Are star ratings actually helping us make decisions, or do they cause more damage than they're worth

Why do we buy what we buy? In a world in which there are a thousand versions of the same product, choice feels impossible.

In this lively book from writer and critic Benji Wilson, it becomes clear that we don’t have to choose... the five little stars on every product page have chosen for us.

Reviewing, rating and critiquing is natural. Aristotle was doing it when he decided humans were superior to all beings. Mariana Starke published two travel books in the 1820s, becoming the ‘original trust pilot’, rating places with exclamation marks. In 1926 the Michelin brothers released their infamous ‘Guide’, which by 1954 was described by the New Yorker as having ‘dictatorial status’.

In the last few decades everything has become subject to review; hotels, restaurants, appliances, clothes, food, films, plays, exhibitions, historical monuments, books... (Wilson provides QR codes throughout so readers can rate his).

Within minutes of checking out of a hotel or leaving a restaurant we are bombarded by emails asking for ‘your opinion’ or for you to ‘tell us about your stay’.

We are bribed with the chance of winning gift cards – Amazon will select their most devoted reviewers and give them ‘Vine customer’ status, meaning free products for life.

While reviews and ratings can be incredibly helpful, there are issues with the system. Lots of people – mainly critics themselves – think stars are reductive and minimising. And a bad rating can ruin someone’s career or close their business.

Shakespeare isn’t worrying about his 3.91 Goodreads score for King Lear, but a debut author probably would.

Complicating matters is the fact that often the reviews we read aren’t even real, they have been generated by a bot or planted by companies to bolster their market position.

This is the key issue tackled in this romp through our consumer landscape; reviews are useless if we can’t trust them.

Wilson explains that if the stars are going to continue to point us in the right direction, we might need to give them a bit of help. Removing the influence of AI is a start.

Sadly, we refrain from stars in these pages so I cannot rate this fascinating book as its title demands. However, if I was a Michelin inspector I would say that Wilson ‘vaut [justifies] le voyage’.