Labels & Ratings on Books (and Artists?)

Have you ever felt betrayed by a fiction author?

It’s been a long day and you’re excited to finally sit down with the novel you’ve been enjoying. Quickly, you’re caught up in the stellar storyline. The plot is tight, the characters well-developed and complex, and the momentum of the story carries you forward. You feel immersed in the setting, as though you’re right there in the book along with the characters.

And then . . . wham!

Something happens on the page that’s so disturbing you feel slightly sick to your stomach. A plot twist that’s so out of left field—and disgusting—you feel angry with the author.

As readers, most of us can relate.

For me, it was The Prince of Tides which I read when I was probably 14 or 15. There is a rape scene in that book that was so horrific I’ve never forgotten it. I can’t remember anything else about the book actually, just that terrible scene.

Content Warnings

This is why I’ve been grateful for content warnings and book review sites that specifically spell out some of the more gory, disturbing, or raunchy parts of books.

For movies, we have sites like IMBD, Rotten Tomatoes, and Common Sense Media (OK, this one is actually intended for kids but I use it).

Book reviews, however, aren’t as clear-cut. Sure, you can scroll through endless opinions on Goodreads or Amazon. But these don’t always mention stomach-turning scenes. And what completely grosses out one reader might not phase another.

Without recommended age ratings like movies, books are harder to gauge.

That is, until recently.

Book Review Sites

Thankfully, more book review sites are popping up. Some of these rate books on the amount of language, the level of violence or gore, or its amorous content.

One that I recently found—and am enjoying—is Rated Reads. Here, you can browse for book ratings by genre, rating, or category. One thing to note on this site is that it clearly lists the reasons that a book is rated “high.” For instance, reviews of books by one of my favorite authors, Ruth Ware, were consistently rated “high” due to language alone. (As a side note, I wrote about "How Much Swearing is Too Much?” which you may be interested in.)

If swearing doesn’t bother you, you’d know these books would be a good choice for a suspenseful read (they are, and you should check them out if you haven’t yet).

Book Cave, an ebook platform that offers free or discounted digital books, asks each of its authors to self-rate their titles. I’ve done this for books that I’ve entered into different promos before. It takes just a few minutes and asks that you rate books on adult romance content, obscenities, and violence, among other categories. You can check out the Book Cave ratings here.

Another option is to use StoryGraph. This platform asks readers to submit their thoughts on books they’ve read. What’s unique is that it offers a well-rounded view of a novel. Things like pacing, whether a book is character-driven or plot-driven, and if the characters are loveable are all rated, among other things.

It also includes a section on content warnings, based on reader reviews. My teenage son and I found these somewhat helpful, but they are a bit, well, sensitive. Things like “vomit” are included.

Book Trigger Warnings started out as a wiki. It includes trigger/content warnings for books of all different genres, neatly organized alphabetically by book titles. It gets very specific in its triggers, so be warned that reading through the list of these may give away important plot points in the book you haven’t read yet.

Author Labels?

I’m all for trigger and content warnings on the books I read. Do I always use a site to check out a new-to-me author? Nope. But I like to know they’re there, in case there is a book that I’m wondering about.

One thing that I don’t understand, however, is artist labels.

Recently exploring a beautiful art gallery, I noticed that several artists had labels that identified them as LGBTQ artists and senior artists. It puzzled me. What message are the artists trying to convey? That people who are also from one of these groups would resonate more with the art? Or buy from an artist like themselves?

The point of art is to cross boundaries and speak on an emotional level, something deeper than words. Why then, would it matter if an artist is the same gender as you, from the same generation, or any other defining quality?

Art should open us up to an emotional experience that transcends any of these things.

This idea has plagued me in my work as an author. While I’m a Christian and write from that view of the world, I never want my books to appear preachy or holier-than-thou. I hope that no one ever reads one of my books and comes away feeling like I was trying to “trick” them into believing the way I believe.

I also choose to write in genres (suspense/horror) that aren’t exactly filled to the brim with Christian writers. (You can read more about gritty suspense and religious horror books here.) But I want to tell stories to everyone. I’m certainly not saying there is anything wrong with writing or reading Christian fiction. Just as there isn’t anything wrong with Christians creating non-Christian-focused art.

Back to labels and artists: I find them distracting at best, and divisive at worst. People are not real estate. We don’t need to be labled in a certain way for “the right” people to find while others ignore us because we’re not in their price range.

Tell me who you are through what you create. It could be that we have more in common than either of us would have ever expected.

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J.P. Choquette is the author of cozy horror books set in Vermont. Atmospheric pageturners, her novels are gothic inspired and frequently tie in the themes of art, nature, and psychology. Her 11 novels have been downloaded nearly 25,000 times across multiple platforms.