hmmm, so gradings & reviews are pretty different beasts. I’ve already written a bit about this in another post… but beyond that:
Reviews: the main things for me are “did it make my eyes light up” and “was there anything that really pissed me off, or that I think is just Bad Writing”?
My general criteria for ratings
5 - it made my eyes light up, nothing pissed me off, and there might have been something special about it
4 - it made my eyes light up, and probly nothing pissed me off, but it just wasn’t a 5 for some reason
3 - it was ordinary to the point of being unnotable, or mildly boring, but not terrible; OR there was something in it that really upset me and prevented me from giving a higher rating
2 - the writing was bad, or there were multiple really upsetting issues that detracted from a higher rating
1 - I think this is terrible and should not have been made; or it inflicted more psychic damage on me than Evangelion did
I have a grand total of 4 two-star books, 1 one-star video, 1 two-star video… so those are ratings I don’t give out lightly.
For someone like me - who’s never heard of any of the novels on your profile - even a 2-3 sentence review like 伯父さん's review of 金閣寺 | Natively is great… doesn’t have to be that deep. Like you noted in your post: the story is compelling, and many of the passages are beautiful, but it requires a certain knowledge of the culture and history of Buddhism/Buddhist elements to fully enjoy. That could literally be your whole review, and I’d find it helpful!!
Grading: besides what I linked at the beginning, I’d say just take your best stab… If you really can’t figure it out, either click “Same” or sadly, skip. Fwiw, you can always go back later and adjust it (same with ratings & reviews)
The site will eventually get edition handling, and that will stop being an issue. However if the differences are that substantial, it might be good to submit feedback (on the book page) or tag @brandon to suggest that a separate edition be created for the book. The Product Updates & Casual Natively Discussion thread is a good place for that. Probably with the Amazon JP link for the specific edition you’re referring to.
