StoryGraph: the new Goodreads?

Goodreads hasn’t had much of an update for a while, and I’ve heard lots of complaints about goodreads and suggestions to improve it. One of those people was Nadia Odunayo, who created The StoryGraph to succeed in the areas where Goodreads doesn’t. At the moment, it’s in beta mode, but you can still sign up! I wanted to share my own opinions on it, based on my experience over the last few months, and decide whether it is the new Godreads!

I’ve been using The StoryGraph on my laptop, but you can also install it as an app (instructions here!). The website is more minimal and easier to navigate than Goodreads. On your homepage, you immediately get recommendations and your TBR to hold you accountable! You can also find new books based on your mood, genres and book length, which produces a mixture of popular and underrated book recommendations.

As well as recommendations The StoryGraph’s biggest strength is stats. This is one thing I’ve always missed from Goodreads, and I resorted to Google Forms for my yearly stats. However, The StoryGraph has lots of data for all you statistics lovers. You can see stats for all-time, yearly or a specific month, with a range of data: moods, pace, length, genre and rating. There is also a comparison feature, although it says that this will be a paid feature soon, so make the most of it!

The rating system is also unique too. As you’ve seen, The StoryGraph has lots of different measurements of books, not just 5 star ratings. Firstly, the ratings go up in .25, so if you’re a bit more picky in your ratings like me, you have much more freedom. You can also rate it in terms of the mood: mysterious, adventurous, dark, hopeful, light-hearted, reflective, informative etc. Another feature that I love is content warnings. You can see what content warnings everyone has decided the book has after reading, with a scale from minor to graphic. That way, you have more of an idea of what to expect and the intensity. There’s also questions about pacing, diversity and character development. Much better than 1-5 stars, right?

There is one aspect of The StoryGraph that doesn’t compare to Goodreads at the moment. There is a community feature of the website, but it is less developed. While you can follow people and like their reviews, you can’t comment, find people as easily or join groups. Of course, Goodreads is so popular that I don’t think The StoryGraph will be able to overtake it in that direction, but I am excited to see if any additional features will be added. The community feel of Goodreads is the reason I still use it, even with my other issues, so it is hard to compete! However, I do think The StoryGraph is a great alternative to Goodreads, and using them both together really enhances my experience as a reader in the blogging community.

I hope you liked my thoughts on The StoryGraph! It has promising ideas and features that are more exciting than Goodreads. Could it be the new Goodreads? Not yet, but I think it definitely could in the future!

Interested? Check out my StoryGraph account here and my Goodreads account here.

—ella♥