HAPPILY EVER AFTER discussion

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well :-)

I thought it might be interesting if everyone shared their criteria for evaluating which book is better.

What makes you rate one book higher than the other?

Is it the premise?
The story?
The plotting?
The writing?
The pacing?
The characters?
The setting?
The world building?
The ending?
Is it how the book makes you feel?
How the book helps you learn and grow?
How the book keeps your interest?
How much enjoyment the book provides?
How well the book meets your expectations?
How well the book fulfils your requirements?
Or is it something else altogether?

Suppose one book is good in some areas and another book is good in other areas. In which areas does the book has to be good for you to consider it better?

And to make this even more challenging—how about everyone limit themselves to maximum five criteria each? Just to push ourselves to figure out our most important ones :-)

Thank you :-)

Hi,
Here are my five main criteria in no particular order:

1 & 2) Writing & Characterisation

The writing should be polished and engrossing.

I should be able to connect with the characters—at least the protagonists.

I should be able to know their thoughts and feel their emotions.

I should be able to feel their bond with the people in their lives—family, friends, love-interest etc.

I should be able to like them and root for them.

Their actions should be believable with respect to their personality, their backstory, and the world they're inhabiting.

They should learn from their experiences and evolve—as individuals and with respect to their relationship with others.

3) Personal Growth

I should be able to learn as well. It could be the same lessons the characters learned, or I could draw my own conclusions from their experiences and learn from them. A character could inspire me to aquire a positive value or trait or discard a negative value or trait. A book could offer me an insight into another culture or era. It could provide a positive message. It could help me improve my writing. Teach me something else. Whatever it is, there should be some personal growth on my part after reading the book.

4) Enjoyment Level

I should be able to enjoy the book.

By the way, I debated a lot before deciding on this criteria. I was confused between these three:

(A) How the book keeps my interest
(B) How the book makes me feel
(C) How much enjoyment the book provides

Then I figured I would only enjoy a book if it kept my interest and made me happy. So I decided to go with Option C as it covered all the points.

5) Ending

The book should have a happy ending. The protagonists should end up successful and happy. The antagonists should be redeemed if they're redeemable or they should be punished and brought to justice. All the loose ends should be tied up. The book should leave me feeling happy and satisfied.

Well, these are my main criteria. It was harder than I expected to limit myself to only five. Lol.

A book good in these areas but bad in others would be better—for me—than a book bad in these areas but good in others.

A book closer to what I described above would be better—for me—than a book further from it.

I guess this is why Cozy Mystery, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy, and Romantic Suspense are among my favourite genres as they have these five qualities.

Of course, if I could have added more criteria, I'd have included "plotting" too, as Cozy Mystery and Romantic Suspense also contain Mystery, which requires solid plotting.

I'd have also included "how the book keeps my interest" since a Mystery should be intriguing. Still, I doubt I'd enjoy a boring book, and I mentioned "enjoyment level" as one of my five main criteria, so I guess that's okay.

One of my favourite Classics is Anne of Green Gables Eight-book Series by L. M. Montgomery. It possessed the five qualities I mentioned above. I'm not into Fantasy, yet I loved the Harry Potter books. That series also had these five qualities.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning everyone's main criteria for evaluating which book is better.

Thank you :-)

I actually use a spreadsheet to calculate my ratings (since June 11).
I wanted to try to get more consistency in my ratings. I set up a spreadsheet with various aspects of the books (premise, characterization, world building, pacing, execution, plot, writing style, and ending and weight their average for 75% of the score and then overall enjoyment is weighted at 25% of the score.

For me,
🌼the writing style is super important. If there’s purple prose or boring descriptions, it’ll bother me as I read the entire book. I like playful but also realistic writing.
🌼the characters are very important to me, if any of the characters that I’m supposed to like are annoying, it throws everything off😭i like when I can tell that the writer has really put a lot of thought into their characters.
🌼good and interesting relationships. It’s fun to read about very different people getting along, and feeling drawn to their relationship.
🌼good grammar and spelling.
🌼a good story. I always try to look for the next book that’ll make me yearn and ache and cry and laugh😫