Lately I’ve had a few comments by people who’re surprised I’d finish a book I ultimately rated with just one star (which is, in my rating system, “didn’t like it”) or two stars (“it was okay”), so I wanted to dig into that a bit.

I’m a bit bemused by getting so many comments surprised that I finished a book that I rated two-stars, because a book being “okay” isn’t that terrible an outcome. My bet would be that more often than not it’s because they’re not paying attention to my rating system, seeing three-stars as the “it was okay” sort of mark, which I’m probably going to partly solve by specifying what each rating means every time I post, as I already do when I boost my reviews on social media.

(As an aside, I think we think we have a consensus about how to rate books, and how to read other people’s ratings, but we really don’t. I think more bloggers should be as explicit as I am about what their ratings mean to them, to help other people interpret them, and we should all be used to looking for how someone defines their ratings.)

But regardless, there are a few reasons why I’d finish a book I eventually don’t rate highly. Here goes:

• The ending is the reason I lowered the rating;
• Similarly, it was finishing the book and getting perspective that made me decide to give a low rating;
• The author used a trope I hate, and I hung on to see if they’d subvert it… and they didn’t;
• I did research after finishing the book and realised that I’d missed something problematic that changed my enjoyment of it;
• It was a non-fiction book that I found interesting to read (e.g. for style reasons, or because the author’s ideas are illuminating even when misguided) but which ultimately had serious flaws;
• I read the book because it aligns with my particular interests (most commonly because it’s classic crime) and I was curious about it because of its influence on the genre (remember, I have two degrees in English Literature; even if I don’t formally study it now, I have my interests still), but didn’t enjoy it in itself;
• I want to post a fair and thoughtful review about it, so I need the full context of finishing it;
• I want to post a venting review about it, but I want to be sure of my facts;
• I found it interesting and worthwhile but I couldn’t possibly say I liked it because it was dark or gross (though usually here I divert from my personal rating system a little and give points for more nuanced “this was an interesting on an academic level” reactions as well as simple enjoyment, and then say so in my review);

…and there are probably many other reasons and combinations of reasons. I do actually DNF books that meet none of my criteria, I just don’t then review them (most of the time).

And there’s another thing, too, that’s not quite a reason why I finish such books, but definitely part of why I write reviews about low-rated books: ratings are subjective, even when you don’t think they are. My one-star book (“didn’t like it”) is someone else’s four-star (“really liked it”). Personal taste is a huge part of why people like or dislike books, and it’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise. When I rate something two-stars, that doesn’t mean I’m saying it’s a bad book. It just means I didn’t like it.

Personally, when I decide whether to read a book, I often look at five-star and one-star reviews, and less often the ones in between. The thoughts of those who react with passionate love or hate for a book can tell me a great deal, even if I don’t know how the individual reviewers rate books.

In the end, this is part of why I actually didn’t give ratings at all when I originally launched my blog. I wanted my reviews to speak for themselves, without the simplifying interpretation that a certain number of stars can put on it. Even when I did add star ratings, I kept on using them in my own (clearly defined) way, refusing to treat them as an objective marker of a book’s quality.

In the end, sometimes finishing (and reviewing) a book I didn’t like can be worth it, all the same, for me and for others who are interested in my thoughts on that book.

Related discussion post: How to Rate