the book review of five point someone

Five Points Someone – Book Review – Chetan Bhagat

• April 22, 2020
• The Last Critic

Five Point Someone was a 2004 bestselling novel written by Chetan Bhagat. This novel is still being read by audiences worldwide (almost) and though I am late to the party, here is my critical review of this novel by one of the bestselling Indian Authors . I hope you will read it carefully and you will also get something out of this review that will be useful for you.

First of all, let there be no doubt at all that Chetan Bhagat is the most popular contemporary author in India. He has written so many novels but in my opinion, I will pick ‘Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT’ as the best among the collection of his novels. Though this novel isn’t untouched by its flaws, the usual and traditional Chetan Bhagat’s flaws, it has content that can mitigate the faulty impressions that his techniques and other technical elements create. Only about this novel I can say with conviction that young readers can have a go without thinking too much. The author has presented vivid colours of ambitious students’ aspirations and campus life. As its subtitle suggests apparently, the author has provided a different set of notions that works as a guideline on what not to do at IITs. And this is why leading book review websites in India have all praised the book. Unlike his other publications like Half Girlfriend and One Indian Girl , this novel is almost flawless.

The Book: This is the story of three friends who are pursuing engineering at one of the prestigious institutes of India, IIT. It is worth noticing that it is a common conundrum among Indian novelists that they seek to find, in their plots, a resemblance with their upbringing, education or emotional anxieties. Chetan could not think of any other thing rather than putting his own experiences at stake for his continuing debut in Indian English fiction writing. This is good in one way and in another context, limiting his imagination because he can only write what he has been through – so, the strength and the weakness run hand in hand. He further brings the plot of the novel close to his past by settling the storyline on the IIT Delhi campus, his own alma mater.

There are three hostel mates Alok, Hari and Ryan who are more interested in cracking jokes rather than actively participating in the lectures. They fail to understand the system of IIT and settled for a bad start. Their performance is not up to the mark and they pass, somehow, with a low CGPA. This is the major theme of the novel where the author has tried to suggest whether the underperformers have a right to live with dignity or they are mostly doomed to infamous, uncalled and unjustified criticism. The story goes on and they settle with good positions in their life, the three IIT friends. Apart from this, they have their love battlegrounds as well and it is a well-known fact that Bollywood movies and modern novels cannot be done without a love story and some heroic scene by the protagonist. This is the story in a nutshell.

There are many episodes of humour and wit, sarcasm and realism, romance and ugly, crass events. However, that is the best when a reader experiences that first hand. So, I will be leaving that for the readers to find out and explore for themselves rather than reading about those in this review. You will like those episodes, be sure.

Critical Insight: The novelist has used a first-person narrative and Hari is the one who is telling the story from his perspective. However, the novel takes almost a universal shape and the readers can get an all-round or a 360 view of the events taking place. Chetan Bhagat used to write his books in plain English and Hinglish as well to get more readers. His work Five Point Someone started a new revolution in Indian English literature and be sure about it. He brought Indian English fiction down from the high horse of ego, whim and elitism that used to be the carrier of authors like Amitav Ghosh , Shobha De and Arundhati Roy and many others who never thought about the ordinary readers… and kept pursuing awards, the fame of the first order and name among the foreigners who could somehow enlist them for some recognition in the corridors of red tape. Though this was not wrong per se, it was an unacknowledged injustice with the common fiction readers in India who wanted to read something about themselves in real terms. This is what Chetan Bhagat offered them in a PLAIN, SIMPLE and even CASUAL ENGLISH that connected with their daily lives. The language and the narration of the book are not so strong and seem to be bereaved of all the literary juice that adds to a work of fiction the thing called standard. And what was the result? The author became a bestselling novelist!

However, there are things that we need to talk about when it comes to the storyline itself. The realism of the first degree is there. No doubt! However, realism also extrapolates a few things and that is all the liberty that a fiction writer should enjoy. Still, do you know anyone who has been to IIT would take a risk as big as breaking into the strongroom and trying to alter his or her answer sheets? I don’t know! Do you? These things can bring moments of thrill to the novel and give some spine-chilling experience to the readers with the carefully woven narrative but does it fit the circumstances being described? You can decide for yourself.

Moreover, the author has shown some gravity in his theme as well. It is not always true that a good student can be the best innovator as well. Learning is a process and it should be in a way that students should enjoy rather than feeling the pressure of bookish syllabi and examinations from time to time. The education system in India is not industry-ready. He has pointed out these things in a very noteworthy manner. How a student learns things in a funny way and that the most important thing in learning is practicality rather than remembering some definitions are among many things that have been highlighted by Chetan Bhagat in a forceful manner.

Conclusion: This is a good book to be read at least one time. Though you may conjecture about the literary qualities of the novel, you don’t find much space to initiate that side of your critical faculty because the novel has a very impressive storyline. So, this time at least, I will say this Chetan Bhagat work is a very worthy work of fiction! Have a read soon! You can get a copy of this novel in paperback or Kindle format from Amazon India. Click the link below and you will be taken to Amazon India where you can get the book:

Buy the novel – click to go to Amazon India

Review by Amit Mishra for The Last Critic

Five Point Someone | Book Review

• The Last Critic's Rating

Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone is perhaps only one by him that could be put in the serious fiction bracket without many ifs and buts. It is an achievement worth celebrating… a must-read for once because, after the first, there is seldom anything left to construe.

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• 2. Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat – Book Review
• 3. Five Points Someone – Book Review – Chetan Bhagat

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This is a wonderfully written book review… I enjoyed the way you have put everything in a sequence and also added the critical opinions. Well-done!

very well written and useful for new blogger

Thanks for this detailed, out of the ordinary and amazingly written book review of Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat… I agree with the review. The novel does stand out but only among Chetan Bhagat’s novels.

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• previous post: Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat – Book Review

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By Donald Greenlees

• March 26, 2008

HONG KONG — Until about four years ago, Chetan Bhagat was an investment banker distinguished from the suited phalanx in this city’s crowded financial district only by his secret hobby.

While others planned weekend excursions to the golf course, Mr. Bhagat, then employed by Goldman Sachs, indulged a passion for writing, laboring in his private time on a racy, comedic little novel about life on the campus of an elite college in his native India. In the early morning, before going to the office, he would work on draft after draft of the book, trying to get it right. He did 15 drafts in all.

Today Mr. Bhagat is still an investment banker, now with Deutsche Bank. But he has also become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India’s history, according to his publisher, Rupa & Company, one of India’s oldest and best established publishers. His story of campus life, “Five Point Someone,” published in 2004, and a later novel, “One Night @ the Call Center,” sold a combined one million copies.

Less than three days after the release in 2005 of “One Night,” another slim comedy, about love and life in India’s ubiquitous call centers, the entire initial print run of 50,000 copies was snapped up, setting a record for the country’s fastest-selling book. And Ballantine has published a paperback edition of the novel in the United States.

Mr. Bhagat, who wrote his books while living here, has difficulty explaining why a 35-year-old investment banker writing in his spare time has had such phenomenal success reaching an audience of mainly middle-class Indians in their 20s. The novels, deliberately sentimental in the tradition of Bollywood filmmaking, are priced like an Indian movie ticket — just 100 rupees, or $2.46 — and have won little praise as literature.

“The book critics, they all hate me,” Mr. Bhagat said in an interview here.

But he has touched a nerve with young Indian readers. Mr. Bhagat might not be another Vikram Seth or Arundhati Roy, but he has authentic claims to being one of the voices of a generation of middle-class Indian youth facing the choices and frustrations that come with the prospect of growing wealth.

“I think people really took to the books mainly because there is a lot of social comment in there,” Mr. Bhagat said. “It’s garbed as comedy.”

Mr. Bhagat’s choice of subjects for his first two books — life at a highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology and at a call center — allowed him to explore some perennial themes: the pressures, many of them parental, to get into a top school, earn high grades, get a good job and find the right partner, while still taking time to enjoy one’s youth.

He described the members of the country’s current young generation as “more gutsy” than their parents, and as interesting as the generation that led India to independence in 1947.

But the competition among them is severe. Mr. Bhagat said that only 1 out of 700 applicants now gets into the Indian Institute of Management he attended in Ahmedabad, compared with 1 in 200 when he applied in 1995. That experience and his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi are the inspiration for “Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT,” the title a reference to the struggle his three main characters have with low grades.

The pressures to succeed are part of what is making India a vibrant, fast-changing economy and society, Mr. Bhagat said. But “competition has its limits,” he added.

Recently, after more than 10 years here, Mr. Bhagat moved with his wife, also a banker, and their 3-year-old twin sons back to India, where he is a director in Deutsche Bank’s distressed assets team in Mumbai. When he left India with an M.B.A. to start a banking career here, just before the 1997 Asian economic crisis, there were fewer opportunities at home, even for graduates of the best colleges.

Mr. Bhagat now wants to be a part of the historic changes taking place as India awakens to its potential.

Still, he sees a lot wrong with the model of economic success. His “One Night @ the Call Center,” destined to be a Bollywood film, is, beyond its story line about frustrated office romance, a critique of a nation climbing to prosperity by answering phone calls from American consumers.

With each new book Mr. Bhagat is trying to toughen his social criticism. He has just finished writing “Three Mistakes of My Life,” a pun of sorts, this being his third novel. But this time he is tackling a far more controversial theme.

Set in the western state of Gujarat soon after the bloody sectarian riots of 2002, it deals with issues of tolerance and the confusion Mr. Bhagat believes young Indians feel about religious values.

“India is a very religious country, and older people have extreme views on religion,” he said. “Young people are not able to relate to it.”

But true to his form, the story will have a “very modern twist, Bollywood comedy sort of format,” he said. “If you read my books, they are comedies, but very dark.”

The Web chatter and e-mail messages Mr. Bhagat receives about his books suggest that the dark social messages, wrapped in what he described as “quick reads” in the style of the humorous British writer Nick Hornby, have been getting through to his young audience.

But it is a balancing act, Mr. Bhagat said. His is an audience that grew up with Bollywood and wants a story that “tugs at the emotions” rather than moralizes or betrays serious literary ambitions. Mr. Bhagat said he developed his plots by using a computer spread sheet before he sat down to write.

Initially, he did get some literary praise, winning a Publisher’s Recognition Award and Society Young Achiever’s award in India in 2005 for “Five Point Someone.” But the first flush of critical success has worn off. Ravi Rao, a critic writing in The Times of India, said Mr. Bhagat had gone from “candor, easy wit and tight structure” in his first book to “a dud” with his second.

Mr. Bhagat and his publisher, Kapish Mehra, of Rupa & Company, have an easy retort to the critics: the books sell.

“He is not a literary writer,” Mr. Mehra said. “But, more importantly, he is a successful and popular writer.”

Five Point Someone

What Not to Do at IIT

Chetan Bhagat | 3.92 | 81,321 ratings and reviews

Ranked #7 in Indian Author

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Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat

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B- : simplistic but lively campus novel

See our review for fuller assessment.

   From the Reviews : "Although the writing can be quite jarring and clumsy -- this, however, could be intentional in an effort to create a narrative of authentic colloquial speech -- it is a well-constructed book with great characters and a captivating plot. Definitely on the right side of five-point something on a 10-point scale." - Tara Sahgal, India Today "It gets the sex right (.....) It also manages to cover the heavy ground of life's lessons without the horribly earnest moralising and navel-gazing that is the bane of so much Indian writing in English. In fact for much of the narrative, Bhagat sustains a darkly funny tone that anyone from India's top professional colleges will instantly recognise. (...) Where Five Point Someone seems slightly let down, though, is in the editing of the beginning and the end of the novel. A more experienced editor would have fought a lot harder to keep out the author's explanations of what he is all about from the beginning and the end of the book." - Hari Menon, Outlook India "In those terms, it's a slight story. But the book captures some of the ambience of a residential engineering institution with a subculture defined by its own dictionary of acronyms. The arrhythmia of the narrative reflects the staccato nature of a life of lazy moments interspersed with frantic activity. If it strikes the right chord in JEE qualifiers, Five Point Someone could achieve cult status." - Devangshu Datta, Outlook India " The book, besides having a humorous appeal, also deals with the fears and insecurities of the students in one of the country�s top institutions. Its description of the lives of students in IIT or other higher-education institutions such as IIM or NID, rings true. It could be Harvard, except for the desi flavour of the locales. (...) The language used is original, and the dialogue fresh and youthful. The casual, easy-flowing style makes for easy reading. This is 270 pages of pure fun, and a steal at Rs 95. Carry on, Bhagat. You are doing pretty well for a five-point �somethinger�." - Kannan Shastri, The Sunday Tribune Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

The complete review 's Review :

We probably were real criminals. But that was not the point.

It is about knowledge. And making the most of the system, even if it has flaws.

       [ Note : Given the success of the book one would wish that at least the worst of the writing mistakes were cleared up in later editions; my copy is the twenty-sixth (!) impression (and it's from way back in 2006) and still includes sentences such as: The living room was where lived Alok's father, entertaining himself with one of the two TV channels, close to unconscious by the time we reached.

- M.A.Orthofer , 6 December 2011

About the Author :

       Immensely popular Indian author Chetan Bhagat was born in 1974.

© 2011-2021 the complete review Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links

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Five Point Someone: Review

Author:- Chetan Bhagat

Year of Release:- 2004

Main characters:- Hari(the narrator), Ryan, Alok, Neha, Prof. Cherian.

(Warning:- Major spoilers ahead).

‘Five Point Someone’ is not an ordinary novel that you would come across in your daily reads. You may go through one of those ‘boy loves girl, girl loves boy’ sweet romantic stories every now-and-then but this is more like ‘the boy hates the system’ kind of story. Although, it is highly anticipated, I won’t be making a comparison between the novel and the film adaptation. This is solely my opinion on the novel and nothing else. Also, I had to mention various parts of the story at various stages, so, my personal recommendation would be to go ahead and read the book. It’s a good book nevertheless and surely, worth the time and money.

Three students who had worked off their asses to get into IIT struggle further to stay in it. Challenged by the system at each and every curve, they try to somehow make it to the top(well, at least keep away from the bottom) and simultaneously deal with the turmoil in their personal lives. ‘Five Point Someone’ delves into the lives of these very engineering students.

Chetan Bhagat is one of my favorite novelists. It’s because he actually talks about the problems existing in the country. I know that many writers do that but I am sure you won’t come across a guy who writes about the flaws in the education system as he does in this book. ‘Five Point Someone’ is basically every engineer’s college life put on paper (And we all know, there are so many engineers in this country.) So, the book automatically has a wide reach as many engineers can relate to the narrator’s experiences.

I think the author does great work upfront by clarifying that this book is not a guide on how to excel in IIT or to get into one. Because it isn’t. The leads in this novel made some very alarming mistakes. It can be so difficult to write more than 200 pages about engineering and not be boring. As an engineer, I would hate a novel which just revises my academics and talks about what I am already witnessing. I would further hate a novel which would take me to some fantastical world and not give solutions to my everyday problems. There are so many social issues that have been talked about in this book by the author but I feel the author slyly manages to stick to the main idea which makes it a worthwhile read.

Writing style is pretty ordinary but this concept called for such kind of writing. After all, the narrator is no one but a common Indian. There weren’t any extraordinary things going on but the book showed how a paltry achievement can bring unparalleled levels of satisfaction to people. The buildup to the crux of the story could have been better as there were plenty of diversions. It did sound a bit unrealistic to me to have the professors sympathizing with the trio even after what they did and I am sure that’s not how the professors are at the IITs. Late night movies at theaters are something that I have never been able to do as a hosteler. The freedom presented to the trio by the college authorities in the book seemed a bit uncalled for. Also, the novel further raises the concept of ‘good teachers and bad teachers’ as we constantly see the narrator building a contrast between Prof. Cherian and Prof. Veera.

Putting in the perspectives of the other characters was a good move. It certainly brought more clarity to the context and gave more insight into the characters’ lives. The ending was a bit dull. But overall, the way it displayed the rigors of an IITian’s life, I couldn’t have called for anything better in that aspect.

This novel is indeed a stepping stone into a new genre of fiction and hopefully, plenty others follow. It remains one of Chetan Bhagat’s best novels till date and I must say, an example of a good novel. It definitely is a good night read and a book every adolescent should feel once.

Out of five stars, I shall give it 3.

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Review on Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone

This is a review on Chetan Bhagat's national best seller, Five point someone.The article tells how chetan bhagat was able to change the traditional book writing to a format that got appreciation in the mordern era.

Chetan Bhagat's role in altering the traditional concepts

Stress on the value of friendship, college love, don't miss it.

While seeing how famous this book became one has to agree it has something, but to an avid reader Chetan comes across as amateur writer. Majority of the people who read the book are school / college students, and for many of them it is either the first or one of the few books they have ever read. For someone who is as fond of reading as I am, I had picked up the book excitedly to find out what all the fuss was about.... and I was highly disappointed. The writing is childish with many attempts at humor that fail to bring a smile on your face. While it was decent attempt for a first timer, I don't think it deserved the response it got from the readers. I believe the only reason it did get that response was because it was the first lighthearted novel based on modern young Indians written by an Indian author.

This is Chetan Bhagat's first novel and has been a bestseller. The book is really good and shares story about 3 friends Alok, Hari and Ryan who meet at IIT Delhi. The book is narrated by Hari. I would suggest everyone to grab this book and read it. It is an interesting read. he book is available online on almost all major ecommerce stores at an very affordable price and also available in various Indian languages.

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Book Review -- Five Point Someone

Five Point Someone

📖 Education

👑 Management & Leadership

Set in IIT, in the early '90s, Five Point Someone portrays the lives of the protagonist Hari and his two friends Ryan and Alok. It explores the darker side of IIT, one in which students- having worked for years to make it into the institute-struggle to maintain their grades, keep their friends and have some kind of life outside studies.

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Five Point Someone is a story about three friends in IIT who are unable to cope.

The book starts with a disclaimer, “This is not a book to teach you how to get into IIT or even how to live in college. In fact, it describes how screwed up things can get if you don’t think straight.”

Three hostelmates – Alok, Hari and Ryan get off to a bad start in IIT – they screw up the first class quiz. And while they try to make amends, things only get worse. It takes them a while to realize: If you try and screw with the IIT system, it comes back to double screw you. Before they know it, they are at the lowest echelons of IIT society. They have a five-point-something GPA out of ten, ranking near the end of their class. This GPA is a tattoo that will remain with them, and come in the way of anything else that matters – their friendship, their future, their love life. While the world expects IITians to conquer the world, these guys are struggling to survive.

Will they make it? Do under performers have a right to live? Can they show that they are not just a five-point-somebody but a five-point-someone?

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Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT Paperback – January 1, 2011

• Print length 275 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Rupa Publications
• Publication date January 1, 2011
• Dimensions 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 8129104598
• ISBN-13 978-8129104595
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rupa Publications; First Edition (January 1, 2011)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 275 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8129104598
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8129104595
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
• #1,466,338 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

About the author

Chetan bhagat.

Chetan Bhagat is the author of nine blockbuster books. These include seven novels—Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend (2014) and One Indian Girl (2016) and two non-fiction titles— What Young India Wants (2012) and Making India Awesome(2015). His upcoming book 400 Days is now available to preorder and will release on 17th September 2021. Chetan’s books have remained bestsellers since their release. Four out his five novels have been already adapted into successful Bollywood films and the others are in process of being adapted as well. The New York Times called him the ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history’. Time magazine named him amongst the ‘100 most influential people in the world’ and Fast Company, USA, listed him as one of the world’s ‘100 most creative people in business’. Chetan writes columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development issues. He is also a motivational speaker and screenplay writer. Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009 to devote his entire time to writing and make change happen in the country. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anusha, an ex-classmate from IIM-A, and his twin boys, Shyam and Ishaan. You can email him at [email protected] or fill in the Guestbook with your feedback. You can also follow him on twitter (@chetan_bhagat) or like his Facebook fanpage (https://www.facebook.com/chetanbhagat.fanpage).

Customer reviews

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Customers say

Customers find the writing style very well written and funny. They also say the book brings back nostalgic memories and emotions. Opinions are mixed on the story, with some finding it nicely told, gripping, and poignant, while others say it lackluster.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the writing style of the book very well written, funny, and crisp.

"...so hats off to the author for rekindling old memories!!The narration is nice , plain and simple, and most importantly made me laugh aloud when I..." Read more

"...The author's use of the language and the subtle humor all the way through made interesting reading.I didn't stop with one book...." Read more

"The book seemed very unorganized and not too well written . The movie was able to take this lackluster story and make it a blockbuster...." Read more

"...The language is simple but ernest that slowly it made me a part of the story. Loved it." Read more

Customers find the book fun and funny.

"...It is a story, nicely told, funny , gripping, with its poignant moments which make you reflect, or gulp down a lump or two down your throat...." Read more

"...but a certainly a good fun for youngsters who would like to read it once for fun." Read more

"...The authors sense of humor is awesome ; looking forward to see the same in the rest of his books hopefully...." Read more

"...The author's use of the language and the subtle humor all the way through made interesting reading .I didn't stop with one book...." Read more

Customers say the book brings back nostalgic memories and sometimes swelling emotions.

"...The nostalgia was sweet .. so hats off to the author for rekindling old memories!!The narration is nice, plain and simple, and most importantly made..." Read more

"... Brought back nostalgic memories , and occassionaly, swelling emotions. Keep it up Chetan - when can I expect your IIM fiction?Ganesh Venkat" Read more

"...somewhere you do not get any thing from this book but it certainly trigger your memories " Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the story. Some find it nicely told, funny, gripping, and poignant, while others say it lackluster and some chapters drag.

"... It is a story , nicely told, funny, gripping, with its poignant moments which make you reflect, or gulp down a lump or two down your throat...." Read more

"This is a fun book with some good humor. Some of the chapters have been dragged long which makes the reader lose interest at time but then it takes..." Read more

"...Loved every page. Masterful story-telling , peppered with profound observations...." Read more

" Quite interesting story of 3 students , how they manage to cope after getting 5points and their stupidity in the IIT." Read more

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I Walked Down the Aisle With the Man Who Panned My Book on Goodreads

When the best man at my friend’s wedding gave my novel a one-star review, I wasn’t sure I could forgive him. It was harder, ultimately, to forgive myself.

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Sooner or later, we all come across our critics. Maybe it happens via a stinging romantic rejection, or a meeting about our “disappointing performance” in the job we worked so hard to get. In my case, I came face-to-face—literally—with my biggest critic while walking down the aisle with him. He was the best man at my friend’s wedding; I was the maid of honor. And he’d given my debut novel a one-star review on Goodreads.

With my first book, I blithely took the plunge. Most of my readers were friends and family anyway, so I spent far too much time gorging myself on their Goodreads praise. As a rabid people-pleaser who hated the idea of anyone disliking me, it was intoxicating to believe that maybe, just maybe, I’d done the impossible and created a piece of art that was universally loved.

Until a one-star rating popped up. My stomach dropped. I reminded myself that it was bound to happen sooner or later. Then I immediately clicked on the account to see who had decided to tell the internet that my life’s work was trash. I knew that name, didn’t I? Yes, he was a friend of my close friend’s fiancé. And not just any friend, either. He was going to be the best man at their upcoming wedding. And his maid of honor counterpart? That would be me.

.css-1aear8u:before{margin:0 auto 0.9375rem;width:34px;height:25px;content:'';display:block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1aear8u:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/elle/static/images/quote.fddce92.svg);} .css-curasl{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:SaolDisplay,SaolDisplay-fallback,SaolDisplay-roboto,SaolDisplay-local,Georgia,Times,serif;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;font-weight:normal;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-curasl{font-size:2.125rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-curasl{font-size:2.125rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-curasl{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-curasl{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-curasl em,.css-curasl i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-curasl b,.css-curasl strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-curasl i,.css-curasl em{font-style:italic;} It was intoxicating to believe that maybe, just maybe, I’d done the impossible and created a piece of art that was universally loved.”

I was indignant—and worried. Maybe the book was bad, and my friends had been sugarcoating their responses. But I was also confused. Did this man not realize how uncomfortable this would make the wedding? As the big day approached, I spent a lot of time questioning how best to handle the situation. Should I reach out to him to clear the air? Ignore him completely? Demand that he tell me exactly why he hated the book so that I could tell him why he was wrong?

At first, I tried rising above. Perhaps he’d be so taken by my friendliness and charm that he’d rethink his opinion of the book, even go back and change his one-star to a five-star! As we lined up for the ceremony, I locked my face into a smile, making semi-awkward small talk. I figured he knew that I knew about the rating, but neither of us mentioned it. We simply made our way down the aisle, arm-in-arm, to watch the beautiful ceremony.

But by the time the reception rolled around, politeness didn’t feel adequate. So I got petty. Both of us were due to deliver toasts to the crowded ballroom, and mine would be better ! This man might have hated my book, but I’d make it impossible for him to hate my speech. I tried to remind myself that the toast was about celebrating my friend and her husband, not about making their best man regret his life’s choices. Still, I couldn’t help feeling a surge of triumph when, at the end of my speech, the crowd rang with laughter and applause.

Finally, I got drunk. (This seemed, at the time, an appropriate response to Goodreads slander.) As the wedding guests grooved to a dance floor standard, with the encouragement of a couple other bridesmaids, I shimmied up to the best man and slurred-shouted, “So, what would you rate my toast ?” (I thought this was very clever.) I don’t think he heard me clearly amidst the guests’ Whitney Houston scream-singing, because he turned to me, confused. “What?” he yelled back. I wasn’t brave enough to repeat myself, so I danced away, Homer Simpson-ing back into the crowd.

We saw each other one final time, at the end of the night. He gave me a friendly wave and told me to reach out if I was ever passing through his city, as if totally unbothered by the feud between us. Or perhaps I’d invented the feud altogether.

Ultimately, my friend got the backstory from him: He’d bought the book as a show of support, and it hadn’t been his thing. He liked to keep track of his reading for himself, so he’d marked it with a one-star review without thinking about the fact that the review would appear publicly. As soon as he realized, he took it upon himself to delete the rating.

Even if he hadn’t, readers have a right to rate books however they wish. It’s part of the bargain that an author makes in exchange for getting their book published. Authors get to control so much when we’re in the writing process. We make up entire worlds where the characters do exactly what we want. We edit and futz with sentences until they shine. Then, if we’re lucky, we release our story into the real world, and suddenly it doesn’t belong to us anymore. It’s not for us anymore. And therefore we can’t expect to—nor should we desire to—control audience’s responses.

If I was going to keep writing, something that brought me so much joy and fulfillment, I had to forgive that best man. But more importantly, I had to forgive myself. I didn’t write a perfect book, and then, when someone forced me to face that fact, I overreacted by getting petty and annoyed. That was okay. That was human.

Acknowledging my own inadequacies ultimately allowed me to be more empathetic toward my characters, my readers, and myself. So my first novel hadn’t blown every single reader away. That meant there was room for me to grow. I would never write a perfect book, but I could use this man’s criticism to write a better one, pushing myself to dig deeper when I tried again—even while knowing that, still , some people wouldn’t love it.

Now, I’m grateful for that one-star rating. It was an early, impossible-to-ignore lesson that it’s not my job as an author to make every one of my readers happy, nor is it my job to monitor and police their responses—however natural the urge to defend myself might be. If there’s a person out there who’s managed to please everyone they’ve ever known—including their haters!—I’d like to meet them. To shake their hand, sure, and maybe study them for science. But also to tell them: If you’re willing to be hated a little, you might grow to love yourself more.

One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin

And it turns out that this man gave me so much more than a one-star review. He also gave me the idea for my latest novel, One-Star Romance , a romantic comedy about a maid of honor, the best man who gives her book a one-star review, and what happens when they’re forced back together each time their married best friends celebrate another life milestone. I took risks in the writing of this one, letting my characters make mistakes, trying to honestly capture that disorienting period in your twenties and thirties when, suddenly, everyone starts moving at different speeds and it’s easy to feel like you can’t keep up—that you’re doing something wrong. I knew the feeling well.

In real life, unlike in my book, the best man and I did not fall in love. Instead, I married someone who’s only ever rated my novels five stars. Occasionally, my husband goes on my Goodreads page and tells me snippets of nice things that people are saying. And sure, for One-Star Romance , I might have written down, “Someone apparently called it a masterpiece!!” on my Notes app, and maybe I look at that Note whenever I get anxious about publication. Because it turns out that, while risk-taking might get easier, it never gets easy .

Still, I’m so proud of this book. It’s better than my writing before; I’m better than I was before. I like to think that even my old best-man nemesis might begrudgingly rate this book more than one star. But since I no longer check my own Goodreads, I’ll never know.

Laura Hankin is the author of One-Star Romance , Happy & You Know It , A Special Place for Women , and The Daydreams . Her musical comedy has been featured in publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post , and she is developing projects for film and TV. She lives in Washington DC, where she once fell off a treadmill twice in one day.

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