I hopped back into my Goodreads account to see how Deep 3 was doing (out of curiosity) and…WHAT THE HECK?!?

I rated this four stars on Goodreads and wrote an enthusiastic review that I posted here, on Linked In, and Goodreads…and it only has a score of 2.67?!?!

Did we read the same book?

Now, granted, there’s next to nothing in terms of the number of reviews –two twos and one four (mine)–so I’m praying more review numbers will bring the score up, because a rating like this can hurt a book’s success, especially coming out of the gate (this manga comes out in less than a month).

I know this because for a long time, Son of the Siren kept getting hit with two and three star reviews. While the book is in a great place now, those early ratings are but one of the things that murdered the book’s chances.

Deep 3 is not the only thing I’ve scored high (and everybody else has scored low).

While I have admitted in my reviews that there are flaws in each of these works, it did nothing to diminish how much I enjoyed myself reading them, or the feelings I had while I zipped through the books. I’m especially surprised at Kaijin Fugeki, but that one might just be too weird for readers. I thought it was really imaginative and lovingly illustrated and I plan to keep following it.

I tend to score boys’ love high overall. There are very few exceptions to me rating something below a 4-star, although it has happened. I just think it’s such a blessing that BL continues to be professionally translated and made available in the States legally (and most of them are uncensored!), so I’m happy whenever I get my hands on a BL manga. Maybe that feeling leads to scoring too high; I’m not sure. I just know that I’m grateful whenever I read BL, because there was a time where it was hard to get without dipping into some questionable legalities. Also, I feel really happy whenever I read BL, even some of the darker, more twisted stuff, so perhaps that leads to regularly scoring higher than everybody else.

I have had feelings about books and manga and comics that are 2-star or 1-star, or even DNF, but I made a personal promise not to post those scores publicly given I’m reviewing people in my profession/in my wheelhouse, and…to not do this. I wonder if people see that as a detriment, though, and do not trust my reviews because 4-stars dominate. I’ve heard from YouTube reviewers that they do not trust other readers who leave only glowing reviews with high ratings on a regular basis. I try to be really careful when I review and look at the positive and negative aspects of a work…I try to be well-rounded, even if that review ends up being 4 or 5 stars. Maybe stuff doesn’t bother me as much? Maybe I just have a tendency to overlook things? I don’t know. If I enjoy myself while reading something, the score ends up being high.

Here’s my average score according to Goodreads for all of 2025:

That’s up there!

That’s why I get so shocked when I see low scores on works I totally enjoyed. The Deep 3 score, as it is right now, hurts. I want this manga to succeed, not only because it features a Black protagonist in Japan, but because its publisher, Noir Caesar, is devoted to giving space to marginalized artists. Even with those bits aside, I enjoyed myself as I read the manga, and found myself rooting for the team, including Demian. I’m not quite sure how people have come to their conclusions about this manga.

Again, I might be freaking out too soon because only three of us have rated the book, so I’m hoping other people get to reading it and jump on board with upping its rating. It’s a good manga.

But overall, there are times where I wonder if there’s something off about me where my personal score doesn’t match the overall score of a work. Did I miss something important? Do I score too high? Is there something…wrong with me?

(As a sidenote, this happens to me as a teacher with grading, too. I always wonder if I score my students higher than they should be graded.)

Anyway, all this to say, I’m not going to stop rating books the way I do (now, if teachers find my grading to be an issue, I’ll fix that), even if it means I’m being generous with my stars. While a lot of reading gets DNF’d or makes me bored or unhappy, I keep that a secret, and I only share what I find enjoyable to me. And if I have fun with a work, that’s one of the best feelings I can take away from it.

Readers, if you rate books, do you tend to go high, low, or in the middle? Does it bother you when your rating doesn’t align with the average?