Book reviews are essentially a reward for readers, but is Goodreads just the new Facebook community group?
Most readers can attest to the feeling of closing a book that quite literally changed your life — just to read through the reviews and slyly amend your own to fit in, because apparently the book you loved is actually terrible and no one else on Earth liked it. I am here as your bookish fairy Godmother to tell you: If you loved the book, you love that book as openly and five-star-reviewy as you so well wish.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion — reading is subjective, after all — but sometimes, reviews go beyond simple opinion and instead show a complete lack of understanding of the book.
I rate a book based on how it makes me feel. A good book is a book that made me feel something, relate to it, or understand someone else better on top of being “well written.” Some people take reviewing to professional levels, and while I wish I was an aesthetic annotating girly, I am a chaotic-remember-the-page-number-instead-of-just-find-a-bookmark girly. There is nothing aesthetic about my reading habits.
Not everyone will love all the books, obviously. And someone may love one for the same reason another hates it. Whether that’s down to lived experience or something else, different books will always mean something different to different people. My favorite book could be the same as yours, but we may have entirely different reasons for it.
So, with all that in mind about everyone being entitled to their own opinions, here are all the reasons why everyone else is wrong and I’m right about these six books.
Beach Read, Emily Henry
This is potentially one of my favorite books of all time, and I would and will go to the ends of this earth to defend it.
With an overall rating of 4.00 on Goodreads by over 1.3 million reviewers (almost 1 million of which are 4 or 5 stars) I can promise you, it is not just me who loves this book. Emily Henry is the RomCom Queen. I will accept no other opinions at this time (or any other).
Beach Read is about two authors, total opposites. January Andrews is a romance author obsessed with happily ever afters. Augustus Everett writes strictly lit fic with a tendency to murder most of his cast. When they find themselves living next to each other, she teaches him about romance, and he teaches her how to write a book where they don’t ride off into the sunset — I’m saying nothing. Oh, and they’re also old college rivals.
Not only does Emily Henry restore all faith in straight people, but she performs miracles restoring faith in the male half of our species (fictional only, of course).
Check & Mate, Ali Hazelwood
Right. Ali Hazelwood, if you are perchance reading this, girl, I love you, I love everything that comes out of your brain. Especially Jack Smith and Nolan Sawyer. And truly, it was a tragedy finishing both of those books for the sole reason that those two men no longer exist in my head. But please stop reminding me that I’m reading in the middle of them, I beg. I am reading to forget about the poor state of our world, not be reminded of it — especially mid-steamy-miscommunication-angst-fuelled argument where they are definitely (spoilers) going to kiss.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t bother me that much. Do I remember the references in any of the books I’ve read? No. Do I remember the slight cringe I felt reading the words? Also no.
In exchange for the beauty that is an Ali Hazelwood creation, I will forgo my slight discomfort at remembering that I exist in the same world as Riverdale.
Let The Games Begin, Rufaro Faith Mazarura
The point? Absolutely valid. The rating? Absolutely not.
Like most people, I got entirely invested in the Paris Olympics over the summer. To fill the Tara and Hunter Woodhall-shaped hole in my heart, I picked up this book. It delivered everything I wanted it to. Adorable summer romance, check. Olympic Games setting, check. Unapologetically ambitious female main character, check.
And, fine, there were some tiny miscommunication issues, but tell me you’ve never experienced that in your life ever? Exactly. Rufaro, keep doing what you’re doing and send it straight to my door, because I’m obsessed.
The Places I’ve Cried in Public, Holly Bourne
On your left, you’ll find a strap. Pull it over your lap and buckle yourself in. This is going to be a long one.
Where to start? This is a book that healed some part of me. It is a book that maybe, the reviewer has a very very very minor point in that it will have a greater impact on someone who can relate to the story and to the main character. And I know that a lot of people, myself included, read to relate to a story and to feel understood. I also want to read to understand other people.
If you haven’t experienced the same things as the main character, then read to understand how that might be. Read it to get a broader understanding of other people’s experiences. But do not, under any circumstances, read and rate a book about the effects of teenage abuse and sexual assault poorly because you thought it was depressing.
Not liking a book is not the same as a book being “bad.” There are arguments that there are no bad books — we’re skipping over this point so I don’t get sued — but ultimately, there is the option to just not rate it. Do we really need to share our every negative thought online? Because honestly, it’s giving Karen.
Maybe it’s the people pleaser in me, but I cannot rate a book lower than three stars. And to me, three stars means I enjoyed it but probably wouldn’t read it again, four for some of the best books on this earth, and five are books that I would like to be buried with. This is one of those.
If You Could See The Sun, Ann Liang
Real x
The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
I’m so so sorry to break this to you, dear reviewer, but it’s okay to be wrong sometimes. In this case though, it’s not okay at all. And I will tell you why.
This book is set around a UK government that has discovered time travel exists and decides to bring people from history into the present day (called expats). The department that deals with it recruits bridges, or live-in friends to help the expats adapt to their new life in the twenty-first century. Our main character is one of these bridges.
Now, let me give you a scenario. You settle yourself in with a steaming mug of tea, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and open the book to the first page. Our main character is asked, “Do you want the job?'” To which she replies, “No, thank you very much,” gets up, and walks away. THE END
Methinks that wouldn’t sell very well!
Instead, Kaliane Bradley has written a complex story about real people (literally) who make human choices. Some are perhaps based on emotion rather than rationale, but they are still entirely human. It is an incredibly well-researched work of art, and I will hear no criticism on it ever.
A complex female character is actually normal! If you’re finding that hard to comprehend, question why you aren’t comfortable with imperfect women rather than the author, who had enough understanding of basic human behavior to write her.
Goodreads v Facebook Group
But I digress. Maybe next time you finish a book and confidently open that Goodreads app, consider if you disliked the book because you didn’t relate to the story, or even because you just weren’t in the mood for that book.
I cannot express how irrationally angry it makes me to see “1 star: it was too young for my tastes,” from a thirty-five-year-old on a Young Adult book with a fifteen-year-old main character. The single piece of advice I can offer is to please read the blurb, and if that’s not too much, employ a little bit of critical thinking before you open up that blinking cursor and tell me how you found the tragic war story “a bit violent and not at all uplifting.”
