Commentary on Reviews: I Like When The Averages Are Flipping Me Off

Shopping cart of booksI do a good amount of shopping for books, and looking at reviews, and reading about books, and I've noticed something.

I really, and I mean REALLY like when the review averages are flipping me off.

No, really. 

Here's what I mean. 

Suppose you see a book review average graph at GoodReads that looks like this: 

EXHIBIT A:

A Rating detail graph with an overwhelming number of 5 star reviews

 

Compare that to a ratings review that looks like this: 

EXHIBIT B:

Rating details from GR that shows more 4 star reviews than five stars then three stars. It looks like the graphs were they fingers are flipping you the bird

 

Now THAT is a book I'm interested in. See how the green lines sort of look like a hand that's flipping you the middle finger? 

PERFECT. 

 

EXHIBIT C:

Another graph flipping you the bird

 

I like it even more when the 3 stars are more represented:

 

EXHIBIT D:

Another, this one with more four then three then five star reviews

 

And this is not just because my fourth finger is longer than my index finger (which I think is normal in the scheme of fingers but I don't study phalanges as a rule).

Even this type of middle-finger layout makes me more curious about a book: 

 

EXHIBIT E:

middle finger with most three star, then four then two then five

 

Though I prefer the former bird-flipping-review layout for maximum interest. 

I like when there's some disagreement about a book, with some people going, “YAY!” and other's saying, “AW, NO.” That kind of review disparity does two things for me as a buyer: 

1. It makes me wonder where I fit into the divide.

Would this be a YAY or an AW, NO book for me? I should read it and find out.  (Seriously, nothing makes me get all up in the clicky-buy-buy like review disparity. 

2. It makes me trust the set of reviews as a whole. 

When there's a range of ratings, I trust that the reviewers as a whole are honest. When every single review is squee-tastic five-star OMG SQUEE A++++++++ USER smileycheekysmileyheartyesyesangel I back away slowly.

This kind of rating average: 

 

EXHIBIT F:

Amazon review average showing 257 five stars 47 4s 20 3s 17 2s and 5 single stars.

holds no interest for me as a reader. 

It makes me think someone set the squee-cannon to STUN. I don't believe any of it, except maybe the low-star reviews.

First, because not every book I read is a 5-star book. Most of the time, the books I read, I'm hoping will be four-star books. Many are 3s. It's rare for me to be laid out in post-reading-euphoria by a book. Maybe that happens once a year, or twice. It's rare for me. 

I don't presume that every reader is like me, but I have read enough reviews and looked at enough averages to know that all-fives is most likely hype, bother, and likely bullshit. Have you seen how divided people are on things like how to hang toilet paper? Forget universal agreement about a book. 

And this kind of review average:

 

EXHIBIT G: 

A review average with mostly 1 star reviews followed by three, five, two and four star

STOP THE PRESSES because that looks like a trainwreck in green, and makes me think, “Dude, I need to spend the next six hours reading that page and possibly the book, too, because what the HELL happened there? Did somebody piss off the internet?”

Which brings me back to point the first: disparity in reviews makes me more curious than anything else, especially if the largest number of reviews are in the 3s and 4s, because I want to know what my review will be. How do I fit in the green fingers flipping me off? 

The more reviews of varying types there are, the more I as a reader trust the average of those reviews. Disagreement to me seems more likely to be honest instead of a hype bomb from the squee-cannon. As I said before – it's easy to fake hype. It's much harder to fake anger or the process of working out how one feels about a book through a thoughtful discussion of pros and cons.

What about you? Do you pay attention to how many reviews of which type there are when the stars or ponies or rainbows or beer steins of measurement are averaged out? Do you like when the reviews are flipping you off?

Which of the above review averages makes you the most interested (and yes, I wrote down which screencap was for which book, mwahahah)? 

Comments are Closed

  1. Julia P. Noble says:

    Jennifer, I’m someone who rates & reviews many 1 & 2 star books on GoodReads and in my case, I feel absolutely compelled to write a review when all the existing ones are 3 stars other more. I consider 3 stars good, and the misrepresentation of a book that I thought was bad or awful necessitates a more critical review. But I’m well aware that most people are far less critical than I.

    I trust individual reviewers most, especially reviewers who have an average rating below 3.5.

    As for who reads books they dislike or hate….until a few months ago I had a personal rule that obliged me to finish every book I started. I’m still struggling to abandon books.

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