ALX23z t1_j0zu6hw wrote on December 20, 2022 at 5:18 PM

Not sure about Goodreads, but rating below 4 on Amazon Kindle means that the book is most likely shit while above 4 - means nothing beyond that some people liked it. Not that you'll like it, not even conditioned on it being a genre you like. And I doubt it is different for other platforms.

SoothingDisarray t1_j0zwpnm wrote on December 20, 2022 at 5:34 PM

I think that is definitely true for some people and the books they like! But it's clearly not universally true since 100+ people on this thread have already said they tend to prefer books with a lower-than-4 rating.

(Also... maybe it is different between Kindle ratings and GoodReads ratings. Maybe Kindle is more nakedly promotional and curves ratings upwards in order to encourage sales? So stuff on Kindle that is <4 is actually more like a <2 rating? I don't know!)

ALX23z t1_j0zxtyl wrote on December 20, 2022 at 5:41 PM

It's just that people frequently don't bother reviewing anything, and when people finished reading a book it is usually a 4 or 5 rating. Most people that wouldn't like it will either drop the book based on synopsis/genre/reviewers and never rate or DNF early on and never bother to rate it.

I am not sure what causes people to read 3.5 rated books. Is it only when a lot of people read them just cause its popular? Author mentioned some about "well reviewed books".