This week marks 5 years since the start of Let’s Talk Bookish. In celebration of this, I’ll be diving into the rich archives of this meme from Monday to Friday and choose several old topics to either discuss for the first time or revisit. Today I go back to October 4, 2019 where we discussed if star ratings are fair or necessary. This topic is suggested by Rukky and you can find the original post here. I definitely haven’t done this topic before and to be honest I find this a tough one because we haven’t had prompts back then. And I trive on prompts for discussion posts, so let’s see how far I come!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted by Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Since April 2022, the meme moved to another host, Aria @ Book Nook Bits. Let’s Talk Bookish is a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and share their love by visiting each other’s posts.

Do you use star ratings?

Yes, I do. I find it easy and quick, especially when I don’t have the time to review a book right away. I use the 1-5 rating system, because I have been a Goodreads user since 2015 and this platform still doesn’t do half stars. Now with The Storygraph, I’m able to give quarter or half stars and sometimes it’s a life saver. This one of the pros of that platform, seriously. Want to know more? I wrote a post on it back in January.

Is a star rating alone enough?

Honestly, no. I know I’m also part of the problem, but simple stars don’t say enough about one’s opinion on a book. It says something yes, but there are multiple reasons for why someone rated a book a certain number of stars. Some are obvious, but especially the 3-star or 4-starr ratings are tricky. When a book has been rated 4 stars, you can imagine that the reader really enjoyed their reading experience. But 3 stars is so much in the middle and could have so many different meanings that you have to guess. However, I understand that there’s not always enough time to review a book and explain your rating. Also, you don’t have to do so if you don’t want to. But, a review accompanied by a star rating says more than just stars alone.

Do you think star ratings are fair or necessary?

Personally, I think they are more necessary than fair. Stars alone don’t say anything much, but they are necessary for a book review. Especially when you write long, in-depth reviews like me sometimes. I understand when people just look for the star rating and know my opinion at one glance. I hope you guys will still read my reviews though because I put effort and time in them LOL. Same goes for authors, they put their heart and soul in a book and therefore it would be nice if a simple star rating could be accompanied by a review. However, the full star ratings are a bit clinical sometimes, half or quarter stars make it more fair. So, I don’t say it’s unfair per se, but I definitely find this type of rating necessary. I use it a lot when reading reviews myself. I’m tended to read a review with a lower star rating more than reviews with 4 or 5 stars since they are more interesting. And often more in depth. Nevertheless, rating a book without reading it or affter a DNF is particularly unfair because your rating is based on nothing and is often meant in order to be problematic.

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Now it’s up to you. Do you use star ratings? Are they fair and/or necessary? Do you think they should be accompanied by a review?