Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! It’s time for a Let’s Talk Bookish post. This week we are discussing what makes me give a book 5 stars, or drop it to 4.

Don’t forget to check out my Let’s Talk Bookish Masterlist of all the LTB posts I’ve done!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originated by Eternity Books and is currently hosted by Book Nook Bits. The accompanying thumbnail was also designed by Book Nook Bits. Each Friday, bloggers craft posts where they engage in discussions centered around the designated topic for the week.

Prompts: What makes a book a 5-star read for you? Do you give books 5 stars easily, or are you more selective with them? What are your all-time favourite “can’t-live-can’t-breathe-without-them” 5-star reads? Is there anything that makes a book automatically 5 stars for you? Or the opposite — what makes you drop to 4 stars?

I did a post in 2021 talking about how I rate books and honestly this topic is reminding me that I wanted to update it. I just feel like my rating system has changed a little bit over the past few years.

I think most of us who are avid readers will notice a shift over time of being more and more critical of the books we read. These days, I can find a negative and positive about almost any book I read.

I can rate a book 5 stars and still have some issues with it, and sometimes I can love everything about a book except one thing and it’ll drop my rating. Let’s go over the reason I would give a book 5 stars.

Honestly, this can vary by genre. For a thriller or horror book, I have to really enjoy the scary aspects, but also the characters. These types of books are not meant to be character driven, but sometimes the main character in a thriller can be intolerable, and that will ruin a book for me.

For a fantasy books, I just have to be invested in the characters. I am a big character driven reader.

When it comes to literary fiction, I will always give a 5 star read to a book that genuinely moved me. I suppose this could go for all genres, but if a book makes me cry, I automatically give it 5 stars.

I also can just give a book 5 stars because it felt like a 5 star read.

If a book changes my mind about something I was sure I didn’t like, I tend to give it 5 stars.

For Nevermoor, I didn’t think I liked middle grade fantasy. And for This Poison Heart, I thought I was way past the point of enjoying YA books.

There is nothing I love more than being proven wrong, and that is why I always try to read outside my comfort zone.

I mentioned above about how I will drop ratings because of characters. This is usually the case for thrillers, but I also did it for Luis Ortega Survival Club.

I really enjoyed this book but the MC’s mother aggravated the hell out of me the entire book. The mom was so self centered and used her autistic child as a therapist. Parents in YA and middle grade can be annoying a lot of the times.

There is also a difference between a character that is meant to be awful like Luis Ortega and the MC’s mom.

Another thing can be that I really loved the end of a series. I feel like I either give the last book in a series 5 stars or 3. I’d love to make a post about this in the future.

The Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series isn’t even sad, but once I got to the end of the final book, I was sad. I’ve been reading this series for nearly 10 years.

The Last Olympian was a reread this year, but it still got me. I loved the end of the series and was also sad to see it end. I know now that it has more books in the series, but this was meant to be the end at the time.

Something that will always drop a star for me is open endings. I cannot stand an open ending. I go out of my way to seek out lists of books with open endings so I know not to read them. Of course, they still sneak in sometimes.

Nothing is more devistating than loving a book and then there isn’t an ending. And I mean solidly no ending, not when they kind of insinuate what the ending is. That isn’t my favorite, but at least better than nothing.

Check out my post about my favorite books of all time! I forgot that I was going to make that a monthly series on here and this post has reminded me to bring it back.

Let me know what makes you give a book 5 stars! Or, drop your posts below. I’d love to read your thoughts on the topic.

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Happy blogging and bookish adventures! 📚🦒✨

This post was created by Allison Wolfe for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.

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