I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.
Predictably, Colleen Hoover. I don’t automatically dunk on anyone reading her, and it’s fine to enjoy “trashy“/guilty-pleasure YA, but if you unironically think those books are 5 stars best-things-you’ve-ever-read, we probably won’t have much in common.
At least you didn’t name Brandon Sanderson - you would have upset a lot of people.
As a casual Sanderson fan, I see far more people trashing his work and complaining about his fans on this subreddit than I do posts or backlash from said fans.
I’m reading Mistborn and it’s my first of his and while it’s far from my favorite book, it’s a lot better than reddit would make it sound… I saw someone saying that all the good characters only do good things and that everybody only has one trait and it made me wonder if some people who shit on it have even read it.
How I explained Sanderson to my Dad when he was retiring and really getting into audiobooks, was he has insane work output and writes 3 - 4 star books, but that it was extremely unlikely he would ever write a book that was claimed to be the greatest book in its genre.
I was looking for this one.
Feel like it depends on why you’re rating one of those books 5 stars. I would rate a book I enjoyed a lot 5 stars if it scratched the itch I had, and that itch can vary. Obviously rating it 5 stars based on literary value is a no, but not everyone rates based on that.
That’s what I was going to say as well. A “trashy” romance can be 5 stars in a totally different way than a “real” book would be. Does it perform its function perfectly, giving me a little happy moment and some butterflies in my stomach? Great! 5 stars!
Although to be fair, if a date asked me for a 5 star book I probably wouldn’t mention a romance or ya book.
I think most people would save the 5 stars for books that are genuinely good. A trashy guilty pleasure might be 4 stars, as most can recognize a fun book that isn’t technically good.
Why would 4 stars be any more reasonable than 5? If you think the quality is bad no matter what, shouldn’t it always be a 1? I think most people can look at the grumpy billionaire’s babysitter and think, “hmmm even though people seem to like it a lot, I probably won’t get Anna Karenina-like societal commentary from this.”
Is nuance not a thing? Only good or bad, like or hate, 5 or 1. Nah.
Is nuance not a thing? Can I not rate a book that fulfillls its function perfectly as 5 even if it’s prose quality isn’t as good as a 20th century classic that fulfills its own function perfectly? Can I not rate 2 separate books a 5 out of 5 for completely different reasons?
You can do whatever you like. I don’t personally get it, but okay.
Youre the one who demanded nuance but refused to acknowledge there’s nuance to what criteria people use to give out (personal) book ratings.
Unless you create a standardized criteria it’s all just based on what the reader wanted and how well the author delivered on expectations
The evidence said another though the good one of those type of books still got review around 4+, hence I think most people vote like me and didn’t have one standard criteria.
Some book if it fullfill their purpose like I have fun while reading and it is a page turner then I would give it a 5 star but if that same book happen to short list booker price then it might 2 or somthing like that.
Oh no lol I’ve had multiple people recommend her to me and I just bought 3 of her books because target is having a really good sale right now….
It’s supposed to be good for romance novels…this sub hates on that genre though. If you’re into it though, it’s better to find recs in other subreddits such as r/romancebooks, but even there that author is supposed to be a good intro to romance from what I recall. I haven’t read it, I like romantasy lol
Ohh well I may have made a mistake as I don’t really care much for romance lol I’ve been reading mainly thriller/suspense novels but prior to this year I hadn’t read a book since high school so I was looking for recommendations to get back into reading. I’ll save the Colleen Hoover books for my plane trip back home for Christmas, give myself a break from the suspense.
Or if it’s not too late, it should be easy to return to target. They have a lot of hit books, so there should be thriller/suspense options.
You’ll probably like them fine enough then. They aren’t ever purely romance. They usually have some sort of suspense or thrilling aspect to them.
I haven’t read Coleen Hoover, but I’ve handed out 5 star reviews to my trashy, guilty pleasure books before. Like if I read a book that really pulls me all the way through it, that’s a 5 star book imo. It can also apply for works of great literature that tell something powerful, but I’m not holding on to my 5 stars for the kind of books I read once a year or less frequently.
Murderbot Diaries, the Scholomance series, and the Saint of Steel books all get 5 stars in my goodreads
i thought colleen hoover wrote adult romance novels and maybe contemporary fiction?
I call them “dessert books.” They shouldn’t be the only thing you eat, but have at them when you feel like it.
Colleen Hoover is NOT YA 😭 I’ve read a couple of her books and there are copious amounts of s*x.
Is it YA? It’s shelved under adult at my library.
This is a really old debate, I think Plato or Socrates was asking this, and I took a whole college class on this, but What is art and what makes art good? If I enjoy a trashy book and it’s my favorite, why isn’t it 5 stars?
I‘m the same way with Hoover and Rebecca Yarros too. I can’t believe they are rated so high on Goodreads. I can appreciate YA or NA, but geeze, can authors put an ounce of effort establishing a plot or character development? Maybe have some decent dialogue? A crumb of editing??? Just a crumb
I wouldn’t put it as 5/5, but I didn’t mind It Ends with Us, despite being a mid-30s male. It’s not high art that I’ll put alongside literature greats, and I wouldn’t buy it, or even get it from the library again and give it a reread, but it absolute did what it set out to achieve. It told a solid tale with meaning behind it, in fan fiction language.
For that reason, I’d give it a 4/5.
Actually, 3.5/5. Who the fuck calls their child Ryle or Atlas. Or even worse, Rylee?
Hahahahaha i know someone who unironically loves colleen hoover. I don’t think she is even aware that it’s looked down upon
I hope that someone isn’t your friend.
Sure is! We all have our faults
Really?
I haven’t read anything by her, but if anyone chose a kind of chick lit for their 5/5 book I wouldn’t bat an eye tbh. Sometimes easy reading like that is really enjoyable, relaxing, funny, and comforting, something that can be quite nice after a day at work. Sometimes a book just really resonates with you, even if it’s not the best piece of literature ever written, it just happens to appeal to you, or you can see yourself in the character, anything.
I’m not saying this is you, but a lot of people seem to automatically look down on this type of writing in an elitist way. Like it’s easy reading for idiots who can’t handle War and Peace or what have you. I’ve also noticed this attitude tends to be more directed against things women are more known to like. Again, I’m not saying this is how you are, just that I’ve noticed a pattern.
Say what you will, but my ex gave me 2 days to read Verity, and it was pretty entertaining for a trashy thriller.
Well, there’s also the difference in how many people interpret five stars. Some people think that a book has to be one of the best ever, in order to get five stars. Other people think that the books has to have something objectively wrong, in order to get less than five stars. Lots of reasonable, likeable people will give 5 stars to books that were nothing special, but they had a forgettable good time with.