The Ultimate Book Rating System

Let’s face it: the five-star ranking system sucks. Sometimes you read a book that’s so technically perfect you can’t not give it five stars, even though you weren’t that big of a fan, and sometimes you just can’t help but fall for a book even though it sounds like it was written by a thirteen-year-old on Wattpad. Some people bestow five stars as a rare honor, and others throw out five-star-ratings like rice at an Asian wedding. And of course, there’s the age-old question: is three stars a good or bad review?

As a scientist, the lack of an objective standard offends me on a spiritual level; as a reader, it pains me to give well-loved books low ratings just because they weren’t as perfect as they could have been. With that said, I’ve made up this ranking system to suit my needs – and hopefully, yours as well!

(Disclaimer: I’m sure other people have thought of this system, or some variation of it, before. I’ve just elected to give mine a fancy name and share it with the internet.)

Introducing tier lists — which gamers and nerds all around the internet are already familiar with — but for books! The scale usually goes S – A – B – C – D – E – F, but in my case, I’ve chosen to give it a nerdy twist and use the Harry Potter grading scale, as follows:

• POSITIVE. Would Recommend/Reread
  • O – Outstanding
  • E – Exceeds Expectations
  • A – Acceptable
• NEGATIVE. Would Not Recommend/Reread
  • P – Poor
  • D – Dreadful
  • T– Troll

The principle behind the tier list is simple: the better a book is, the higher it goes on the scale. Now, when I say better, it is in complete disregard of the technicalities of the book as a piece of writing — those are accounted for by the five-star scale. The tiers can mean different things to different people, but the point is to allow yourself to be biased; favorite books go on top, least-liked books go on bottom, no matter how well- (or otherwise) written they are.

With this system in place, you can satisfy your need to be objective using the five-star system, and you get to play favorites with the tier list at the same time!

For example, this is my (incomplete) tier list for some popular YA books that I’ve read (in no particular order):

O

• Six of Crows (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Heroes of Olympus (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Harry Potter (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Circe (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Red, White & Royal Blue (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

E

• The Dark Artifices (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Infernal Devices (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Sorcery of Thorns (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• A Court of Thorns and Roses (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Folk of the Air (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• An Enchantment of Ravens (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Hunger Games (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Kane Chronicles (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Wrath and the Dagger (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Shatter Me (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Song of Achilles (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

A

• Flame in the Mist (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Red Queen (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Hush, hush (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Sweet Evil (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Iron Fey (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Shadow of the Fox (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Legend (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Under the Never Sky (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Lunar Chronicles (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Divergent (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Mortal Instruments (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

P

• The Selection (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Matched (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Maze Runner (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Throne of Glass (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Shadow and Bone Trilogy* (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

D

• To Best the Boys (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Wither (⭐️⭐️)
• The Winner’s Curse (⭐️⭐️)
• Poison Study (⭐️⭐️)

* P, in this case, stands for petty. This trilogy is only here because I’m bitter about the Darkling.

** I’ve neglected to include the bottom tier because there aren’t many books that I truly detest – in this category, at least.

As you can see, while there is a correlation between how well-written a book is and how much I like it, it’s not the most important factor in the rankings. Click here if you’d like to see complete versions of my tier lists!

I hope this post has been helpful, and if you decide to use this or a similar system, I’d love to see it!

— Puck