Anti-hamster Rating

Books that earn an anti-hamster... I hope none do. Here is a non-exhaustive list of reasons why I would give one of these:

• Book contains offensive stereotype characters, or celebrates/condones/pushes prejudice. I'm not taking about satire, or dark humour, or a healthy distrust of the PC lobby here.

• Book is not for YAs, it is impossible to conceive it having a crossover appeal to YAs. In fact, book has been submitted spam fashion with author's brain not engaged. (This is the only way I can think of at the moment that an anti-hamster could be earned by an author rather than his/her book).

• Book is not suitable for stated target audience, for reasons of content, style etc.

• I would actively recommend that almost everyone not buy this book.

If I give a book an anti-hamster, I will explain why.

Technical Ratings

Technical ratings are for self-published books, unless stated otherwise in a particular review. The reason for this is that anyone can publish a book, for very little cost, or even for free, and because of this editing and general writing standards vary enormously. I have read some excellent self-published books, which is a good part of the reason I'm reviewing them here, but I've also read some with formatting and or spelling/punctuation/grammar errors, and/or minor to serious style/word choice problems. If more people are to read self-published books, as I hope you will - otherwise I wouldn't review them!:-) - they need to know what level of quality they're spending their money on. The most common reason people give me for avoiding self and subsidy/vanity published fiction is quality of writing/editing/formatting, which is why I'll be rating these aspects of books I review as well as story/characters and so on in the Reader Ratings.

Here are the technical ratings:

• Five hamsters: Pro. The occasional mistake slipped under the copyeditor's radar, but I had to really concentrate to spot one.

• Four hamsters: I winced occasionally over grammar/punctuation/word choice, but it was occasional, and I got over it pretty quickly. Minor issues that might not register with the non-writing reader, but a writer/editor/literary agent would probably pick up on.

• Three hamsters: The book has been carefully edited; nevertheless, I have one or two technical issues with this book that distracted me from the story in some places. Still, not all readers would notice, and the writing is strong for the most part. I've got my red pen out, but only in my mind...
  

• Two hamsters: Most readers would find something off here. Although the story might not be confusing in itself, reading it is a confusing experience for technical reasons. If I'm reading a hard copy of this, I've got my red pen out, and I'm using it.:-)
  

• One hamster: Serious technical issues, and possibly serious issues with formatting as well. Don't make me come over there!
  

Reader Ratings

So, I'm setting up a rating system, using hamsters, because I like them. This particular hamster was called Peanut. Here he is (this new mouse vs paintbrush isn't so great).

Here are the reader-ratings:

• Five hamsters: Knocked my socks off. I wish I'd written this! I can't think of any way of improving plot, characterisation, conflict, world-building, voice, anything!

• Four hamsters: My socks are still on, but only just. I will harrass people in the street and make them read this. I will probably read this again.

• Three hamsters: Good story, I enjoyed reading it. Recommended for people who like this specific genre. This could be an excellent story that wasn't quite for me, but I think others would love, or a story I liked elements of, but thought could have been more original, etc.

• Two hamsters: Good - or even great - concept, but something major got in the way for me as a reader.

• One hamster: I found this attractive enough to start reading, but was unable to finish it due to some major issues.