Yeah, I've just learned to apply ratings to the book's background its the target audience. If a book's big on TikTok then it's going to have a high-rating regardless of actual quality. If a book is of a certain genre that's enjoyed by a particular demographic, but it subverts expectations, it's more likely to hit the 3.5.

For example, I saw readers complaining about the book 'Woman, Eating' by Claire Kohda, which I was pretty interested in as it had good reviews elsewhere (which is usually a good balance to work with). It's a subversion of vampire novel, so I went to Goodreads and checked it out. Sure enough there were plenty of YA and horror fans with goth avis complaining about it for being too arty (with the 3.5). So I immediately got it and wasn't disappointed lol.

I Love to read the bad reviews of those hyped up booktok books because I found a lot of them absolutely bad and boring, starting with acotar. But the reviews are hilarious. The best ones I found on twilight, so accurate