If you are a frequent reader of book reviews, you will find that everyone rates books a little differently. Here is the guide to how books are rated on Read Between the Spines.

In every review, you will find (1) a text review that concludes with my overall thoughts, (2) an overall star rating, and (3) a rating for each component considered.

The Breakdown

To be as fair and accurate as possible across books, all star ratings are broken down into components that are considered prior to rating the book. These components differ for fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels.

Fiction
Writing, Plot, & Character Development
Nonfiction
Writing, Cohesiveness, & Storyline (for narrative nonfiction & memoirs) or Organization (for more subject-matter focused nonfiction)
Graphic Novels
Writing, Storyline/Plot, Cohesiveness/Character Development, & Art

Stars in Words

Star ratings are always out of 5 stars and do include half stars. If a half star is given, it falls between the two whole star ratings below.

I loved this book. It made me think AND feel. I will highly recommend this book to everyone and urge them to read it pronto.

I really enjoyed this book. It made me think OR feel, not both. I would highly recommend this book to nearly everyone.

This is your average book, which I enjoyed. I would recommend it, possibly with some caveats.

I thought this book was okay. My overall thoughts can be summed up as meh. I may recommend this book to certain groups of people or readers but would recommend others save their time.

I actively disliked this book or it was highly problematic. I am unlikely to recommend it.