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Penny asked this question about We Need New Names:
As I interact with other readers in book clubs and online, am finding it interesting how many readers want to rate a book highly for just one or two positive attributes. A 4 or 5 star book should get just about everything perfect. This book got a few things very right, but alot of other things were below average. Wondering why it's so hard for us readers to be "critical" in the best sense of the word?
Ty-real - Full disclosure: I've not read this book, but nonetheless felt that there are a huge amount of assumptions in this questions that need to be challen…more- Full disclosure: I've not read this book, but nonetheless felt that there are a huge amount of assumptions in this questions that need to be challenged.-

"A 4 or 5 star book should get just about everything perfect."

Lot of assumptions to unpack here - what a 4 or 5 star books looks like varies per person, and frankly, a numerical grading system is limited when dealing with a target that isn't measurable by strict criteria. Reading most certainly is not this.

Hell, what look likes a 4 or 5 star book has changed for me over last few years, and will no doubt continue to do so.

Your statement not only assumes some kind of universal arbiter, but also assumes that your opinion is very much in-step with said universal arbiter.

People can value different things in reading - realistically, using some kind of numerical scale is a comparative, so they are rating the book in comparison with other books they've read. In no sense is other people's literary experiences a uniform thing.

" This book got a few things very right, but alot of other things were below average."

You know, there's nothing wrong with putting this opinion to people who do like the book, and trying to engage them on that level. Helping them see your perspective and vice versa. Just vaguely asserting this is true about the book isn't a great start.

"Wondering why it's so hard for us readers to be "critical" in the best sense of the word?"

Honestly, I wouldn't even be answering this if it wasn't for this sentence. So now you've asserted a standard that you think everyone should hold books to, and vaguely dismissed the novel itself, now you're using this as a basis to suggest people aren't reading correctly. Reading correctly, of course, seems to be implied that it should be read in the way you read it.

(I also balk at the idea that reading "critically" just involves identifying what worked for you and what didn't. Surely looking at the context of the novel, the way parts of the novel interact with other parts, how it plays against the lit' history it's playing off of and so on.)

Apologies if this seems a little blunt! There's every chance you just need to clarify some of what you were saying with this question, but as it's written I couldn't help but, well, be a bit critical of the way you framed things.(less)
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We Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo
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