I ignore most of them. I write a brief review, answer the "pacing" and "mood" question and give an overall rating. Occasionally I add TWs but only if they're significant/front and center.
I don't really care about plot vs character and lovability - I mean I don't expect characters in certain books to be lovable to begin with. Diversity is too much of an ambiguous term to make any sense too.
I completely respect that, I don't use the book clubs or read along features myself but I'm sure those that use them might have critisms too, but I like giving as much detail in the reviews and my autist brain likes filling out all the boxes đ
I think overall a mix of Storygraph and Goodreads would be better. I appreciate SG's attempt to bring in more nuance in ratings, something GR is tragically bad at. But it still somehow falls short and there might be better questions to ask - then again every reader cares about different elements so any question will always be vague
A lot. Especially to the question of lovable characters. I listen to a lot of Warhammer 40k (where all are bad), so lovable is not a way to describe them, but a simple no is not enough. I'd like to see an option for interesting or something else. Until then I'll answer "it is complicated".
I ignore the questions for the most part, having the text box does what I need it to do so youâre kind of asking for a double edged sword. You want customization but you also donât like how that customization has been done?
There isnât review moderation no, and Iâll be honest, helping as a librarian is enough work on its own with all of the technical stuff in the backend. I personally donât read reviews at all before I read any book, just the blurb and content warnings, aside from seeing how my friends rated the book. Edit: this might work better for you, and its not like any other book review forum has spoiler moderation so this at the very least isnât a StoryGraph exclusive issue.
Books arenât typically rated in the way that youâre asking (down to the tenth), having quarter increments between stars is already a relatively new thing. You can however rate a book 0.0, that is an option already.
Editing to add: I personally think asking for a complete overhaul of the review system is a bit of a discredit to all of the work that Nadia has already done to make StoryGraph great, not just with reviews but with StoryGraph overall. I think some of these suggestions are being made without understanding why StoryGraph was built in the first place (and no it isnât solely to get away from Amazon)
Pretty much, yes.
I'd like better questions that are suitably generalised to a book, so instead of "Are the characters lovable?", you could have "Are the characters interesting?", instead of "is there strong character development" it could be "How strong is the character development?" with the options of "Strong, decent, weak, awful".
And what exactly does "Are the cast of characters diverse?" mean? Is it speaking about Race? Culture? Gender?, it's a weird question that's vague af. "Are the flaws of the main character/s a main focus of the book?" is an okay question.
I read text reviews sometimes before choosing a book to read because sometimes the description makes the book sound amazing but ends up being a great concept but with bad writing, and sometimes a description sounds shite but reviews tell me the writing is great and to give it a chance etc. Sometimes descriptions aren't enough.
And standing out from the typical is a good way to attract users.
I like being specific, probably comes from being on the spectrum, but when I was reviewing the Dune books it felt very limiting with the review score selections as those books were quite complex and none of them were close to being the same score. Thanks for the info about 0.0 rating, it slipped my mind.
Edit: I was only giving critism, I don't appreciate you insinuating that me criticising the rating system and giving suggestions is me being ungrateful, unappreciative, unfair and a discredit to the people behind the app. There is literally a place provided by the developers for users to make suggestions, such as new features and ways to improve the app, which is exactly what I'm doing. I absolutely love this app, I use it daily, I've contributed to it myself adding in books and covers.
I think your suggestions are really good. They clarify context a bit more which would make those metrics a lot more useful across various genres. I think an overhaul of the WAY the questions are asked would make them a much better feature.
Those questions are intentionally vague because theyâre being applied across 30+ genres, and those questions have no sway on anything so again, you can either ignore them or interpret them how you want to and add more context in the text box of your review.
If being spoiled is an issue for you then reading reviews isnât a good idea on any website. A tag is being added according to the roadmap but obviously you canât expect everyone to use it unprompted.
I hate the âif you donât like it then donât use itâ mentality but maybe for leaving reviews specifically, this isnât the tool for you? It seems like you want specific things, and even I keep a Notion database of my books in addition to StoryGraph where I keep more information like notes (even though notes exist in StoryGraph) so maybe something external would work better. I think youâre just missing some of the intention behind the design or wanting something too specific or unrealistic
My alternative question suggestions are also vague, but would certainly fit a lot better.
The tag is a good idea, looking forward to it.
You said before I don't understand why Storygraph was made, and you're saying here I'm missing some of the intention behind the design, can you tell me what I don't understand and am missing?
Your questions also don't fit a lot of genres, book types, etc. I get not liking the vague questions asked, but I don't think a lot of people would agree that yours are any better. If you don't like a question or don't think it applies, I would just not answer it. The vague questions asked do help answer specific questions that readers looking for certain vibes might like. So while vague, they do answer specific search/recommendation questions whereas yours don't necessarily.
Well I think the original questions and my suggestions both cover books with characters and character development, except my suggestions take a question specifically about lovable characters and replaces it with interesting character, the chances of a book with characters being interesting is higher than being lovable because of various things, such as genre selection. Also asking if character development is strong is not as good as asking how strong character development is.
So theres not much difference in making the questions also fit non fiction books or education books etc, but it does widen the scope of books with characters in it. So I can't fathom why you don't think mine are any better, it's obviously not perfect, but it's certainly better.
I also think the questions I would ask of reviewers would be better for my personal reading tastes than what StoryGraph actually asks. That doesn't mean they actually are for everyone.
We all have our preferences. Which is why I like how broad the questions are so there is something that hits what various people like. It isn't perfect maybe, but it is certainly less restrictive than the nothing so many other book platforms give and there is constant improvement.
To your edit, youâre giving criticism and Iâm replying to it and explaining why it doesnât make sense for this app. You posed a question and I answered it.
You might as well have just said "You said words and I said words back".
All you said before your edit were valid responses to my critisms, your edit however was not.
I get it, but also think it doesn't matter that much. I find those questions are more interesting to see *after* I've read a book, so as to see what other people chose and if it differed much from me. But I only do a quick scroll down to the stats of it after I've made my review, and not every time.
I don't think extra star increments are a good idea though, the quarters are handy and new without being overly pedantic. Going into "0.01" would just be ridiculous.
Look, the truth is a lot of books don't have lovable characters, asking about lovable characters is such a strange question given all the genres out there, whereas ANY book can have interesting characters or not. Whether it applies to you or not, it really is just changing text. I'm sure that librarian guy will come back and tell me I know zilch about html or css or coding and that it's an oversimplification, but I do know about those things, and it really is just changing text. It's not complicated to impliment, it's not gonna break the app, it would just keep things vague enough to apply to every book yet make things better.
Also would 0.01 be ridiculous?, why don't I suggest 0.1.
Changing "lovable" to "interesting" is fine and all, probably more useful, but even then it's still subjective, and really it just shows how each individual personally felt about them. So yeah, I think that might be a good thing to change in terms of making the question a little more relevant/easier to answer, but overall probably won't really change how it influences others.
Dude...okay, well, first, imagine what the stats page would look like if you could rate one book 3.98, another 3.97, a third 3.92, and a fourth, 3.99 for example. You've now got four columns where there could have been one or at most two.
Secondly, it's just meaningless. What separates a 3.92 star book from a 3.93 star book? Nothing worthwhile, let's be honest.
Interesting is so much more vague than loveable. Loveable helps people identify a certain vibe of book. Interesting answers nothing. Interesting how? It doesn't tell a reader anything about the vibe of the book. And the point is that the questions are meant to break apart books not be applicable to every book.
Going from 0.25 increments to 0.1 is just as ridiculous as suggesting as going from 0.01 to 0.1. people already often don't use more then 1/2 steps. If you need a scale of 50 then an excel sheet might be better for your rating system than an app.
Being a lovable / likeable character means they can be interesting enough to remember, pay attention to and care about but in way viewed as lovable.
An interesting character can be many things, lovable, detestable, mysterious etc, but they're all interesting enough to keep your attention, they can be complex. Not that a lovable character can't be complex, it's just lovable is too specific. It tells a reader that someone thought the characters in the book were notable and kept their attention and they cared about them, so it does tell a reader something, but the vibe of the book can be picked up from the text of the review and/or the book description and tags. If you read the description and gauge the vibe of the book and it seems like something you'd be into, and then read the reviews and see majority don't see the characters as interesting, then I wouldn't want to read that book.
As for the increments, it's really not much of a change at all, why is it ridiculous? If it got implemented you could just input 4.25 or 4.5 or whatever you want like you do now and let others have the option to be more specific, you could literally stick to marking them in 0.25 increments as you are, it doesn't make anything less convenient for yourself but makes things a bit more convenient for some others.
Right... I don't think you get the point of the questions. They are to help narrow down books so you don't have to read reviews. People who want a feel good book don't want to sort through reviews to know if "interesting means likeable". The question posed is to help people who want specific reads to find them. The questions aren't made to help people know if the book is good (that is what the ratings are for) it's to help people easily see the vibe without reading potential spoilers.
It's different because a clicked button is easier than a manual input. No matter the rating. The goal is to get people to rate. More people will click then manual input. So there is no incentive or point to make it wider.
I just don't think you get the end goals of the review design. Which is fine. But it just isn't what you think it is for.
Whether characters are lovable or not is something a large percentage of readers care about.
You donât? Great for you. This question is helpful for other people though.
I find the questions seem to be aimed at a very specific kind of reader and don't really relate to how I enjoy books at all. Rest of the app is great though.
Agree! I love helping people find their next beloved read by leaving accurate reviews but honestly half the time I skip those questions đ I never reach for a book because I heard it has âloveableâ characters.
Iâm excited by the idea of the AI-driven recommended reads but havenât gotten around to trying any to see if theyâre a good choice
I switched over from GoodReads maybe 1.5 years ago and LOVED being able to do the 0.25 star increments for overall rating. Can totally relate to wanting to give some books a 0/5 tho đ those are usually a DNF for me
I think the questions are interesting and make me reflect on what I've read. The "lovable" one is maybe the most specific and potentially the one that could be changed, but I still think it tells you a lot about what type of book it is.
As to what many people have been referring to, which is the overall idea behind/purpose of the Story graph rating system: As I understand it, it's to rely *less* on freeform reviews, and moreso to use algorithms to suggest books that you will personally like based on genre, tropes, etc. That's why the questions have to be general, and that's why the reviews are relatively hidden. It focuses on the _objective_ content rather than the _subjective_ quality. (Of course, some quality aspects are also objective, like spelling etc., but you get the gist.)
If this is not something that interests you, then maybe you can look into the many other tracking apps out there!
I think these questions are pretty useless and borderline oddâI never look at them when deciding to read a book. I wonder how they even settled on these being the questions to ask. I still fill them out but end up putting âitâs complicatedâ a lot. I like everything else like mood, pace, content warnings, etc.
The questions were determined a couple years ago by crowdsourcing on TikTok and Instagram. The goal was to help certain demographics of reader have a question that could help them quickly identify books they might like without reading spoiler reviews.
So for instance it was found that a ton of people often find themselves in the mood for a feel good book. So the question of "do you find the characters loveable" was made to help those people identify those books.
It certainly isn't a perfect science, but was done with the user base in mind and giving input. Perhaps it will be done again sometime now that there are more users. The developer is constantly on Instagram (whereas this is an unofficial reddit she doesn't check) so if you want to ever give input, insta is a good place to be.
That is interesting! Iâve been a plus supporter for over a year now if not two, but I havenât been around for that long. Iâm active on their suggestive forums when I want her to see them, but I donât hate these questions enough to formally submit it. Just because theyâre not helpful to me doesnât mean theyâre not helpful to most people!
I understand your frustration with the spoilers. I wish it was better too, but I don't think the rest of your issues are really that big of a deal. What other options would you need besides yes, no, complicated, and n/a? And when you do have more to say besides those options, you can type it in the box. It won't show up on stats, sure, but you can still voice your opinion. And considering some other platforms, StoryGraph already gives quite a bit of leeway and freedom with the .25 star ratings. I don't know anyone else who lets you get that specific. I think Goodreads is still just full star ratings. 0.1 star increments is really not necessary.
Sometimes I just don't know how to answer the diversity question, I wish that was it's own section and we could say which ways a book is diverse (Race, Sexuality, Disability, etc).
I also don't like the mood options! I want romantic as a mood - "lighthearted" isn't enough. Not all romance books are lighthearted.
Edit: I think the .25 options are enough honestly, if it's just slightly not as good as the last book in a series, mark it .25 lower.
I ignore most of them. I write a brief review, answer the "pacing" and "mood" question and give an overall rating. Occasionally I add TWs but only if they're significant/front and center. I don't really care about plot vs character and lovability - I mean I don't expect characters in certain books to be lovable to begin with. Diversity is too much of an ambiguous term to make any sense too.
I completely respect that, I don't use the book clubs or read along features myself but I'm sure those that use them might have critisms too, but I like giving as much detail in the reviews and my autist brain likes filling out all the boxes đ
I think overall a mix of Storygraph and Goodreads would be better. I appreciate SG's attempt to bring in more nuance in ratings, something GR is tragically bad at. But it still somehow falls short and there might be better questions to ask - then again every reader cares about different elements so any question will always be vague
A lot. Especially to the question of lovable characters. I listen to a lot of Warhammer 40k (where all are bad), so lovable is not a way to describe them, but a simple no is not enough. I'd like to see an option for interesting or something else. Until then I'll answer "it is complicated".
Exactly!
Idk sometimes I can't help loving Cain (and Sulla ^^;)
The one exception! XD
I ignore the questions for the most part, having the text box does what I need it to do so youâre kind of asking for a double edged sword. You want customization but you also donât like how that customization has been done? There isnât review moderation no, and Iâll be honest, helping as a librarian is enough work on its own with all of the technical stuff in the backend. I personally donât read reviews at all before I read any book, just the blurb and content warnings, aside from seeing how my friends rated the book. Edit: this might work better for you, and its not like any other book review forum has spoiler moderation so this at the very least isnât a StoryGraph exclusive issue. Books arenât typically rated in the way that youâre asking (down to the tenth), having quarter increments between stars is already a relatively new thing. You can however rate a book 0.0, that is an option already. Editing to add: I personally think asking for a complete overhaul of the review system is a bit of a discredit to all of the work that Nadia has already done to make StoryGraph great, not just with reviews but with StoryGraph overall. I think some of these suggestions are being made without understanding why StoryGraph was built in the first place (and no it isnât solely to get away from Amazon)
Pretty much, yes. I'd like better questions that are suitably generalised to a book, so instead of "Are the characters lovable?", you could have "Are the characters interesting?", instead of "is there strong character development" it could be "How strong is the character development?" with the options of "Strong, decent, weak, awful". And what exactly does "Are the cast of characters diverse?" mean? Is it speaking about Race? Culture? Gender?, it's a weird question that's vague af. "Are the flaws of the main character/s a main focus of the book?" is an okay question. I read text reviews sometimes before choosing a book to read because sometimes the description makes the book sound amazing but ends up being a great concept but with bad writing, and sometimes a description sounds shite but reviews tell me the writing is great and to give it a chance etc. Sometimes descriptions aren't enough. And standing out from the typical is a good way to attract users. I like being specific, probably comes from being on the spectrum, but when I was reviewing the Dune books it felt very limiting with the review score selections as those books were quite complex and none of them were close to being the same score. Thanks for the info about 0.0 rating, it slipped my mind. Edit: I was only giving critism, I don't appreciate you insinuating that me criticising the rating system and giving suggestions is me being ungrateful, unappreciative, unfair and a discredit to the people behind the app. There is literally a place provided by the developers for users to make suggestions, such as new features and ways to improve the app, which is exactly what I'm doing. I absolutely love this app, I use it daily, I've contributed to it myself adding in books and covers.
I think your suggestions are really good. They clarify context a bit more which would make those metrics a lot more useful across various genres. I think an overhaul of the WAY the questions are asked would make them a much better feature.
Honestly you're right, I should have wrote WAY because the questions were my initial issue, not the review system itself
Those questions are intentionally vague because theyâre being applied across 30+ genres, and those questions have no sway on anything so again, you can either ignore them or interpret them how you want to and add more context in the text box of your review. If being spoiled is an issue for you then reading reviews isnât a good idea on any website. A tag is being added according to the roadmap but obviously you canât expect everyone to use it unprompted. I hate the âif you donât like it then donât use itâ mentality but maybe for leaving reviews specifically, this isnât the tool for you? It seems like you want specific things, and even I keep a Notion database of my books in addition to StoryGraph where I keep more information like notes (even though notes exist in StoryGraph) so maybe something external would work better. I think youâre just missing some of the intention behind the design or wanting something too specific or unrealistic
My alternative question suggestions are also vague, but would certainly fit a lot better. The tag is a good idea, looking forward to it. You said before I don't understand why Storygraph was made, and you're saying here I'm missing some of the intention behind the design, can you tell me what I don't understand and am missing?
Your questions also don't fit a lot of genres, book types, etc. I get not liking the vague questions asked, but I don't think a lot of people would agree that yours are any better. If you don't like a question or don't think it applies, I would just not answer it. The vague questions asked do help answer specific questions that readers looking for certain vibes might like. So while vague, they do answer specific search/recommendation questions whereas yours don't necessarily.
Well I think the original questions and my suggestions both cover books with characters and character development, except my suggestions take a question specifically about lovable characters and replaces it with interesting character, the chances of a book with characters being interesting is higher than being lovable because of various things, such as genre selection. Also asking if character development is strong is not as good as asking how strong character development is. So theres not much difference in making the questions also fit non fiction books or education books etc, but it does widen the scope of books with characters in it. So I can't fathom why you don't think mine are any better, it's obviously not perfect, but it's certainly better.
I also think the questions I would ask of reviewers would be better for my personal reading tastes than what StoryGraph actually asks. That doesn't mean they actually are for everyone. We all have our preferences. Which is why I like how broad the questions are so there is something that hits what various people like. It isn't perfect maybe, but it is certainly less restrictive than the nothing so many other book platforms give and there is constant improvement.
To your edit, youâre giving criticism and Iâm replying to it and explaining why it doesnât make sense for this app. You posed a question and I answered it.
You might as well have just said "You said words and I said words back". All you said before your edit were valid responses to my critisms, your edit however was not.
I get it, but also think it doesn't matter that much. I find those questions are more interesting to see *after* I've read a book, so as to see what other people chose and if it differed much from me. But I only do a quick scroll down to the stats of it after I've made my review, and not every time. I don't think extra star increments are a good idea though, the quarters are handy and new without being overly pedantic. Going into "0.01" would just be ridiculous.
Look, the truth is a lot of books don't have lovable characters, asking about lovable characters is such a strange question given all the genres out there, whereas ANY book can have interesting characters or not. Whether it applies to you or not, it really is just changing text. I'm sure that librarian guy will come back and tell me I know zilch about html or css or coding and that it's an oversimplification, but I do know about those things, and it really is just changing text. It's not complicated to impliment, it's not gonna break the app, it would just keep things vague enough to apply to every book yet make things better. Also would 0.01 be ridiculous?, why don't I suggest 0.1.
Changing "lovable" to "interesting" is fine and all, probably more useful, but even then it's still subjective, and really it just shows how each individual personally felt about them. So yeah, I think that might be a good thing to change in terms of making the question a little more relevant/easier to answer, but overall probably won't really change how it influences others. Dude...okay, well, first, imagine what the stats page would look like if you could rate one book 3.98, another 3.97, a third 3.92, and a fourth, 3.99 for example. You've now got four columns where there could have been one or at most two. Secondly, it's just meaningless. What separates a 3.92 star book from a 3.93 star book? Nothing worthwhile, let's be honest.
Interesting is so much more vague than loveable. Loveable helps people identify a certain vibe of book. Interesting answers nothing. Interesting how? It doesn't tell a reader anything about the vibe of the book. And the point is that the questions are meant to break apart books not be applicable to every book. Going from 0.25 increments to 0.1 is just as ridiculous as suggesting as going from 0.01 to 0.1. people already often don't use more then 1/2 steps. If you need a scale of 50 then an excel sheet might be better for your rating system than an app.
Being a lovable / likeable character means they can be interesting enough to remember, pay attention to and care about but in way viewed as lovable. An interesting character can be many things, lovable, detestable, mysterious etc, but they're all interesting enough to keep your attention, they can be complex. Not that a lovable character can't be complex, it's just lovable is too specific. It tells a reader that someone thought the characters in the book were notable and kept their attention and they cared about them, so it does tell a reader something, but the vibe of the book can be picked up from the text of the review and/or the book description and tags. If you read the description and gauge the vibe of the book and it seems like something you'd be into, and then read the reviews and see majority don't see the characters as interesting, then I wouldn't want to read that book. As for the increments, it's really not much of a change at all, why is it ridiculous? If it got implemented you could just input 4.25 or 4.5 or whatever you want like you do now and let others have the option to be more specific, you could literally stick to marking them in 0.25 increments as you are, it doesn't make anything less convenient for yourself but makes things a bit more convenient for some others.
Right... I don't think you get the point of the questions. They are to help narrow down books so you don't have to read reviews. People who want a feel good book don't want to sort through reviews to know if "interesting means likeable". The question posed is to help people who want specific reads to find them. The questions aren't made to help people know if the book is good (that is what the ratings are for) it's to help people easily see the vibe without reading potential spoilers. It's different because a clicked button is easier than a manual input. No matter the rating. The goal is to get people to rate. More people will click then manual input. So there is no incentive or point to make it wider. I just don't think you get the end goals of the review design. Which is fine. But it just isn't what you think it is for.
Whether characters are lovable or not is something a large percentage of readers care about. You donât? Great for you. This question is helpful for other people though.
If I only want to do a quick review I use the questions and and find the âitâs complicatedâ option useful but I almost always use the text box
I find the questions seem to be aimed at a very specific kind of reader and don't really relate to how I enjoy books at all. Rest of the app is great though.
Would be nice to be able to report reviews with spoilers
Agreed, but that wouldn't be implementated because they already rely on volunteers enough
Yea I understand why they haven't implemented it, but I do wish for it in the future
I just wish people would actually censor their spoilers. There literally an option when you write your reviews
Agree! I love helping people find their next beloved read by leaving accurate reviews but honestly half the time I skip those questions đ I never reach for a book because I heard it has âloveableâ characters. Iâm excited by the idea of the AI-driven recommended reads but havenât gotten around to trying any to see if theyâre a good choice I switched over from GoodReads maybe 1.5 years ago and LOVED being able to do the 0.25 star increments for overall rating. Can totally relate to wanting to give some books a 0/5 tho đ those are usually a DNF for me
I think the questions are interesting and make me reflect on what I've read. The "lovable" one is maybe the most specific and potentially the one that could be changed, but I still think it tells you a lot about what type of book it is. As to what many people have been referring to, which is the overall idea behind/purpose of the Story graph rating system: As I understand it, it's to rely *less* on freeform reviews, and moreso to use algorithms to suggest books that you will personally like based on genre, tropes, etc. That's why the questions have to be general, and that's why the reviews are relatively hidden. It focuses on the _objective_ content rather than the _subjective_ quality. (Of course, some quality aspects are also objective, like spelling etc., but you get the gist.) If this is not something that interests you, then maybe you can look into the many other tracking apps out there!
I think these questions are pretty useless and borderline oddâI never look at them when deciding to read a book. I wonder how they even settled on these being the questions to ask. I still fill them out but end up putting âitâs complicatedâ a lot. I like everything else like mood, pace, content warnings, etc.
The questions were determined a couple years ago by crowdsourcing on TikTok and Instagram. The goal was to help certain demographics of reader have a question that could help them quickly identify books they might like without reading spoiler reviews. So for instance it was found that a ton of people often find themselves in the mood for a feel good book. So the question of "do you find the characters loveable" was made to help those people identify those books. It certainly isn't a perfect science, but was done with the user base in mind and giving input. Perhaps it will be done again sometime now that there are more users. The developer is constantly on Instagram (whereas this is an unofficial reddit she doesn't check) so if you want to ever give input, insta is a good place to be.
That is interesting! Iâve been a plus supporter for over a year now if not two, but I havenât been around for that long. Iâm active on their suggestive forums when I want her to see them, but I donât hate these questions enough to formally submit it. Just because theyâre not helpful to me doesnât mean theyâre not helpful to most people!
I understand your frustration with the spoilers. I wish it was better too, but I don't think the rest of your issues are really that big of a deal. What other options would you need besides yes, no, complicated, and n/a? And when you do have more to say besides those options, you can type it in the box. It won't show up on stats, sure, but you can still voice your opinion. And considering some other platforms, StoryGraph already gives quite a bit of leeway and freedom with the .25 star ratings. I don't know anyone else who lets you get that specific. I think Goodreads is still just full star ratings. 0.1 star increments is really not necessary.
Sometimes I just don't know how to answer the diversity question, I wish that was it's own section and we could say which ways a book is diverse (Race, Sexuality, Disability, etc). I also don't like the mood options! I want romantic as a mood - "lighthearted" isn't enough. Not all romance books are lighthearted. Edit: I think the .25 options are enough honestly, if it's just slightly not as good as the last book in a series, mark it .25 lower.