Some people give 5 stars like nobodies business. Like creepy men tossing money at strippers as if they have money for days. Me? I’m not like that. I’m extremely picky about giving books a 5 star rating. I give 5 star ratings out very few and far between. So what makes me consider giving a story 5/5 stars? Continue reading… 🙂
It has to make me feel something. I don’t mean little butterflies because there was a cute romance or scared because something epic happened. I mean it crushed my soul and destroyed it beyond repair. The book has to make me think outside the book. It needs to make me consider things I’ve never considered before. It needs to make me rethink my thoughts in new directions.
I love books with an amazing writing style. I love books that are poetic. Not something generic. I want to read a book that’s told in a different way. I also want a book that I can connect to the characters on a super personal level. I want it to feel like the characters trust me enough to tell me their secrets (does that makes sense?). I don’t want a book where I only connect to the characters for the sake of the story.
I think this is a reason I love contemporary novels so much. They make me think and feel and consider. In all honesty, though, a book doesn’t need to have fantastic characters, a solid plot, or amazing writing for me to rate it 5/5. It just needs to make me feel something spectacular.
Here are some of my favorite 5 star books
The Book Thief | Between Shades of Gray | Forbidden
The Fault in Our Stars | Bruiser | The Running Dream
Openly Straight | Two Boys Kissing | The Spectacular Now
Impossible Knife of Memory| Last Leaves Falling | Wonder
What about you? How do you go about giving a book the solid 5 star rating?
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Great topic!!! I also rarely give out 5 star reviews. In fact sometimes I will initially rate a book lower and then escalate it the more I think about it. Illuminae and Burial Rites would be two examples of this. I feel that a 5 star book should be something that changes the way you think and feel about the world and that stays with you over time. 😊
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I completely agree! There are sometimes I’ll give a book 4/5 stars then after I sit and think about it for awhile, I start to lean towards giving it 5/5. I think The Book Thief was one I did that with. I had a hard time getting into it and it took my forever to read but after I thought of the message it gave and the thought between the lines, I felt it deserved 5/5 instead. Thanks for the comment, Sue!
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I generally rate books that I really like with 4 stars, books that get five stars really have to make me think a little rather than being a fun campy read. Although I do enjoy those quite a bit as well. Some examples of five star books for me would be “Red Rising” and “Made You Up” (which is a lovely book by the way, definitely recommend). All in all, I think I have about 12 books in my favourites list, all of them rated five stars! Fleur @ FranklyBooks just postedMetaphors and Death | Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
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I agree, I don’t have a wide variety of “favorite” books either. I have a lot on my “OMG THIS BOOK IS AMAZING AND I’M GOING TO RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE” list but even those aren’t always 5/5 star books. (if that made sense at all haha). But I will have to check out Red Rising and Made You Up 😀
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I’m also very selective when it comes to give away 5 stars! I feel like ever since I started blogging, I became even harder to please. I have some requirements like genius plotting, characterizations, etc etc, but my 5 stars are mostly reserved for books which flaws I’m willing to overlook. So yes, when it comes to 5-star rating, it’s more about ‘feels’ than technical aspects 😀
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Same here! I’m very critical about books ever since I started reading more and blogging and talking about books. I’m always scared to reread some of my favorites before I started because what if I don’t like them anymore because they’re not as good as I remembered? :c
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Great post
Great blog just followed
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Thank you 🙂
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