Hey bookworm friends, I hope you’re all having a happy first week of November. I haven’t done a book tag in a while but I’ve been saving the Goodreads was Wrong tag because I thought it would be fun to go back through my ratings. So let’s answer these questions and see all the ways I disagree with GR’s average ratings 😈!
But first: a disclaimer! This post is in good fun and as usual, I’m simply giving my honest opinions. If I hate a book other readers love it’s not a personal judgement of them. We all look for different things when we read and I have no patience for shaming people for their reading preferences.
I came across this tag on Zeezee With Books but the “GoodReads Was Wrong” tag was created by the booktuber GabsAboutBooks.
What is the highest-rated book that you gave a low rating?
(Sort your books in Goodreads based on Average Ratings and find the highest-rated book you gave a low rating.)
Oh my! We’re starting with quite a controversial pick. If you love this French children’s classic you may need to shield your eyes! 😆
Le Petit Prince / The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
GR Average Rating: 4.33 Vs. My rating: 1⭐
I read this in French for school and the tone has never worked for me! I just found it extremely annoying.
What is the lowest-rated book that you gave a high rating?
(Sort your books in Goodreads based on Average Ratings, in reverse order, and find the lowest-rated book you gave a high rating.)
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
GR Average Rating: 3.36 Vs. My rating: 5⭐
I’ve raved about The Terraformers on my blog before! At the risk of being repetitive, I’ve included it in several lists. I don’t care what anyone says, I love this book!
My Review.
What is the most popular book that you disagree with the average rating?
(Sort your books in Goodreads based on Number of Ratings and find the first book you disagree with the average rating.)
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
With over 1.6 Million ratings on GR and an average rating of 4.26, I rated it 3⭐which I think is overgenerous.
I read this in 2017 and it made me feel sick. At first, I thought it was because it made me feel heightened emotions but then I realized it was because I felt manipulated into those emotions but I couldn’t quite put a finger on why. It wasn’t until later, when I had a better vocabulary around ableism that I understood exactly why I felt so off about this book back then and I don’t think it deserves the high ratings.
What is the least popular book that you disagree with the average rating?
(Sort your books in Goodreads based on Number of Ratings, in reverse order, and find the first book you disagree with the average rating.)
Wayward Kindred by Various Authors
With 66 ratings on GR and an average rating of 4.50, I rated it 3⭐which is probably rounded up.
I bought this graphic novel anthology at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival a few years ago because have you seen this cover?! The concept of stories around the theme of “Monster Families” is cool but I don’t do well with anthologies or short story collections typically. I didn’t connect with the individual stories equally or as much as I hoped to.🤷🏽♀️
Choose two books that have an average rating of 3/5 stars but you gave a higher rating.
The Dragon’s Bride by Katee Robert
GR Average Rating: 3.66 Vs. My rating: 5⭐
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
GR Average Rating: 3.74 Vs. My rating: 5⭐
My Review
Choose two books that have an average rating of 3/5 stars but you gave a lower rating.
Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen
GR Average Rating: 3.59 Vs. My rating: 2⭐
The Unlikely Story of Felix & Macabber by Juni Ba & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
GR Average Rating: 3.29 Vs. My rating: 1⭐
Choose two books that have an average rating of 4/5 stars but you gave a lower rating.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
GR Average Rating: 4.01 Vs. My rating: 1⭐
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
GR Average Rating: 4.04 Vs. My rating: 2⭐
Choose two books that have an average rating of 2/5 stars but you gave a higher rating
I don’t have any books in my ‘read’ shelf that have an average of 2 stars (the lowest is 3.09). So I’ll switch the question around a bit and choose 2 books from my tbr list that have an average rating of 2 out of 5 stars. Then I’ll decide if I want to keep them on the tbr list or remove them.
The Swells by Will Aitken
GR Average Rating: 2.32
This book is a satire on class but according to the reviews, the social commentary is poorly done. Additionally this is not my typical fare so I’m not tempted to make up my own mind on this 🙃.
Toss it.
On The Nature of Magic by Marian Womack
GR Average Rating: 2.73
A gothic supernatural mystery based on real-life events where two women claimed to have seen the ghost of Marie-Antoinette. However it’s the second in a series and I have not read the first one.
Toss it.
Do you tend to agree or disagree with Goodreads average rating, and do you use Goodreads as a guide for books you want to read?
Well, according to BookSirens I tend to be a strict reviewer compared to other readers. This chart plots the difference between my rating and the book’s average rating. Green means my rating was higher, red means my rating was lower and there is more red than green. I don’t use Goodreads to decide what books to read next, I simply use it to store my list of potential options.
Let’s chat in the comments!
If you read to the end of my post I tag you to do this challenge! 😉 Have you read any of these books and do you agree or disagree with my ratings?
What a fun tag! I really enjoyed reading your answers and if you don’t mind, I reckon I’ll steal this to do at some point in the coming weeks! 🤭 Honestly can’t believe I haven’t seen this tag floating around before and I also can’t wait to see what my answers will be for these prompts. I think with these types of posts about ratings, it’s clear that they’re not always “trustworthy” and that’s why I never only look at ratings when deciding whether I want to read a book or not (at least, not anymore, lol)!
I’m glad you enjoyed reading my answers and that you want to do the tag yourself. If you do, I can’t wait to see your answers! I thought it was a fun way to look deeper into my own reading.
Yes that’s so true, it really helps to highlight that ratings are not the end all be all and I try not let it impact my choices too much either. Though it can be tough.
Enjoyed reading your answers. I think the only one on here I read was Me Before You. I remember liking it though. Probably gave it 4 stars.
Thanks, Zeezee 🙂 I’m glad I found this on your blog coz I had fun with it! & That’s fair, I know a lot of people really like it.
This was fun! I haven’t seen this tag making the rounds and really, I haven’t done a tag in so long. It seems like it’d be fun though to look at how we rate things vs the popular trends or votes. 🙂 Thanks so much for all the visits to my TTT list this past week.
I’m glad you enjoyed it and that it was a fresh tag you hadn’t seen yet! I certainly had a lot of fun with it 🙂 & My pleasure, it was nice to continue the conversation a bit !
Ooh what a fun tag. I’ll definitely have to try it sometime. I’ll probably wait until I’ve added my 2020 reviews for a few more options to pull from (I honestly can’t remember why I never shared them as I have them saved for every book I read back then 🤔) but I’m definitely hoping to try it out sometime next year. I don’t think you’re a particularly strict reviewer 🤔 I see fewer 3 and less star reviews on your page than on some people’s anyway. Interesting to see a chart for it though.
Ouch I’ve heard of Little Prince but don’t really know much about it. I think classics can cause rather different responses from readers though. I haven’t read Me Before You. I have seen the movie and liked it but I don’t really know how closely adapted it is. I’ve heard of Katee Robert but haven’t read anything by her. Its nice to see that you gave one of her books five stars though. And I think I vaguely remember you mentioning Perfume in a post before. I’ve seen rather mixed things about it and I’m not sure if it will be too macabre for me
But I may pick it up out of curiosity if I ever catch up with the books I’m excited about 😂 it’ll be interesting to see if I end up rating it lowly too.
Well done on getting two books off of your TBR too. Every little bit helps 😂 the second sounds kind of interesting to me but you’ve said it’s the second in a series so removing it makes sense.
Yes oh, I’d love to see your answers for this! Ah yes that’s a good idea better to have more choices to pick from and wow that sounds like a lot of work, inputting all of your ratings for one year’s worth of books!
Aw thank you well that’s nice to hear I suppose but I can sort of agree with the BookSirens assessment because I don’t really write reviews for every book I read and if I disliked a book chances are I don’t want to spend the time and effort to make a write-up for it. I probably should anyways but will I? Who knows!
I know, so many people adore that book so I know that my saying I hate it can be divisive 😬. Yeah, that’s true classics can be very love it or hate it. I’ve seen the Me Before You movie as well and in my opinion it was pretty faithful to the book, all the big beats were there and any changes were small from what I remember.
I’ve only read one book by Katee Robert but it was exactly what I was hoping from her and I loved it. She’s great if you want really spicy romance.
Ahaha yes I read Perfume while I had the blog so I’ve definitely complained about that one before 😂 It was a bit macabre but mostly so unhinged and nonsensical in a way I didn’t appreciate. I’d be curious to know what you think of it though!
Ahah yess any book off the ‘ol tbr is a win and realistically I was never gonna read them anyways. The second does sound interesting but not interesting enough for me to hunt for the first one, oops 😆!
It’s not as bad as it sounds as the reviews are written so it’s mostly copy & pasting. The worst part will be adding them to the sites with character limits as I then have to find sentences to remove 🙄 oh and titles for some websites, I always struggle with those 😂
I do understand why you feel like that as writing negative reviews can be tricky. Putting your finger on the issues is generally simple enough but trying to phrase it all in a way that doesn’t feel mean can be hard.
I feel the same way when I call Narnia dry 😂 I love the content and seeing I’d adapted but I really wasn’t a fan of the writing style. Ah right. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you then. I get where you’re coming from but it’s been years since I saw it so I’d have to rewatch it to remember exactly how it made me feel about the subject.
Aww well I’m glad it was such a hit with you and I’ll make sure to remember that.
Yes I remember you saying ‘that’s not how scent works’ 😂 and if I ever get to it I’ll definitely let you know how I find it. It’ll be interesting to compare thoughts.
Same here considering the size of mine 😂
Oh, that’s not so bad, then! 😅 haha Yes omg character limits is literally why I started my blog because I was so annoyed with having to play around with character limits on IG 😂!! So I understand! How many websites do you typically share your reviews on?
Yes, I have no problem being diplomatic while giving constructive criticism it’s just that if it’s not for an ARC, I simply don’t have the motivation sometimes. It’s more fun to write about something I LOVE! But you’re right, depending on how bad the book was I am sometimes tempted to be sassy. 😆
ahah I read the first Narnia book in grade 7 and I never read the rest so I suppose I agree, I never found the writing particularly compelling. I did enjoy the movies though!
Yeah that’s okay, we can’t love everything and everytime I don’t love a book it reaches me more about my preferences so It’s not a massive loss. And that’s fair since it’s not a new book haha.
Ahaha omg you’re always impressing me with your amazing memory I did say that and then the buddy I read it with said ” That’s not how anything works!” 🤣lool Yes please!
haha yes, relatable ♥
They are so frustrating. Thankfully a lot of websites don’t seem to use them. Or else they’re massive and I haven’t discovered them yet 😂 I think it’s 5, 6 for the ones on Netgalley. Although I do want to gradually add them all to Instagram when I start using it again too.
Ah right. That makes sense. Sometimes when you’re disappointed you just want to put it behind you and move on to something good. And it’s definitely more fun to gush about a good book and find fellow fans.
I read them all but it was over a decade ago now. I do want to try them again one day. But I have so much that I’m more excited to get to first. I always liked the movies too though. And the games 😂
That’s a good way of looking at things.
Oh lol I didn’t know they said that 😂😂 and trust me it can kind of be a pain too. I spot a spoiler when flicking through Goodreads sometime and it will sort of lock itself in my mind 🙈
For some reason, the Wayward Kindred cover reminds me of the manga The Ancient Magnus Bride…
But fun tag! Like you, I use Goodreads just to store lists of books (mostly what I’ve read, as I cannot be bothered to refer to it when I’m at the library looking for something on my TBR) so I mostly ignore the reviews until after I’m done with the book!
Oh, I had never heard of that Manga but it looks cool, I can see the resemblance😆!!
Yes that makes sense, plus that means you don’t let other people’s opinions sway your own before you’re even done the book, which is nice 🙂
This is a fun tag! I don’t use Goodreads to pick my next reads either, but it can be a helpful place to keep track of my reviews.
It was really fun to make! & Yes for sure, I agree it has many uses for picking the next book is just not one of them for me 😆
I’ve never seen this tag before, but it looks a lot of fun! I mostly ignore the goodreads rating when it comes to picking up a book, I more look at reviews because someones 2* rating might be the thing that makes me want to pick the book up.
Thanks and It was so fun to look for my answers! oh, absolutely I agree entirely. Someone’s deal breaker might be the exact thing I want!
What an interesting tag! I kind of agree with your rating on The Little Prince. I didn’t grow up with the book so I don’t have any strong feelings towards it. I found it to be ok, but nothing spectacular. I started reading The Invisble Library a few years ago but couldn’t bring myself to continue reading it, so I dnfed it eventually. Sorcery of Thorns worked better for me. I felt like they had the same vibe.
Thanks and I’m glad you kind of agree because I know so many people who absolutely adore it and I just don’t get it.
Ah well, at least you tried it and fair enough! Sorcery of Thorns is one I really want to read so that’s good to know! 🙂
Hey!
I enjoyed reading your answers!
Hope you don’t mind me stealing this one for a post in the future, it looks fun!
And no, I don’t know any of those books or have read them. But I agree on the Wayvard Kindred cover. It’s a beauty!
Btw, I couldn’t comment via Jetpack, so I might not get notified on a reply but will try to check on it!
Just so you know.
greetings,
Samy
Hey 🙂 Go ahead, I would be curious to see your answers for it, I find it’s a tag where you can learn a lot about your own and other people’s book tastes!
Yes, I’m not gonna lie, Wayward Kindred was 100% a cover buy and I’m just sad I didn’t click with it.
Ohh, I see thank you. I don’t think I use Jetpack (Not gonna lie, I don’t fully understand what it is). I’ll go visit your blog and subscribe and maybe that’ll help! Thanks either way 🖤