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Tracy Mumford

A revolution in book reviews: The 'Rotten Tomatoes for books'

Lit Hub's Book Marks review aggregation site
Lit Hub's Book Marks review aggregation site pulls together reviews from 70 outlets and gives new books an average grade.
via Lit Hub

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Every week, The Thread tackles your book questions, big and small. Ask a question now.

What is this new review site, billed as the "Rotten Tomatoes" for books?

If you love movies, you've probably browsed Rotten Tomatoes, the film review aggregation site which pulls together reviews from hundreds of critics. The site averages the reviews, and presents a score for each film ("rotten" or "fresh.")

Now, Lit Hub, a site devoted to all things literary, has created a similar resource for books. The project is called Book Marks, and it pulls from 70 different sources, including newspapers, magazines and websites. When a book receives at least 3 reviews, Book Marks pulls them together and gives the average.

Instead of ranking them by produce freshness though, it capitalizes on your report card anxiety and doles out A's, B's, C's, D's and F's. You can find the whiz kids and the flunk-outs of the year's publishing class. That's the theory anyway. So far, this year's books are passing with flying colors: Of approximately 500 books on the site, you'll have to dig to find even a C. A's and B's abound in this class of overachievers.

This, of course, raises the question: Can the books all really be this good? Or are reviewers only writing about books they liked? And, of course, there's the third option: Are reviewers just overly kind in the modern era? Is no one savaging books anymore? (Other than Amazon users, who dispense one-star reviews with abandon.)

As Lit Hub sees it, the site isn't just about ranking. It's also about discovery — both discovering books, and discovering critical voices.

"We understand it is difficult to summarize the nuance and complexity of a review into a letter grade," said Lit Hub editor-in-chief Jonny Diamond said in a press release. "But we believe that Book Marks will lead more readers to reviews, and amplify critics' voices in a way that benefits readers and writers alike."