Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Robin
I don't know if GR has a similar feature, but one handy feature of reviews at TheStoryGraph is the ability to choose to see only those reviews which include written comments. 5/5 "Best.Book.EVAH (my 1000% honest ARC review)" comments aside, this does tend to leave the reviews where the reader put some thought into expressing what they liked/disliked. It has saved me from quite a few books.
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Goodreads toplists written reviews over ratings only and ranks them in order of popularity. I find two-star reviews more helpful than one star; this is in part because I think they’re more nuanced and not just “this is a pile of carp”, but also because since ratings are more or less bell-shaped, more two-star reviews also means helpful ones are more prominent.
To a somewhat lesser extent, there is a similar pattern with four- and five-star reviews but I find them less helpful anyway, unless it’s a reviewer I “know”, and in that case Goodreads lists them above all reviews anyway. It’s three stars that’s a puzzler for me and I think it’s because it’s my own disconnect with how most people view three stars. For me, three stars means pretty good to quite good; reviewers however seem to view it as damning with faint praise at best.