3 Star Ratings: Positive or Negative?

     

     When I first got my account on Goodreads I was hesitant to give a book I thought was okay, but not very good, a 3-star rating because, at the time, I felt it was saying the book was worse than it actually was. Consequently, most of the ratings I gave the books I read were 4-stars, but I didn’t think many of the books I gave deserved that rating. Many times I wished it was possible to give a book a half star. 

      If you were to go onto amazon and view a product, towards the top of the review section there is often two reviews displayed, one the most helpful positive review and the other the most helpful negative review. Lately, I have noticed the “most helpful critical review” are often 3 star reviews so according to Amazon a 3-star rating is a negative rating. However, back when Netflix used to have a star rating system, if you were to place your cursor over the stars as you are rating a show, it would say the 3-star rating means “I liked it” and that doesn’t sound negative to me. Which I think begs the question if a product is given a 3-star rating is that a good thing or a bad thing?

   

     I thought about it and came to the conclusion that a book deserves 3-stars when it is just okay. There were some unpleasant elements to it, but that could have been worst, and there is some good content to go along with the bad, but this could have been better. I also think three star-ratings are probably the most honest reviews out there as the reviewer doesn’t have strong feelings swinging their opinion towards love or hate.