Top Rated

Over the years, we’ve reviewed our fair share of books — from novels to poetry anthologies, we really have seen it all. We’ve dealt out good reviews and bad ones. However, there are a few reads that have really stood out to us. 

 

This page lists our top-rated books so that, when it comes to choosing your next read, you can have the cream of the crop.

 

What makes a top-rated book?

To us, a top-rated book is any read that goes over and above. While we understand and appreciate the importance of awards and accolades, we’ll never show any bias in our reviews just because a book has won a prize.

 

A top-rated book is one that:

Contributes a unique take on things

Possesses a distinctive voice

Makes readers stop and think, encouraging reflection upon their own experiences

Shocks, intrigues, abhors, compels, and entertains in all the right ways

Reads well and discusses things in a way that hasn’t been done before

And many more criteria.

 

The ‘best books of all time’

It is important to note the inevitable element of subjectivity that comes with classifying certain books as “top rated”. Don’t be disheartened if your favourite titles didn’t make the cut, our opinions aren’t definitive by any means. 

Ask anyone what the best book of all time is and you will receive a different answer each time. From Dickens’s Great Expectations to Orwell’s 1984, answers will vary. At Victoria Freudenheim, we don’t just limit ourselves to ‘classics’ like these either; we are very much in constant dialogue with modern fiction too, from biography and crime to thrillers and drama,  making sure to review as representative a selection as possible.

The Alchemist Book Cover

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho