Half-Star Ratings: The Simple Feature Goodreads Still Won't Add

There's a book sitting on your shelf right now that deserves 3.5 stars. Not 3 — that feels too low. Not 4 — that feels too generous. Exactly 3.5 stars.

On Goodreads, you can't give it that rating. You've been able to rate books on Goodreads since 2007, and in all that time, they've never added half-star ratings. No 3.5. No 4.5. Just whole numbers.

This isn't a small complaint. It's one of the most requested features in Goodreads history. And the refusal to add it reveals something about how the platform thinks about its users.

Why Half-Stars Matter

The Precision Problem

Think about how you actually feel about books:

5 stars: Life-changing. Desert island book. Recommend to everyone.

4 stars: Really good. Enjoyed it, would recommend to the right person.

3 stars: Fine. Not bad, not great. Wouldn't necessarily recommend.

2 stars: Disappointing. Had problems. Wouldn't recommend.

1 star: Bad. Didn't finish or regretted finishing.

Now, where do these books fall?

• A book you liked but didn't love
• A book that was very good but not quite excellent
• A book with some flaws but overall worthwhile
• A book that was better than "fine" but not quite "good"

These all fall between whole numbers. And readers feel the difference between a 3.5 and a 4.0 — it's not trivial.

The Rounding Dilemma

Without half-stars, you're forced to round. But rounding distorts your actual opinion:

Rounding up makes your ratings unreliable. If every 3.5 becomes a 4, your 4-star shelf includes books you merely "liked" alongside books you genuinely "really enjoyed."

Rounding down is unfair to books. A 3.5-star book gets grouped with books you thought were "just fine."

Alternating makes your system inconsistent. If you sometimes round up and sometimes down, your ratings become meaningless even to you.

Signal vs. Noise

Rating systems exist to help you remember what you thought and help others decide what to read. Precision matters for both:

For your future self: "I gave this 4 stars" — did I love it or just like it? Without half-stars, you can't remember.

For recommendation algorithms: Systems trying to suggest books based on your preferences get less signal when you're forced to round.

For other readers: Your 4-star rating might mean "loved it" or "liked it with reservations." They can't tell.

The Scale Psychology

Rating scales aren't arbitrary. They shape how we think about evaluation.

The 5-Star Scale

The 5-star scale has been standard for consumer reviews since at least the Amazon era. But it has a problem: 5 options feels too few for nuanced evaluation.

Why 5 options isn't enough:

Most people avoid extreme ratings. They rarely give 1 star (too mean) or 5 stars (requires perfection). This leaves 3 options: 2, 3, and 4.

Three options isn't a rating scale — it's barely better than thumbs up/thumbs down.

The 10-Point Scale

Half-star ratings on a 5-star scale effectively create a 10-point scale: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5.

Why 10 options works:

Research on rating scales suggests 7-10 options is optimal for capturing human judgment without overwhelming choices. 10 points provides meaningful precision without decision paralysis.

You can easily distinguish between a 6/10 (decent), 7/10 (good), and 8/10 (very good). Those distinctions matter.

The Visual Problem

Stars are visual. Seeing ★★★★☆ communicates differently than seeing "4/5" or "8/10."

Half-filled stars (★★★★½) are visually intuitive. Most people immediately understand what they mean. There's no learning curve.

Why Goodreads Won't Add Half-Stars

Goodreads has never officially explained their refusal. But we can make educated guesses:

Database Inertia

Changing from integers to decimals across billions of ratings isn't trivial. It requires database migrations, API changes, and updates across all platforms. For a company that hasn't meaningfully updated since Amazon acquisition, this is apparently too much.

"Good Enough" Mentality

With 150 million users, Goodreads might assume their current system works well enough. Why invest engineering resources in a feature that won't dramatically change user acquisition?

Amazon's Influence

Amazon product reviews use 5-star whole number ratings. Keeping Goodreads consistent with Amazon's system might be a deliberate choice — even if it's worse for book reviews specifically.

The Community Split

Any change to ratings affects the meaning of existing ratings. Do you retroactively convert all 4-star ratings to "4.0 stars"? Do you ask users to re-rate? There's no clean answer, so doing nothing is easiest.

Different Priorities

Goodreads likely prioritizes features that drive Amazon book sales over features that improve the user rating experience. Half-stars help users but don't obviously boost commerce.

What Users Actually Want

The evidence for user demand is overwhelming:

Goodreads Feature Requests

Searching Goodreads' own community forums reveals hundreds of threads requesting half-stars, some dating back over a decade. These threads have thousands of votes and comments.

Workarounds Users Create

People have invented elaborate workarounds:

The review note method: Give 4 stars but write "Really 3.5 stars" in the review.

The alternating method: Sometimes round up, sometimes down, with a note about which.

The 4.5 shelf: Create a shelf called "4-point-5-stars" and add books to it.

The second system: Track real ratings in a spreadsheet and use Goodreads for the social features only.

The existence of these workarounds proves the need.

Migration to Alternatives

One of the most cited reasons for switching to Goodreads alternatives is half-star support. Apps like StoryGraph, Hardcover, and Leaflet all advertise half-star ratings prominently — because it drives adoption.

The Case for Even More Precision

Some argue we should go further than half-stars:

Quarter-Stars

A few apps offer quarter-star ratings (4.25, 4.5, 4.75). This provides even more precision but may hit diminishing returns. Can you really distinguish your feelings between 4.25 and 4.5?

10-Point Scale

Some readers track ratings on a pure 10-point scale. This is functionally equivalent to half-stars but uses different visual representation.

100-Point Scale

Letterboxd (for movies) and some book trackers offer 100-point scales. This feels like overkill for most purposes — can you really articulate why a book is 78/100 vs. 79/100?

The Practical Optimum

Half-stars hit the sweet spot:

• Enough precision to capture meaningful distinctions
• Not so much precision that rating becomes burdensome
• Visually intuitive (half a star is immediately understandable)
• Compatible with existing 5-star mental models

How Half-Stars Change Your Rating Experience

When you switch to an app with half-stars, something interesting happens:

Rating Becomes Easier

Paradoxically, more options makes decisions easier. You're no longer agonizing about whether to round up or down. The right rating is available.

Your Ratings Become More Useful

Looking back at your reading history, you can actually see the gradations. Your 4.5-star books are clearly better (to you) than your 4-star books.

Recommendations Improve

Apps using your ratings for recommendations get better signal. The difference between a 3.5 and 4.0 matters for determining what you might like next.

You Rate More Books

When rating feels accurate, you're more likely to do it. The frustration of forced rounding makes some readers give up on rating entirely.

What To Look for in a Rating System

If half-stars matter to you, here's what to evaluate:

Basic Half-Star Support

Does the app allow 0.5-star increments? This is table stakes.

Visual Display

How are half-stars shown? Filled half-stars? Decimal numbers? Both? Make sure it's visually clear.

Search and Filter

Can you filter your library by rating? Search for all 4.5-star books? Sort by rating?

Statistics

Do your reading statistics use exact ratings? Showing "average rating: 3.85" is more useful than "average rating: 4."

Export

If you ever leave, do your half-star ratings export? Or do they get rounded to whole numbers?

Implementing Your Own Half-Star System

If you're stuck on Goodreads, here are practical workarounds:

The Shelf Method

Create shelves for half-ratings:

• "3-point-5-stars"
• "4-point-5-stars"
• etc.

Add books to both the star rating AND the precision shelf. Clunky but functional.

The Review Prefix Method

Start every review with your real rating:

[3.5/5 stars]

Review text here...

This communicates your actual rating to anyone reading reviews.

The Spreadsheet Method

Track your real ratings in a spreadsheet or notes app. Use Goodreads for social features, your spreadsheet for accurate records.

The Alternative App Method

Use Goodreads for social features, but track your actual library in an app with half-stars. Accept the redundancy as the cost of Goodreads' limitations.

The Bigger Picture

The half-star issue is a symptom of something larger: Goodreads stopped evolving years ago.

Since Amazon's acquisition, meaningful improvements have been rare. The core experience is essentially frozen in 2013. Features users desperately want — half-stars, better mobile apps, improved recommendations — never arrive.

For a platform with 150 million users, this is remarkable stagnation. It's created space for alternatives that actually listen to users and ship improvements.

Half-stars aren't revolutionary. They're a basic, obvious, frequently-requested feature that should have existed a decade ago. The fact that they still don't tells you everything about Goodreads' priorities.

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Half-Star Ratings in Leaflet

Leaflet supports half-star ratings because of course it does. It's 2025, and rating precision shouldn't require workarounds.

How it works:

• Tap anywhere on the star rating to set your exact rating
• 0.5-star increments from 0.5 to 5.0
• Clear visual display with half-filled stars
• All statistics use your precise ratings

Your ratings, your way:

• Filter your library by exact rating
• See average rating with decimal precision
• Full export with half-star values preserved

Imported from Goodreads? Your whole-number ratings transfer, and you can add half-star precision to any book anytime.

No workarounds. No shelves named "4-point-5-stars." Just tap the rating you actually mean.

Download Leaflet — Finally, half-star ratings.