I was inspired by my friend The Orang-utan Librarian, who wrote a fantastic post, which was in turn inspired by something they saw on Thoughts of a Reader. So, I really hope no one will mind that I am going to take a look at some of the highest rated books (according to Goodreads) that I’ve read and how I saw them in turn. It should be a fun exercise to see if my taste goes against the grain or not! Let’s go!
**Disclaimer: I chose to focus on novels here and exclude comics and graphic novels. That’s a topic for another day maybe? Also, whenever the list was dominated by a series, I just picked the highest rated part instead of all the separate books.**
Fleabag Scriptures
Average rating: 4.83
My rating: 5
Thoughts: I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge is one of the great script writers we get to enjoy this decade, so I absolutely loved getting the opportunity to relive the Fleabag series in written format. It gives you a great insight into how she writes and what television scripts look like. Also, I’m not surprised by the high rating, as I suspect only fans will even check it out.
A Court of Mist and Fury
Average rating: 4.65
My rating: 5 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: I don’t like Maas writing and her books as much as I used to, but I was in love with the way it defied my expectations of how this sequel would turn out. I really liked the switch of who was the bad guy in the scenario.
Crooked Kingdom
Average rating: 4.60
My rating: 5 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: I loved my heist gang and know that many, many Leigh Bardugo fans do too. I think we’re all pumped for the Shadow and Bone Netflix series.
Clockwork Princess
Average rating: 4.58
My rating: 5
Thoughts: The Infernal Devices is my favourite series in the Shadowhunter universe so far/out of all the ones I’ve read. I found the end here weirdly satisfying and even got to love a love triangle.
A Storm of Swords
Average rating: 4.54
My rating: 5
Thoughts: I’ve definitely struggled with the Song of Ice and Fire books and just straight gave up somewhere in the fifth, but this was a good one. Maybe the best of the series, so it makes sense.
Obsidio
Average rating: 4.53
My rating: 4.5 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: According to my rating on Goodreads, I liked this more than Gemina … and yet, in my brain I liked Gemina best. Memory is a weird thing, but maybe I deducted points for Gemina because some of the later pages were almost illegible due to dark font on dark paper.
The Hate U Give
Average rating: 4.51
My rating: 5
Thoughts: Hands down, I think this book was so necessary and important and I loved the impact it has had. I would also love for Dear Martin and All American Boys and similar reads to get equal attention, because I’ve seen so many people have their eyes opened due to them.
Morning Star
Average rating: 4.49
My rating: 5 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: I’m offended on behalf of the Red Rising series that it hasn’t shown up before and with a higher average rating. Literally one of my favourite series in this world. I’m not sure Morning Star was my favourite installment, but they are all fairly equal.
Born a Crime
Average rating: 4.46
My rating: 5 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: As an equal fan of Trevor Noah as a person and him as an autobiographical writer, I’m all for him showing up on this list! Born a crime was a feast in my eyes.
Hamilton: The Revolution
Average rating: 4.46
My rating: 5
Thoughts: I took this book everywhere with me for weeks and it’s not small. Also, it’s perefection. PERFECTION!!!
We Should All Be Feminists
Average rating: 4.45
My rating: 5
Thoughts: I found this to be such a valuable read! Enough said.
Ignite Me
Average rating: 4.41
My rating: 4
Thoughts: I liked this series a lot and would have been fine with this book being the end of it all. Not as fond of the continuation to be honest.
It Ends with Us
Average rating: 4.40
My rating: 4 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: This was a tough read for me, but I know how big of a fanbase Colleen Hoover has.
The Martian
Average rating: 4.40
My rating: 5 (click here for my review)
Thoughts: Mark Watney is only one of THE best fictional characters. I’m not biased at all.
Are you surprised by me going with the flow so much? I always found that I was rather generous with my ratings, so it’s not that much of a shock to me. Although, I really thought that there would have been at least one or two books with a completely different rating from me. Oh well … did you miss any big books or series here?
Life and Other Disasters 
I need the Shadow and Bone adaptation like right now.
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honestly, same.
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I can’t believe that I still need to read Six Of Crows, ACOTAR & The Hate U Give. I seriously hope to read all of them at some point this year. And reread the Clockwork Angel books before picking up Chain Of Gold.
Wonderful post idea (:
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Thank you, I really can’t claim any credit for this post idea 🙂
Six of Crows and The Hate U Give are both great books. My opinions about the whole ACOTAR series has changed a lot since I have read it, mostly due to not being a fan of the author very much. But I hope you enjoy everything you read!
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I’ve never read Gemima or Obsidio so I definitely need to add it to my TBR if they are rated so highly! Its unsurprising to see A Court of Mist and Fury, I agree with you, the switch in the bad guy was such a good element and I loved it. It will forever be a series I hold dear x
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I think the Illuminae Files wrap up really nicely! I enjoyed the sequels and as I said, I think Gemina was my favourite, even if that doesn’t reflect in the rating haha
I think there are a couple of the later books in the Court of Thorns and Roses series that I haven’t read, but I was happy with the three I did read.
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I give out a lot of 1 stars so seeing how the average rating compare to your own was so interesting 😭 I loved reading Crooked Kingdom! I didn’t like it the first time reading it but when I reread it I loved it so much. Also I still need to read Angie Thomas’ books, they look so amazing and I really don’t know why I haven’t read them yet. This post idea is so cool and I lowkey want to do it right now, if not just check out how my ratings for books compare to the averages hahaha.
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You must be so much more critical than me haha I think I’ve only given out two or three 1-star-ratings ever since I’ve gotten Goodreads. But I’ve 100% stolen this idea from the people I mentioned at the beginning of the blog, so, if you want to do it too, I see no reason as to why not? haha
I still haven’t read any more of Angie Thomas’ books yet either, but she definitely hit a nerve with her stories.
Thanks so much for checking out my post!
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Yeah 42% of my ratings are 1 stars it’s terrible 😭 and np!
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I am really curious about the books you rate super high then. They must be special!
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Crooked kingdom and ACOMAF are the BEST 🤩🤩
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The average Goodreads rating supports your statement nicely haha
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I hate Martin’s writing so much, haha!
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I get it! I don’t even know why I stuck with it as long as I did.
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Oh, this is such a cool idea! 😊 I also loved ACOMAF, but I still haven’t read the third book or her newest book – it got quite a few mixed reviews I think 😮 I also love all the Grishaverse books and I cannot wait for the TV Show, I hope it’s going to be good 🥰
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100% a stolen idea haha but it was super fun to compare the average ratings with my own. Maybe I should one day do it for the lowest rated books on Goodreads haha
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Crooked Kingdom deserves to be up there with the best of them. It’s a beauty of a book, even if they did Matthias dirty haha. I’m trying to recall what happened in Obsidio and it’s not as clear as Illuminae and Gemina, but I do remember enjoying it.
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I think what bothered me with Obsidio, was that the couple barely had any page time, because ALL characters needed to tie up their stories. But other than that, it’s very unclear haha
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I recently finished Ninth House and my love for Leigh Bardugo has never been stronger. Crooked Kingdom deserves all the love ❤
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Ninth House was something very different in my eyes, but it sure was interesting too!
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[…] Kat @ Life & Other Disasters, […]
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Ahh you’re going with the flow on these ones, yay! I can’t believe I still need to read Obsidio. The last times I was reminded of this (before this post) was when I was in Paris with my sister this past February and we saw it at the bookstore. and couldn’t buy it because it was way too heavy for us to carry back home 😂 I’m still curious to see how that series ends! And I also still need to continue with the shatter me series ahhhhhhhh why am i the worst with series 😂 and completely agree with you about the hate u give, such an important read. ❤
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I think you just aren’t AS fond of fantasy and scifi series. I have a feeling that, if those were contemporaries, you’d have finished them by now haha but don’t feel bad about it. You just have preferences, like everyone else.
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definitely ahah i’m a contemporary lover all the way i guess ahah 🙂
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[…] Highest Rated Books (according to GR) I’ve Read! (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters) […]
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I think this is such an interesting post! Especially because I had similar rating for most of the books on this list. There were a few exceptions though, which doesn’t surprise me because I can recall many times where I haven’t liked popular books.
And I totally agree with you about the ending to The Infernal Devices! It was one of the most satisfying resolutions to a love triangle that I ever read!
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I kind of thought that I would have more outliers with different ratings, but I am usually very much in the norm, I guess. Haha I also did this with the lowest rated books on Goodreads and that was a different story all together.
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Love that you did this! Wow fleabag scriptures sounds really good- I hadn’t heard of it before. And ACOMAF defied my expectations too. Loved crooked kingdom and infernal devices was my favourite of the shadowhunter books too. I really like obsidio, morning star and storm of swords too (I’d say it was the best of the series too). Ooh I want to read Hamilton as well. Definitely agree with you on Ignite Me- the series should’ve ended there (I was on the fence about reading it, but after hearing so many people say they weren’t happy with the continuation, I decided not to read bother). Completely agree with mark watney of course!!
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I love how we continue to be in agreement about pretty much everything bookish most of the time hahaha
Just as a head’s up, Fleabag is “just” the scripts to the TV show. It’s interesting if you want to take a look into the world of script writing, but otherwise it’s just the same as the TV show.
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haha yes!! It’s actually funny cos like you said, I often feel somewhat at odds with people in the booktube community. Ah cool!!
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