but I actually like doing it this way. I'm weird and like talking about metrics and statistics. I blame the fact that I majored in math.

How do you rate books? What makes a book earn a certain star rating for you?

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Warrior of the Wild

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Warrior of the Wild is a 2019 young adult fantasy novel by Tricia Levenseller. It was published by Square Fish. The book was immediately met with praise upon its release. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org

The novel is set in the Viking era and follows Rasmira, the daughter of her village's chieftain. Trained as a warrior her whole life, Rasmira is exiled from her village after her coming-of-age trial is sabotaged. In order to win back her honor and return home, she's tasked with killing the oppressive god who claims tribute from her village or die trying.

My favorite thing about this novel were the characters. The three main characters are Rasmira, Iric and Soren, who are exiled teens from another village. As the main character and the point-of-view character, I enjoyed Rasmira the most. An eighteen-year-old who has been trained as a warrior her whole life, she could've easily been written to be a token "strong female character" with no real personality or depth, but Levenseller avoided that pitfall. Rasmira is a fierce warrior, but there is a sensitive side to her. When she's betrayed during her coming-of-age trial, she doesn't only feel angry, she also feels hurt. Several times in the narrative, she references the fact that yes, she's a fighter, but that doesn't mean she's not allowed to be a normal teenage girl. She makes mistakes, but doesn't let those mistakes keep her from moving forward. The duality between her being a warrior, and also a teenager gives her character a great deal of nuance and made me invested in her story. Soren and Iric are friends and quasi-brothers from another village who have been banished for failing their own coming-of-age trials and given equally difficult tasks to complete in order to return home. They're both incredibly witty, which brings some levity to the story and have a fierce loyalty to one another, and later Rasmira. I love the dynamic of found families, which is what develops between these three young adults. They look out for one another and, thanks to Rasmira's determination to complete her task, gives each of them hope that they can complete their own. There is not much I can say about other characters without spoiling things. The majority of the plot follows Rasmira, Iric and Soren. The main villain is the god Peruxolo who isn't a terribly compelling character given that he's not given much backstory or examination. He's an evil, oppressive deity and Rasmira's quest to defeat him matters more than anything specific about him.

I enjoyed the tasks each character was given and the quest that results in each character trying to fulfill their tasks. Rasmira has to kill a god. Iric is tasked with killing a a sea monster and Soren must climb a mountain and steal the feather of a mythical bird. Since the tasks themselves are so simple, the author has room to write plenty of dynamic and surprising action scenes. It also allows a good deal of world-building and describing the creatures and atmosphere of the story. The wild is immersive and the world is fascinating. I love historical fantasy quests, and this novel gave me three quests in one. The pacing of this book was pretty good. It was a little slow in parts, but overall it kept a consistent and exciting pace. While I enjoyed the conclusion, I liked how the conclusion came about slightly more, which I know is confusing. I liked the final confrontation, but the scenes of Rasmira learning what she needed to and putting all of the pieces together in order to face Peruxolo were much more interesting to me. The explanation of everything was surprising in the best way possible.

While I enjoyed Warrior of the Wild overall, I do have a few criticisms. I felt like the romantic subplot in this book was a little boring and predictable. It wasn't terrible and I'm glad there wasn't some kind of love triangle happening, but I wasn't very invested in it. It just felt a bit unneeded in my opinion. I also felt like the way Rasmira's coming-of-age trial was sabotaged was very predictable and not the plot-twist it was meant to feel like. She's shown to be a very intelligent person who can read people pretty well, but she didn't even have slightest inkling that someone who she's only really known for a short time might be hiding something. If she'd been betrayed by someone she'd been friends with for years, the shock would've been more surprising. There were also some random plot contrivances that I rolled my eyes at, such as Iric just happening to be a master blacksmith when they need weapons and armor, which were clearly meant to move the plot along, but made things feel a bit too easy.

Warrior of the Wild is a great book. It's the first book by Tricia Levenseller that I've read, but it makes me want to read more of her work. I found myself really liking her writing style and the way the story unfolded. I'd recommend it to fans of young adult fantasy, especially anyone who enjoys Viking or Viking-inspired stories.

Rating: 4.2 Stars

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May Wrap-Up

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It's the end of the month, which means it's wrap-up time. May wasn't a bad month, although it wasn't a record-breaking month. I did join a new book club, re-read an old favorite and was introduced to new authors. Now, let's get into the books.

Books I Read and Reviewed

The Summoned Ones by Darryl A. Woods- 3.9 Stars

The First Girl Child by Amy Harmon- 2.7 Stars

White Elephant by V. E. Ulett- 3.4 Stars

Galactic Mandate: The Sccream by M. R. Richardson- 1.9 Stars

Books I Read, Only Reviewed on Goodreads

The Hobbit* by J. R. R. Tolkien- 5 Stars

Happy &You Know It *by Laura Hankin- 3 stars (Goodreads review)

The One & Only Dylan St. Claire* by Kamen Edwards- 5 Stars (Goodreads review)

Ella Has A Plan by Davina Hamilton- 5 stars (Goodreads review)

The Hollow Gods by A. J. Vrana- 3 Stars (Goodreads review)

Batman: Court of Owls* by Scott Snydrer- 4 Stars

Genres Read

Children's Books: 2

Fantasy: 4

Science Fiction: 1

Thriller: 2

Comic Books/Graphic Novels: 1

Figures

Number of DNFs: 1

Total Books Read: 10

Pages Read: 2,415

Average Rating: 3.6 Stars

What did you read in May? Any recommendations?

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Galactic Mandate: The Scream

Galactic Mandate: The Scream is a 2019 science fiction novel by M. R. Richardson. It was released in early 2019 and published by Room 10 Publishing. I received an advanced copy of the book in order to write this review.

The novel follows a clone named Mato. After being taken from the planet he calls home, he’s taken on a journey across the galaxy. During the course of his journey, he’s forced to decide between what’s best of his oppressed clone brethren and the greater good. When his journey leads him to encountering the sinister Scream, Mato and his allies must figure out what they want and what lengths they will go to to get it.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that the author clearly has a very expansive universe. This story doesn’t take place on just one planet, or even two. Mato seems to go from one end of the galaxy to the other over this rather short novel. There are a lot of big ideas that the author wanted to put on display. There are strong plot elements and a unique story to be found. Richardson’s ideas are very creative and even if plot elements are sci-fi staples, such as clones, he’s found a new way to tell a story about them. The action scenes were interesting and fast-paced and there were a few moments where the outcomes of battle scenes truly surprised me. The story had a lot of potential and a lot of great ideas it was working with.

The biggest problem with the novel, however, is its length. The e-book is under 175 pages, and there aren’t enough pages to fully do the story justice. Events seemed to rush by far too quickly. Mato goes from his home planet, to being in a sticky situation on a space station and there isn’t enough time for the author to elaborate on the context of certain scenes or the motivation of characters. Jay, one of the people traveling with Mato, has a history with a number of people they encounter over the length of the journey, but there’s barely information given explaining his history with them. Events don’t feel like they have any kind of weight because the reader isn’t given a chance to absorb them before the scene changes. I feel like I would’ve enjoyed this novel far more if it was a longer, giving the author time to do some important world-building and let the story breathe a little more. As it currently is now, I don’t know how I felt about the characters, because I barely got to know them. I can’t really say that I enjoyed the plot because it felt incredibly rushed. There were scenes that were important to the overall story that I didn’t realize were significant until the very end because they were treated the same as scenes meant to move the characters from A to B.

I finished the book with a lot of questions still unanswered. Questions that I thought I’d get at least a partial answer to, within the story. I wanted to know at least a little more about the clones and how they were created. I wanted a little more context regarding the past conflicts between the clones and the Acolytes. Names were being thrown around in the story, such as God-Wrath and Dark Reign, without an explanation of who or what they are and the reader is supposed to fill in the blanks with very little information. The author probably wanted the reader to have questions after the novel ended, but in my opinion, I had too many questions when I was done.  The story felt a bit incomplete as a result.

Galactic Mandate: The Scream was underwhelming to me. There was a lot of potential in the story and the author’s ideas, but there weren’t enough pages to do it justice. Scenes felt rushed, some felt like they were thrown in. Important moments weren’t given enough attention. I do feel like, if given a longer page count to work with, the author could’ve written an amazing novel. I hope M. R. Richardson’s next novel is given the length it deserves.

Rating: 1.9 Stars

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In Defense of the DNF

I feel like both readers and authors take DNFs particularly hard. For those who don't know, "DNF" stands for "Did Not Finish" and if a reader DNFs a book, they started reading it and decided not to finish it. While I feel like readers and authors take DNFs hard, I can understand why. As a reader, you've chosen a book that you expected to like and it turned out not to be to your liking. It may feel like giving up. As an author, you've spent months or years working on a book only for someone to come out and say they didn't like it and didn't even finish it. Today, I'd like to share my perspective on DNFing a book and why I don't think it should necessarily be considered a bad thing.

I asked people on Twitter why they DNF'd the last book they chose not to finish. The majority said that they DNF'd the book because they simply weren't enjoying it. A few mentioned not having time, but most said they weren't enjoying the book and stopped reading to find a new selection. More often than not, that's the same reason why I've chosen not to finish a book. I love reading, I love books but not every book is going to fit every reader's tastes. It's unfair to the reader, and even more unfair to the book and the author, to be expected to finish a book the reader isn't enjoying. If I force myself to finish a book I don't enjoy and didn't want to keep reading, rather than just DNF it, when I go to rate it, as I do with every book I finish, it's not going to get higher than 2 stars, maximum. I don't think this is fair to the author when I might not be the book's intended audience. Or the novel might be one of my favorite genres, but I've decided I need a break from that genre. If I don't finish a book, I don't rate the book. Then, I continue on with my day.

Another important factor to consider, when discussing DNFing a book, is a reader's personal tastes pet peeves, and boundaries. This fits in somewhat with the above point, but I wanted to discuss separately. Some readers strongly dislike books written in the first person perspective; others love it. There are a few readers I know who started reading a specific book, realized they just really didn't like the first person POV and DNF'd it, even though they liked the story. Some readers don't enjoy novels written in vernacular language (a la Huck Finn) or with flowery language, and reach a point where they decide they have to stop. Sometimes, unfortunately, there is an issue with subject matter. Authors don't always provide information up front about a book's subject matter when it deals with heavier themes or topics, such as mental health, trauma and things of that nature. Readers may choose to DNF a book because they picked it up, not realizing it was going to be about such a heavy topic. Maybe they simply aren't in the right headspace to read it at that time. It's important to note that, in most cases, when a reader DNFs a book, they're basically saying "it's not you, it's me". The book hasn't "done" anything wrong.

There seems to be this unspoken assumption that if you DNF a book, that's the end-all, be-all for it. The reader is going to drop the book like a hot potato and never look back. That isn't necessarily the case. People change, their tastes change. If I DNF  a book today, I'm not barred from deciding to maybe give it another try in a year or two.

A book being DNF'd is an unavoidable part of that book being published. Just like how every book has at least one negative review, every book has at least one reader who elected not to finish reading it. It's just part of the process. On its surface, it's essentially a neutral thing, yet it's viewed as a negative. The stigma around DNFing books, or your book being DNF'd is undeserved in my opinion. It's unavoidable and better than the alternative: continuing to read a book you dislike and giving it a terrible, scathing and usually unwarranted review.

Do you DNF? What's your opinion about DNFing a book?

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