I actually do the opposite. I sometimes won’t love something as I finish, but then six months to a year later will look back on it more favorably (possibly because of some short term nostalgia).

That definitely sounds like this book!

Here is how I rate books:

5 stars - A new favourite, I'm obsessed with it, it's likely to stay on my mind for a very long time. I loved it, it's well-written, and I don't have any negative criticism of it.

4 - I really liked it, I found it thoroughly enjoyable, but it's not necessarily a favourite. This might mean I have some slight criticism of it, or that it it didn't leave a strong enough impression on me to rate it 5 stars. But still, really good book.

3 stars - This can mean a variety of things for me. It can mean that it was an average, generic reading experience for me. I didn't hate it, maybe I even liked it, but I didn't find anything that interesting about the book either. Or it can mean that I enjoyed a book and found it interesting but I have a lot of criticism. Thus, I have "mixed opinions". Or maybe I thought the story was interesting but didn't like the writing style, or something about the book didn't quite connect with me. In that case, I would say that it's still a good book and it's worth a read, but it didn't click with me that much, and so I only somewhat enjoyed my reading experience.

2 stars - This one is a very rare rating for me. It usually means I disliked a book but not due to it being problematic. Perhaps I thought it wasn't a very well-written book, but I don't have any beef with the book or the author. It means "I disliked it and I'd like to move on and not talk about it".

1 star - I reserve this for books I despise, especially if the book is problematic, for example by reinforcing misogyny or homophobia. The books I rate 1 star are books that use harmful tropes or normalise unacceptable things.

I haven't had an internal voice for a long time when reading. BUT there are certain books where the characters are so tangible it isn't hard for me to imagine their voices. When this happens, I enjoy slowing down my reading so I can hear all the voices, idk if that makes any sense.

1 star: abysmal

2 stars: didn’t like it but it wasn’t a disaster.

3 stars: liked it and would recommend to fans of the genre

4 stars: Excellent

5 stars: A classic

I loved hunger games!! I read it before the movies came out (I know I know bragging). But seriously I thought it was very exciting, pretty original, drama handled well, and creative. I liked the movies as well — they tell a slightly different story but a lot of the best parts of the books came through.

But as you said they aren’t the deepest series, so I think there is less to talk about it than some other books. And it’s hard to recommend a book after the big box movie has already come out, because people have seen that and usually don’t want to read the book when they already know what will happen!

Amazing series of books, who gives a shit if other people don’t like it. Millions of others did.

5 - A perfect book from start to finish. Can’t think of a single time I struggled to get through a section or felt anything was unclear. This is a book I think will resonate with me for a long time and I’ll constantly think about. This book made me feel a lot emotionally. Very few books I feel will fall in this category. Example for me: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

4 - This book was great. Very few if any complaints about the quality or the structure of the book. There will have been parts of this book that felt like a struggle to get through or felt a bit forced. Things will happen to the characters that are just to convenient that it’ll pull me out of the story. For a bit, but overall it was a great story with a good ending. Example for me: Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica or Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

3 - This book was okay. Nothing ground breaking or something I’d revisit, but was satisfied when I finished it. The book has some bits that were a struggle to get through, but was interesting enough to keep me going. Example for me: The Coward by Stephen Aryan or Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

2 - A book I finished, but wasn’t really happy about it. I either finished it because I felt it could get better (but never did). Characters were either boring or the writing was nonsensical, but not so off putting or boring I opted to not finish. Chances are this book started decent, but had an awful ending. Example for me: Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk or A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

1 - Could not finish. Book was just so off putting to me for one reason or the other. I struggled to even get half way through. Whether the writing style was boring or the characters uninteresting or the plot became nonsensical, I just couldn’t do it. Example for me: I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells or Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Wait a minute, I think I know this book. Was there also a guy claiming the voice in his head ordered him to kill his son, and then changed its mind?

Huh. Very clean-cut, I like it.

Thanks for rec I just ordered it

I do rate them on a more emotional level. I don't really care if it was competently put together or had 'errors'. I read for pleasure I'm not doing an academic report or proofreading.

If something is good but I recognise it's not for me I'd probably rate it a 3. Middle-of-the-road, overall meh. 2 and below are things I hated, 4 and above I really liked/loved.

I very rarely give books to people unless I know it's one they specifically want, mostly because a lot of book gifts I've received over the years aren't...quite what I care for, and it seems a shame to waste money on an unwanted present, especially when books are a particularly time-intensive gift (yes, the thought counts, but I don't want to just give people clutter)

But I've been a librarian for about 6 years, so I don't even buy myself a lot of books, honestly. Hard to justify it when so many are available for free lol

I didn’t mean to do this but my ratings tend to be: everything gets a 3 except books that are so bad they make me angry (1) and books that are so good I don’t stop talking about them (5).

I have a tradition where I give books to my cousins’ kids when they are under 10. Then when they get older I give them B&N gift cards so that they can choose what books they want.

I’m old, I’ve had a lot of time to reread them.

Knowledge is expensive, but ignorance is free. :'(

I'd be willing to bet a lot of them would happily spend an evening with a sex worker and would completely disregard any of her stated boundaries.

I've been to Reading and it's really not that bad.

Still makes me cry

I have always had internal narration, and prior to my TBI, I could read about 100 pages an hour of technical information with better than 95% retention. Reading fiction was faster. It wasn't uncommon for me to blow through six or seven 400-500 page novels in an average weekend while still having plenty of time to do other stuff. So I don't think that listening to the "audiobook in your head" is necessarily the reason for a slower reading speed.

Books are getting dangerous, burn them

Slightly off-topic, and not aimed at OP, but I'm always a little suspicious when a user's ratings don't follow a bell curve.

This is very interesting as I remember a relative of mine saying they do this and have the same issue. But I wasn't aware this was a thing as I never read like that. Maybe you could try to move your eyes swiftly from the beginning of a line to its end (while trying to retain as much information as possible)? Doing this over and over might increase your reading speed little by little. If you focus too much on little details often I feel that eats away at your reading speed.

By the FBI... already?