Welcome to the first Bookish Discussion Sunday of July! We’ve got a heat wave where I am, and I’m pretty sure my area isn’t the only one. So I’ve been trying my best to stay inside and avoid the heat, and what better way to do that than by reading, right? Which leads me to this week’s topic of discussion: reading books with low ratings. I know this is treading very closely to another topic, which I plan to discuss next, so I’m going to try really hard not to veer into that topic (writing low-starred reviews) but stay tuned for that one soon.
I often try my best to avoid reading any reviews before I finish reading a book. I like to go into it without any notions about the content aside from what I learn from the synopsis. But I’m sure that plenty of you can identify with being supportive of your friends by reading reviews they’ve written about books that you either never heard of, or were maybe on the fence about, and the review got you interested in the book. When that happens to me, I typically head over to Goodreads next and add it to my TBR list. However, sometimes I will catch sight of a one star review that someone left for the book. And I know that I can’t be the only person that this has happened to.
Sometimes a one star review from a trusted friend or reviewer will make me reconsider my desire to read a book. This is also true of books that have a lot of one-star reviews, or a low overall rating. If I’m struggling with a book and considering DNFing it, I might also see if there are a lot of low ratings to check if there’s a possibility of it getting better. Here’s a couple of examples of one star ratings that I should have listened to for a book that I considered DNFing, and didn’t (Come and Get It by Kiley Reid):
Other times, I’ll be so intrigued by a one star review that it makes me want to read the book immediately. Sometimes the review focuses on how the reviewer doesn’t like the genre, while we’ve seen review bombing more times than I can count. I’ve scoured the low ratings barrel of Goodreads to find you two examples of one star reviews for books that I loved (and why I read the books anyway):
Here’s a review for Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn Mayne, and hello? I adored Eleanor Oliphant, and this simply allowed me to get that same heartwarming feeling all over again. I see no problem.
Although I had already read the physical book of The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan at this point, I read the audiobook the second time around to prepare myself for the next book in the trilogy. I guess the reviewer didn’t realize that the main character is actually Helena, the assistant to Sir Konrad Vonvalt. Since she is nearly always with him, he plays a big role in the story. But I’m willing to guess that the reviewer thinks a male narrator can narrate a book with a female as the lead without a problem, and I’m sure there are some that can, just like there are females who can narrate a book with a man as the lead. Pretty misogynist statement in that review, if you ask me.
How do you feel about reading books with low ratings?
Categories: Sunday Bookish Discussion
Leah's Books 
I think a 2-star review would actually put me off more than a 1-star review. If a review is an absolute hatchet job, it just makes the book more intriguing!
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Right? My one star reviews are always full of so much emotion, while a two star review is just meh.
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Also, one star reviews are often for a really specific reason that might not apply to me at all.
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Great point! I’ve seen them where the person rates it low because they don’t like the genre or have a problem with things like cursing or spicy scenes, none of which both me. This wound up being such a good topic!
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I did a post once on the types of “bad” review that make me more eager to read the book and my top three were “the female protagonist is unlikeable”, “it’s too slow-paced” and “too many unnecessary queer characters”! I’d love to hear the bad reviews that are actually good reviews in your opinion…
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Hmm, I haven’t really thought about it much. But now I’m really curious and want to do a post myself! I tend to think bad reviews that say “too many queer characters,” “too much cursing,” “too much sex,” and “the protagonist is a strong female character” seem more like good reviews that make me want to read the book.
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“Too much cursing” is a funny one. I once read a review of this really violent, murdery crime novel where a reader was complaining about too many naughty words!
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Hahahahahaha – that’s one where I expect cursing! Reading a book involving a lot of violence, murder, drug dealers, gang members, or biker gang? Yeah, that’s going to involve cursing, I’m willing to bet. If it’s a YA book? I’m going to expect not to see a ton of cursing.
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Which is weird when you think about it because teenagers swear more than anyone!
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This is a fact!
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I want to say books with low ratings can serve either as a warning or as a laugh to what potential readers can expect.
In the case of the latter, we’ve heard of 1-star reviews where most of the reviews were trolling the book for one reason or another (look up Marlon Bundo by John Oliver and/or any book by Joe Abercrombie). Those reviews are written deliberately because the reviewers know that the 1-star reviews are read more often than 4 and 5-star reviews. Keep in mind, those reviews DO NOT hurt the sales (but, it could with other authors).
As for the former, there are moments when readers must consider why so many readers gave a book such a low rating. While I try not to jump to conclusions myself, there are times when I know the reviewers who’ve read the book and I know they meant every word they’ve said about it. At the same time, when I give a book a 1-star or a DNF rating, I explain why the book did work for me; and yet, I warn potential readers that they might come to the same conclusion I did.
This is why there are times when audience reviews mean more than critics’ reviews. If no one else has a reason to read a book, then why bother?
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Well said! A few funny one star reviews can make me more intrigued, but too many of them can make me really cautious about reading the book. But I’ll take the word of a fellow reviewer I trust over a fancy newspaper or magazine critic any day.
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If it’s an unfamiliar book or author on the genre I like, then I do look at reviews/ratings before deciding to read it. If it has overall good ratings then I would give it a go.
On the whole if it’s an author I know and like I wouldn’t look at reviews or ratings before reading. However maybe I should look at reviews before reading all books, because there was this one time I read “The book of two ways” by Jodi Picoult (and I generally enjoy her writing), but I didn’t like it that much and nearly DNF. After I had finished, I looked at reviews and a lot of people gave low ratings.
It takes a lot for me to not finish a book, and I think that is why if I don’t know the book I would look at some reviews first before deciding to even pick it up in the first place.
If you saw that a book was rated low before you had read it, would that already sway your opinion of the book?
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Remarkably close to my sentiments all the way through – try to avoid reviews of books I know I want to read, using reviews to check whether I want to DNF, and never sure whether a low rating will turn me off or intrigue me.
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Wow, looks like we really do think a lot alike with this topic!
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I actually love reading 1 star reviews of books I both love and intend to read, because they give me an insight into whether the reviewer has genuine issues with the book, or isn’t a fan of the genre, or straight up just has bad reading comprehension. If I read the review before the book, I’ll always balance it out with a 3 star and 5 star review. I know my own tastes pretty well, so getting that range of opinions helps me decide if I do want to read the book, or knock it down/off my TBR list. The most recent example that comes to mind is Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward novels. I loved the first one, was bewildered by the direction the second one took, and decided to read the reviews of the third one… which lead to me DNFing the series as a whole. No regrets!
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Well put – when you put it like that, I’ve done the same thing! I also use that technique when deciding if I want to carry on with a series or if it’s just going to be more of the same and I know I can DNF without ever looking back and wondering if…
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For me it depends on author and synopsis that makes me want to read 1 star review or not. But if there are lots of 1 star that feel genuine like mention of something that I also don’t like then I would not consider reading the book. If I don’t like the book I also check if others also felt the same.
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I fully agree. A lot of times a review can help me decide whether I want to start and/or keep reading a book if I’m on the fence about it.
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So much depends on the content of the review for me! There have been some one-star reviews that have made me immediately want to read a book because that reviewer happened to hate things (e.g. certain tropes) that I love.
But if a book has a ton of low ratings that mention less subjective reasons for disliking it, I take note of them and probably won’t read it.
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I completely agree – a lot of the time, I’ll find a random one-star review kind of funny, and it makes me so much more interested in reading the book. But if all the low-rated reviews are saying the same thing, I figure they might be onto something.
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