So while looking back through my review posts and ratings on Goodreads I have discovered something strange. Although it can be quite difficult to say a 4 star contemporary book is the same as a 4 star fantasy novel, they have the same star rating.
I have discovered that while rating series I tend to compare and rate the books against each other. So where I gave Spirit Bound #5 in the Vampire Academy a 3.5 star rating in reality is was probably closer to a 4/4.5 star rating, but in comparison to the other books in the series it was my least favorite. Is that fair to do?
How do you step back and assign a rating to a book based solely on that one book. How do you not compare it to another in the same series. Do you try and rate the book on a set of criteria regardless of its genre. Do you rate on what the author presented and accomplished in the story they were telling?
I haven’t really ever sat down and thought about this and realize now that rating books is such a struggle. I gave The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre both 4 star ratings, but there is no way I could compare these two to each other. To say I liked one more the other would be a correct statement too, but I gave them both the same rating.
I guess what I would really like to know is How Do You Rate? How do you approach this situation and what are the things that affect your ratings?