Content ratings

Each reviewed book gets one content rating: G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17. That rating works like a movie rating. Each flagged group on the book page gets its own rating of Mild, Moderate, Heavy, or Extreme. The star score on a book page is Amazon's reader average and is separate from these ratings.

How a rating is chosen

  1. The book is scanned for words in seven groups: profanity, strong swearing, sexual language, LGBTQ+ themes, violence, racism, and crude language.
  2. For a word that appears, up to 20 short passages are taken from across the book. That is a sample of the full count, not every time the word appears. The sample is used to judge context and how strong the content is. How often it appears comes from the full count. A different meaning is left out of the count, and the category note says so. A rooster is not sexual content, and an older use of queer to mean strange is not an LGBTQ+ theme.
  3. Those passages are the evidence for a note on that group, and for that group's own rating: None, Mild, Moderate, Heavy, or Extreme. Reader comments may be added when they say how often something shows up. The note describes the content in plain language. Words that are hard to read are censored, with the first letter kept and the rest replaced by asterisks.
  4. The book rating is the strongest group, translated to the movie scale. None becomes G, Mild becomes PG, Moderate becomes PG-13, Heavy becomes R, and Extreme becomes NC-17. A group with no note was not flagged, and that content is not assumed.

There is no point total. Each rating is a judgment from the notes, using the descriptions on this page. The passages are a sample of at most 20, so severity comes from that sample and frequency comes from the full word count.

Category ratings

None That content is not present.

A group rated None is left off the book page.

Mild A light or occasional instance.

A rare mild word, or a brief scuffle, stays here.

Moderate Clearly present, short of being constant or graphic.

The content goes beyond a light mention, without frequent strong language, graphic violence, or sexual content as a regular part of the book.

Heavy Frequent strong language, graphic violence, or sexual content.

Any one of those is enough for this group. Constant strong swearing can be Heavy even when the sexual content is slight.

Extreme Explicit sexual content, or violence that stays graphic through the book.

The notes describe sex on the page in explicit terms, or violence that stays graphic for a large part of the book.

Book ratings

G Suitable for all ages.

The category notes do not describe objectionable language, sexual content, or violence.

PG Mild language or mild violence.

Sexual content is little or none. A reader who wants to avoid anything stronger than a mild swear or a brief scuffle would still be comfortable.

PG-13 Moderate language, some violence, or brief sexual references.

The book goes beyond a mild mention, but the notes do not describe frequent strong language, graphic violence, or sexual content as a regular part of the book.

R Frequent strong language, graphic violence, or sexual content.

Any one of those is enough. A book with constant strong swearing can be R even when the sexual content is slight, and a book with graphic injury can be R even when the language is milder.

NC-17 Explicit sexual content, or violence that is extreme and sustained.

The notes describe sex on the page in explicit terms, or violence that stays graphic for a large part of the book.

What moves a book from one rating to the next

  • Language: a rare mild word stays toward PG. Moderate swearing can reach PG-13. Frequent strong swearing reaches R.
  • Violence: a brief fight or a mention of injury can stay at PG or PG-13. Graphic injury, gore, or repeated blows reach R. Violence that is extreme and fills the book reaches NC-17.
  • Sexual content: a brief reference can stay at PG-13. Sexual content that is part of the book reaches R. Explicit sex on the page reaches NC-17.

The book page keeps a separate note for each group that was flagged, under the book rating. Those notes are where racism, crude language, and LGBTQ+ themes are described on their own. The badge on a group says how strong that content is. The badge on the book is that strongest group, written as a movie rating.