To Each His Own: Ratings In A Subjective World + 6 book reviews ranging from no rating to 5 stars

A very dear friend of mine apologized for not having read all Having Written's posts yet. She'd left a few of them flagged, and planned to work through, but hadn't caught up. So I realized: if this person—who is super close to me and very much cares about me as a person and my writing career—can't get through Having Written weekly, there are more of you out there.

So for all our sakes (mine too), Having Written will publish every other week for the foreseeable future; coming on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, depending on how that week is treating me.

Just a reminder, because there are a bunch of new folks (hurray!): I'm Charlotte Chambers, full-time mom moonlighting as a full-time lawyer and aspiring writer. And I have a reading problem. Last year I read 95 books, and this year I'll probably finish more. In case you're curious: yes, reading is the only thing I do with free time. I don't really watch TV, and I use a Brick to lock down social media when I'm home. You can read a lot when you don't have other hobbies or interests lol.

As promised in my last post (and, technically, the one before that), here is an explanation of how I rate books in my reviews, along with an example review for each rating. As always, I've chosen to highlight unique stories that aren't one of the twenty books hawked on social media in their genre.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 - One Of The Best Books I've Ever Read
If a book gets 5 🌟 from me, it means that, in comparison to other books in the genre, I absolutely love it and it stands out as great and amazing and about as perfect a book can get. It makes me FEEL SOMETHING about the human condition. I feel happy to be alive and have a consciousness so that I can imbibe stories like these. The book fills me with spirit and I can't really find anything to quibble over. Examples:

🌟🌟🌟🌟 - Extremely Good Writing, Story, Characters, Craft
A four 🌟 review means: this is about as good a book can get without also being soul-shattering. It means I very much enjoyed, but did not have a near-transcendental experience. This rating often applies to excellent genre fiction with propulsive plots. I may have a quibble or two, but nothing that hurt the reading experience. Perhaps it was a little predictable, dragged in the middle, or a central character was a bit two-dimensional. Examples:

🌟🌟🌟 - Good Book, Fun Read, Glad I Read It
These are fun, exciting, or fluffy books (sometimes all three) and tend to be full of tropes without real in-depth character development. I think some people believe if I (or others) rate a book with 3 🌟, it's not worth reading. Absolutely not. It just means: I liked it, probably a lot, but it didn't change me, or have any particularly unique or beautiful craft elements. Examples:

🌟🌟 - Not Worth The Time, OK, Not Terrible
I give this rating rarely, because I will DNF a book with no guilt. But with a 2 🌟, I probably finished it even though I was kind of bored and wished I'd get the time back to read something else. In these cases, the characters are flat, the setting either too boring or too convoluted, the writing is juvenile, or I really, really, really hated a character or a trope. But I'm not mad I read it. I just wouldn't necessarily suggest you spend your time reading it, given all the other available options. Examples:

🌟 - I Hated It, Rage
I found the storyline or the characters disgusting or repulsive in some way, the writing bad, the values proffered in the book objectionable. Sometimes I just find the cast of characters so deeply miserable, unlikable, and boring, I just #can't. Sometimes I hate it and think the author should go to book jail. Sometimes I think they should go to real jail (although please know that I've not read a word of the book linked in that article). A 1 🌟 review tells you—do skip this, save yourself. Examples:

DNF with no rating - Many, Many Reasons
Sometimes I even like the book, I'm just wasn't in the mood for it, even though I thought I was. Sometimes I like the book a lot, but there is something so gutting and difficult to process, I can't keep going (e.g., a mother grieving a dead child). For me, a DNF (without a rating) isn't really saying much at all about whether you should read it, but signals to investigate for yourself.

Now on to exemplar book reviews, with ratings ranging from 5 🌟 to DNF/NR.

Book Reviews

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Rating: 5/5
Super Short Synopsis: A young woman tells the story of her upbringing in an English country manor with other "orphans." She meets a boy. I won't say more for risk I'll spoil anything about this masterpiece.

Review: What is a soul? How is it created? Who creates it? Who gets one? Can only naturally-born humans have souls? Do you have a soul if you have a mind?

I don't know if you'll find answers to those questions, but if you read Never Let Me Go, you'll certainly think about them. And cry, hard, while you do it. I'm not exactly the first person to rave about the genius of Kazuo Ishiguro or anything, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to. Never Let Me Go is gorgeous in its simplicity, and reading it feels like drinking a glass of water on a hot day after working your garden.

And let's pretend you're not in the mood to ponder existential questions (but why not tho?); Never Let Me Go is also just a very good story. The characters are relatable, full of life, the setting beautiful, pastoral for the most part. We follow a young girl as she becomes a woman and this illustration, in and of itself, is drawn well, in an interesting way. Reading Never Let Me Go is a win-win-win.

For the record: if you saw the movie already, do still read the book. I watched the movie first, and reading Never Let Me Go still knocked me flat on my back.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Rating: 4/5
Super Short Synopsis: Three college students orbit around each other in platonic and romantic ways. They talk about very intellectual stuff. One of the characters is clearly based on the real-life David Foster Wallace. Shenanigans ensue.

Review: Whether Jeffrey Eugenides meant to or not, Leonard Bankhead imbibes many of DFW's public-facing quirks. Reading Leonard felt like listening to the real DFW speechify (a guy I think is a master writer, and I'll admit I spent a lot of time being obsessed over in the 2010s). What can I say—I was really digging what he was putting down and still lament his untimely death.

Aside from the whole DFW-doppelganger thing, the storytelling is great, and Bankhead did not overshadow the well-written and nuanced Madeline or the lovable Mitchell. On the technical side, it is beautifully written, but also accessible, imminently readable.

There is a lot of art and literature talk. Religion too. I like talking about all that stuff, but not everyone might. Still, it doesn't overshadow the underlying and very good story and character-building. This is a 4 🌟 and not a 5 🌟 simply because most stories about bored, searching college kids don't knock my socks off. But this book, I'll admit, gets close to as good as it gets.

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
Rating: 3/5
Super Short Synopsis: A royal Lady (but the Scottish kind, way, way up in the Highlands) is basically destitute thanks to her parents, and her mother was an American actress (scandal!). She is forced to do normal stuff herself since she can't afford help. She secretly cleans houses, pretending to be a commoner, but then she is requested to act as a Spy for the Queen (Queen does not know about her secret money-making scheme). There is a smoking hot hottie named Darcy (of all things). Shenanigans ensue.

Review: Fun! Silly! Cute! Lots of 19th-century Victorian court intrigue, ladies in their dresses and what not; it has Bridgerton vibes, except Lady Georgie is broke and has to work in common jobs to feed and shelter herself. She has many run-ins with the handsome Darcy O'Mara, as noted, and this makes the series just splendid. Her Royal Spyness isn't going to change your life, but boy will it help you enjoy it.

All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Rating: 2/5
Super Short Synopsis: A woman gets hit by a bus and wakes up to find her young children grown to adulthood. Boring, bored people find out a boring family secret and are bored.

Review: While there were certainly elements to this book that impressed me, it was just so boring. I think you're getting this from my synopsis, yeah? I really have very little tolerance now for listening to rich people whinge on the page. I did finish, but it was a slog and I probably skimmed a fair bit. There is nothing 'bad' about the story, the topic was just 'guh.' Writing was solid, though, which kept me going.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Rating: 1/5
Super Short Synopsis: A pedophile grooms a 15-year-old girl and the author writes spicy scenes between them. Hard pass.

Review: Lolita is a masterpiece. Humbert Humbert is a filthy pig, and not once do we relate to him or root for him, as was Nabokov's goal. Nabokov tears down how Humbert sees Lolita as a temptress—because she isn't, she is a child, then a pubescent girl—and this is the cornerstone of the story.

In My Dark Vanessa, though, the narrator gives detailed description of romantic interaction like one gets from modern romance novel. And there are moments of tenderness between the two, almost as if you're being asked to root for them. This story could have been completely different if the author kept the proverbial bedroom door closed (even describing the confused feelings the young girl, now adult, has would have been fine), but alas, the author did not. Skip this one, it is foul.

Some people may still feel tempted, understandably. The abject lures me in too, guys...I knew how messed up A Little Life would be, for example, and I still read it. I was curious. Let me tell you now–My Dark Vanessa still isn't worth it, because the writing is really bad (whereas at least in A Little Life, you're getting a master-class in multi-POV, multi-generational world and character-building, and in dialogue, and like, pretty much all the craft things). The STORY in My Dark Vanessa isn't even very interesting, and the FMC is absolutely awful and being in her head is no fun. So just don't do it, take my word for it.

Alright, alright, and yes—this is one of those highly popular social media books, but I had to share because it's my most recent 1 🌟 and I'm still angry. I also DNF'ed around 25% because I couldn't handle the spicy PDF scenes (vom).

'The Year of the Witching' by Alexis Henderson
Rating: DNF
Super Short Synopsis: A young woman lives on the outskirts of town, and looks more like the outcasts of society (read: she's Black) than she does the insiders (read: Whites) because of her mother's union with one of those outsiders. She finds creepy people in the woods. She feels a pull of magic. Shenanigans ensue.

Review: This is one of those books I just wasn't in the mood for. But even when I was reading, quitting around 30%, I could see exactly where it was going. Curious, I looked up spoilers and I was indeed right. I need a little more mystery to my mysteries, and even though I think gothic, creepy, witchy vibes can take you a long way, ultimately I need to feel like I'm discovering the story as I go. I really like Alexis Henderson, and I may well pick The Year of The Witching up again. Preferred her well-executed House of Hunger (which is fabulous) to this one, though.

I hope this provides some probably much needed context to these newsletters, and seriously, I want to hear from you! What do you think of the new frequency (going to every other week)? What do you think of my rating system? Am I crazy? Am I jerk? Find all my contact info here if you don't want to comment below!

Thank you again for getting this far. Have a great week, and read banned books,
Charlotte Chambers