Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! I wanted to redo a post I made in 2021 all about how I rate books. I don’t think this has drastically changed in the past few years, but it has a little bit.

I did a post recently called What Makes Me Give a Book 5 Stars?, and that had me thinking I should redo this post. So, let’s jump into it!

A 5 star for me doesn’t mean I thought a book was completely flawless, but the flaws didn’t outweigh what I loved. Sometimes a book just gives me that 5 star feeling.

I went into more depth in my 5 star post linked above, but for me, I want emotional investment. I want to be emotionally invested in the characters. I will absolutely give an immediate 5 stars if it makes me cry.

I also give a book 5 stars when I feel like it changed me as a person. The type of book that you can’t stop thinking about.

Most of the time if I enjoy a book, it ends up here. Sometimes it’ll be a book I’m really loving and then the ending loses me.

It could be that I liked the story, but the characters weren’t the best, or the other way around. I read a few this year where one character aggravated the heck out of me and it wasn’t intentional.

I read a lot of 4 star books and I don’t mind it at all. A book doesn’t have to be perfect for me to enjoy or even recommend to other people.

I always used to say that 3 stars for me meant I didn’t have major feelings about a book one way or the other, which is still true. But, I’ve also realized there is another category for 3 star reads.

I noticed this year that I give 3 stars to books I had A LOT of feelings about both ways. Then, I end up in a place where I can’t figure out if I liked it or didn’t.

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin is a great example. This book had some interesting parts. It was literally about a man eating plant. There was so many interesting things about the plant where it could imbed intself into people, but I feel like it wasn’t explored enough.

I thought the horror was good, but also too emotionless at the same time. The ending had me confused. And I don’t really feel like we got enough about how the plant came to be.

Did I like it? Did I hate it? I have no idea.

Two stars for me is where I usually put a book I didn’t like. But I also put books here that I DNF’d. I know, many people have strong feelings against rating books you didn’t finish, but I do it if I read enough of it and have opinions about it.

I try to be honest in my thoughts and sometimes recommend books to people who I think would like it if I didn’t.

If I didn’t like a book or the negatives outweighed the positives, it’ll end up with a 2 star rating. I only gave one book in 2025 2 stars, which is great! It was a romance book called Love Redesigned where I really just didn’t like the romance at all or any of the characters. I think I would’ve DNF’d it if I hadn’t read and enjoyed the author before.

One star ratings are something I rarely give out. Looking back, I’ve only rated 11 books one star.

For me, one star is a book that I feel is iredeemable. It’s a book that I can’t find anything to like about it.

I might have found the book extrememly problematic or racist in some way. It’s really just that I don’t understand how anyone could like the book.

The last book I gave one star was Haunting Adeline in 2023. I didn’t even manage to finish this book because I couldn’t stomach it.

This book made me realize I don’t like dark romance and honestly will be avoiding it going forward.

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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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