Bring Back 3-Star Reviews

The Slow Deaths of the 5-Star Rating System and Honest Book Reviews

I began reviewing books online as a teenager in high school, focusing mostly on Young Adult fiction before branching into poetry and nonfiction. Though I started over fifteen years ago, I never reviewed consistently enough to become an influencer. Still, I gained some traction. New authors (at the time) and a few publishing houses took notice, even including me in ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) distributions.

I initially used the 5-star rating system for my book reviews, but phased it out after a few years.

At first, I stopped because I no longer posted negative reviews. This was during the late 2000s and early 2010s, the peak of Twitter’s influence in the publishing world. For the first time, authors had access to reviewers, and this was the beginning of disgruntled authors lashing out at anyone who dared rate their books below 5 stars.

This coincided with the explosion of Young Adult fiction and St. Martin’s Press’ marketing ploy: New Adult Fiction. I believe New Adult is an official genre now, but back then it was just a way for YA romance authors to write spicier books by aging the characters up to college-age, since YA fiction was becoming uncomfortably and controversially more sexual. The boom led to a flood…