A few weeks ago, Kristin @ Kristin Kraves Books shared a list of books she’s loved with low ratings on Goodreads. I thought this was such a fun and interesting idea that I had to check my own shelves to see which books I’d loved that had low overall ratings.
I decided to only share books I’ve read in the last five years, because I will openly admit that I had questionable taste in books before that. I also tried to exclude books that have low ratings because of bad author behavior, since, while I may have enjoyed the book, I don’t want to condone their problematic actions.
So, that said, here are four books that I really enjoyed with average ratings below 3.5 stars.
My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran & Larissa Zageris
Goodreads average: 3.36 stars
My rating: 4 stars
If you like sarcastic humor and books that make fun of their genre, you’ll probably love this interactive romance novel. Yes, it’s full of cliches, but that’s because it’s making fun of the cliches. The love interests are laughable because it’s making fun of the characteristics of classic romance love interests. If you’re looking for a serious, historically accurate romance, this isn’t it. If you’re looking to have fun and laugh, this might be a book for you.
We All Fall Down by Natalie D. Richards
Goodreads average: 3.41 stars
My rating: 4 stars
I just scrolled through the negative reviews on Goodreads and they all seem to be along the lines of “this was clearly written for teenagers.” To be fair, it is YA. It’s not meant to scare the pants off of you or anything. I liked this book because it had a spooky vibe without actually being scary.
Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk
Goodreads average: 3.44 stars
My rating: 4 stars
I understand the problematic behavior in this book that a lot of reviewers have brought up, but… that was kind of the point? In this book, a cupid-in-training accidentally messes up his arrows and hits only half of his target. The result is a girl who’s head-over-heels for a boy who couldn’t care less about her, and that boy definitely takes advantage. His behavior is despicable, but what would this book have been if it wasn’t? (Boring, probably.)
The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian
Goodreads average: 3.46 stars
My rating: 4 stars
One of the things that I liked most about The Last Boy and Girl in the World is how realistic the characters were. Keeley was an incredibly realistic teenage girl who has no idea how to handle her whole town going underwater. She’s not always likable. In fact, a lot of the time, she says or does the wrong thing. I guess I can understand why a lot of reviewers couldn’t connect with her, but I think this book would have been incredibly boring if everyone in this book had known what to do in this very strange situation.
What are some books you’ve loved with low ratings on Goodreads? Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think of them? Let’s talk in the comments!
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The Bibliophagist 
Nice concept! I actually haven’t read any of the books you listed. I looked through my Goodreads records and wasn’t able to find anything this year that scored below 3.5 in general. Always subject to change though!
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Thank you! I’m generally really hesitant to read books with low Goodreads averages, but I’m trying to be better about it!
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I am too, but now I try and base my judgment off of whatever preview I can get of the book. Still a work in progress sometimes though.
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Never read any of those. but yeah, I know I’ve given 4 and 5 stars for books that have low averages. I guess it all depends on the angle you look at things.
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Definitely! The things I really like in a book could be things that other people hate.
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I love the idea of this. I like using Goodreads to get a general idea of the consensus on a book, but I’ve had a few instances lately where I was really surprised by how much I liked something that had a considerably low rating. I have to stop taking the ratings into so much consideration, I think.
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Thank you, and me too! I’m trying to rely on Goodreads ratings less when it comes to choosing what I want to read.
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Ratings and reviews on Goodreads tend to not be forgiving at all, so I’m not surprised that they were low, as for the whole character not being likeable debate. I get it, if they’re not likeable it’s hard to connect, but it’s not really realistic for all mc’s to be likeable! Some people aren’t likeable people and I don’t think that means they can’t have a good story about them! Some books just effect you differently and are good because of the fact that you don’t like the character, I think it shuts off a lot of narrative if people only like protagonists who are conventionally likeable! I seem to have a lot of thoughts about this hahahah I may write a discussion post on it😂
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That’s a great topic for a discussion post! I’ve definitely loved books with unlikable characters, as long as they’re unlikable in a realistic way. I don’t fault an author for writing a character that behaves like a real person would in a situation, and there have been sooo many times in my life when I haven’t known what to do and have done the completely wrong thing. I think I have a lot of thoughts on this too, haha. 🙂
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I haven’t read any of those, but I love this concept. It’s really good for us bloggers (especially those of us on Goodreads) to step back away for a second from the law of averages and give other books with lower ratings or that perhaps haven’t seen huge audiences yet a try.
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Thank you! And it’s definitely something I’m trying to get better about! I avoided books with low averages for so long and I think I just need to stop doing that.
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Great topic choice. I use Goodreads ratings a lot to decide whether or not I will pick up and read a book but unfortunately, I know that sometimes, they do steer us wrong! But really, we never know until we dive in!
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Thank you! And I totally agree! There have been books with really high averages that I’ve hated and, like these books, books with lower averages that I’ve loved.
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