ReadingRate · What's new · 2026-01-12
See a book's cast without spoiling what's ahead
ReadingRate builds a cast list for a book out of the book's own text: who each character is, what else they are called, where they first appear, and how they are related to everyone else. On the web the list is filtered to the page you have reached, so a character you have not met is not shown. While you are still reading, a character shows only a name, a role and a first appearance; the aliases, the description and the relationships are written from the whole book, ending included, and appear once you finish. Finish the book and the cast becomes a recall deck on your iPhone, resurfacing characters on a spaced-repetition schedule.
Available on web and iOS.
The trouble with reading a nineteenth-century novel with sixty named characters is not that help is unavailable. It is that every version of that help is written for someone who has finished, and a cast list on the open web will tell you who the murderer is by describing them as the murderer.
So the filter is on first appearance. A character whose first page is past yours is not on the list. Since November 2026 the web goes further: before the finish it shows no relationships and no descriptions at all, because both were written by something that had read the ending.
Extraction runs on the actual text rather than on a summary of it, which is why aliases come out right — the same person called by a title in one chapter, a surname in another, and a nickname by their family.
What it can't do
- It needs the book's text in ReadingRate. A book you are tracking but have not uploaded has no cast list.
- The page filter is a web feature. In the iOS app the cast loads only once you have finished the book, and it is not filtered.
- Relationships are typed — spouse, sibling, rival, mentor and so on. There are no character arcs and no factions. It describes who people are to each other, not how they change.
- The roster is assembled by a model reading a sample of the text, not by an editor. Minor characters get missed, and a full-length novel is capped at around twenty entries.
- There is no way to talk to a character. That is built and not switched on.
Questions people ask
- Can I see a character list for a book without spoilers?
- Yes. ReadingRate extracts the cast from the book's own text and, on the web, hides any character whose first appearance is past the page you have reached, and until you finish shows only each character's name, role and first appearance.
- How do I keep track of who's who in a long novel?
- Open the book's cast list, which gives each character's name, role and first appearance while you read, and their aliases and relationships once you finish. On the website the log also marks the names of characters you have met as you write about a night's reading. Once you finish, the iOS app turns that cast into a spaced-repetition deck so the names stay with you.