Book Reviews & the Theory of Relativity

All five star books are not created equal.  A five star book by Virginia Woolf is not the same as a five star book by Shirley Jackson.  Say what?  When I award stars to a book, that rating is relative to other books by the author, and to a somewhat lesser extent, to other books in that genre.  Jackson may not be quite the writer that Woolf is (I love both), but each can get five stars for a book they've written. Otherwise, if Woolf is a five star writer, then lesser writers have no chance to get the highest rating, no matter how good a book is compared to others they've written. Every writer is capable of getting five stars, even if few do.  Donna Tartt is a good example: for me The Secret History was a five star book, The Goldfinch barely four stars (3.5 perhaps?), and The Little Friend was barely three stars; yet there are other writers who can only dream of writing a book as good as The Little Friend.  Yet for Tartt, I can't give any of them the same rating, they are too different in quality.  Many factors go into a rating, including how long that book will stay with me, or the emotional resonance it has, as well as readability and enjoyment.  So there is both a subjective component, enjoyment, and an objective component to ratings, with the objective part being some platonic ideal of the perfect novel. Unfair? Of course, but that's books and reading.  You know, life.