#reviewbombgate

[anoonzee]

So the infamous reviewbomber has made her X account public again and issued a non-apology, basically blaming all her racist bad choices on-- (checks notes)--mental illness and substance abuse.

And then the responses flood in.

The "aged like milk" tweets.

(REALLY????)

I went "OH DAMN" at this one:

Frankly, this post would go on for miles if I went and screencapped all the receipts and call-outs.

The weak-ass excuse of an apology can be found here. Interestingly, Cait disabled replies to it after she got rightfully roasted.

BUT---in case she deletes it (click to embiggen):

And my guess is, Del Rey (the publisher) may be trying to recoup lost money on this, because... (sigh)

Bethany said it better than I could.

[someoneintheshadow456]

I said before, now that Cait Corrain’s true self has come out, I can finally elaborate on what happened with her. To put a long story short, I was one of her very first victims - long before she became an original fiction author and back when she was known as Enterprisingly on AO3 - the author of Play to Win.

I know that #reviewbombgate was back in December, but at the time, I did not know about it because I’m not involved in BookTok. However, I WAS involved with the Reylo fandom, albeit indirectly.

The final chapters of Play to Win went on a tangent that seemed bizarre to me at the time. In fact, it seemed so strange that I brushed it off almost completely. It was only when I found Play to Win’s Wayback Machine page after recalling memories of the Reylo fandom last year when I read the chapter properly (instead of skipping ahead to get to the Reylo scenes). And a proper reading made me realize what was so unnerving about it:

Anyone who has engaged with my blog (especially from 2015-2019, when I used to post a lot more content about my personal life) can see the strangely... specific way this character was described. In order to go into this level of depth, one has to have been following me intently and keeping tabs of all the personal things I posted.

And then, she goes from eerily specific descriptions, to straight up maliciously lying about me:

Keep in mind, this screed takes up an ENTIRE chapter in itself. Said character, Ejya Fjord, is a background NPC who is mentioned a total of 121 times in a 161,000 word story. In fact, her name is mentioned so little that you could be forgiven for not remembering her at all:

You'd think, if someone would do something like this, I had to have done something terrible to her, or even just gave her a negative review. But I never did.

As you can see here, I have only engaged positively with her. Since Play to Win was also taken down and you can’t see old comments on Wayback Machine. Unfortunately after this, I can only give my word without receipts.

Play to Win was published first in 2018. I reviewed her story in March of 2018, possibly even earlier. In my review, I praised the writing, worldbuilding, and dialogues, but gave a small constructive criticism in that the politics could be better integrated into the story without feeling disjointed.

In the very early chapters, Ejya was clearly intended to be 100% Swedish - as one can tell from the name. However, at some point in the later half of the story, she retroactively became mixed race and a rival for Ben's affections, while Ben seems to be having none of it. It's clear these choices were made to portray me as some kind of horny fangirl for Kylo Ren who will stomp on other girls for his sake:

When I read the last chapter first, I was horrified. But now I'm just... bemused that someone would ever see me as some kind of calculating vixen who dresses like a Euphoria high school student and only likes masculine hobbies to pick up dudes. When in reality it took me until 2020 to be able to type the word "sex" without having heart attack and have never so much as posted a selfie on here.

It's also funny that Ejya is petite and flat chested while my actual body type is the exact opposite... which she would know since she stalked my blog so thoroughly. Almost as though she's implying something about her own insecurities...

Initially, I was under the impression that Corrain targeted me because of my association with @ainomica - due to her ruffling the Reylo fandom’s feathers (and ending up on Corrain’s hit list) over her opinions on John Boyega. However, that controversy happened in 2020. When Corrain wrote this libel about me, @ainomica wasn’t even on her radar, not to mention it was a year before we had ever even met. This libel was done to target me, and me exclusively.

In essence - Corrain weaved libel about me into her story because my existence pissed her off. We know now that Corrain had a penchant for targeting sapphic authors and WOC almost exclusively. So it's safe to say she was just being a typical white saviour liberal who shows what she actually thinks of minorities when they don't toe the line.

While this does make her less unhinged in my eyes than using me to target someone else, it still means that Corrain was, and always has been capable of aggression towards anyone she’s remotely offended by. Especially if said person happens to be a minority of some kind.

[swingsetindecember]

going down the rabbit hole of investigating reviewbombgate has me discovering that reylo fanfic writers are being mainstream published

[zoanzon]

Reading a review about the disproportionate impact - and toxic culture - of Goodreads set in context of recent Cait Corrain scandal*, and taken out at the knees by the last-sentence insult here

(* scandal = author found out to have had multiple pseudonym accounts review-bombing other authors' works and talking up her own upcoming novel, she got dropped by agent and publisher after this came out)

[solarissantaella]

Cait Corrain is Not the Problem

As a publishing MA student and person of color, I wanted to give my perspective on the Cait Corrain review-bombing controversy and what it reveals about systemic racism within the industry.

I also shine the spotlight on ten books that deserve your attention more than . . . you know.

[lemuel-apologist]

In thinking about Cait Corrain (after watching ReadswithRachel's and Don't Fret's videos), I do think there is something to be said about the efficacy of instant feedback on your work. It was something D specifically brought up in the context of standup and open mics, but it reminded me of how Rachel brought up that Cait started off writing fanfiction. When you operate in communities online like this, you tend to expect a certain kind of feedback that you don't necessarily get from traditional publishing.

You also don't really, unless you're in a group that operates in the way of instant feedback, get that instant praise, commentary, or, yes, critique that you're used to. You do end up isolated; you do end up alone; and you don't get a feel for what works and what doesn't. When you put yourself out there, it's terrifying, and it's stupid, and it hurts-- not even to be rejected, but to fear being rejected. We all know it does. It's not exclusive to the neurodivergent. That's an intrinsically human feeling.

In the realm of feedback and stupid, human mentality, I know that I, personally, have a tendency to overreact and do dramatic things. That's true even when I'm medicated, apparently. (I'm saying this because I'm coming off of a week that ended in that. Don't focus too much on this part; it's a connection bit.)

The answer isn't to go out and explode, quit, and ruin my entire life-- or, in the case of authors we've seen, be extraordinarily racist, misogynistic, or otherwise lash out in writing or sideways-review because you think you are entitled to a certain kind of feedback you are not receiving. The answer is to take a step back, figure out why you're reacting like that, and, if you have done something like that (in my case, completely imploded; in the case of the relevant author, ruined so many people's debut reviews with racist screeds), figure out how to make amends for it.

D may not be saying that all writers should be less precious with their work-- but I would say to give it a try. Let a friend read it. Let someone else give it a go. The act of creation isn't something that you should bottle up in your stew of isolation. What you make is just as much a part of you as you are of it. It might help you be less possessive of your ideas when the little cheddar goblin pulls at your meninges.

And for goodness's sake, don't blame your racism on your mental illness.

[nyxshadowhawk]

So I hope it's okay to bring this up, but did you hear about reviewbombgate, and the author at the center of it? Reads with Rachel on YouTube got a hold of the author's book... It's a sci-fi retelling of Adrienne and Dionysus's story and... It's bad. It's so so bad. I'm glad it'll never be published but also infuriated that it was ever given a chance. Your short story you wrote a while back was excellent and I just kept thinking about how awesome it was as i was watching what little of the video I could manage. If you ever write and publish a book, I'll buy it and tell everyone about it.

I have no idea how much sense this makes you you 😅 but thanks for being awesome and not an asshole

I had no idea that this was a thing. I’m glad it made you remember my work, though, and that you appreciated it! My novels are still in progress, so hopefully they’ll publish someday! I will try to not be an asshole throughout my writing career.

Edit: Ohh god, I looked into the book and its author, and it sounded familiar. I actually reblogged art commissioned for that book, years ago! I credited the artist, rather than the author of the book. I still really like the art. But if the book is bad and there’s this big scandal around it, maybe I’ll skip it.

[anoonzee]

Finally, a good use of this meme.

[no-where-new-hero]

omg I need your thoughts on the terminally o line author culture bc ngl it makes my eye TWITCH, there are authors I deliberately avoid even tho I've heard their stuff is good bc they're like that 🙈

HHHHH oh good lord, okay, from how I see it, there are two angles on this, both aggravating and sad: the official decree one and the spontaneous ecosystem one.

The officious one is that the nature of publishing nowadays demands an author have an online presence. You need Twitter/X. You need to let every potential reader know your book is coming out. You need engagement through reviews and pre-orders incentives (if you buy now you’ll get a special keychain!!) and word of mouth assurances from your peers that yes your book is as cool as you say it is. You need a newsletter with links (more buying! more voting on lists that are simply popularity contests!) and promises you’re still working on the next thing, don’t forget about me in the morass of everyone else doing the same thing. You need an Instagram and TikTok now to post pretty pictures and videos because one or two authors made it big off this kind of promotion and now everyone thinks it’s the ticket to the bestseller list (sadly, it seems to be working). You need an OnlyFans (a joke but I do recall a twt spat that was a joke/not joke about how rupi kaur will always be more beautiful than her critics and people who took issue with the conflation of beauty with talent). At the end of all this, you’re basically an influencer, a content creator creating content for the content you should be focusing on creating, the finished novel. And the novel itself seems to be disappearing behind the masks used to promote it (fanfic-style tropes, moodboards, playlists, memes) until I now no longer trust the book that I’ll pick up to have any resemblance to the enticements that brought me here. I’ve seen an author or two complain about the stress all this self-promotion generates, but it’s become such an entrenched part of the industry, I think people just accept it. And thus spend too much time online hoping that if they tweet just a little more, produce just one more reel, maybe that’ll be the difference between a sale and no sale.

The other side of this, distinct but obviously connected, is the ecosystem created by this panic of being perpetually visible coupled with the fact that so many of the new authors came of age during the rise of internet fandom culture. That opinionated community mindset that blurs the line between anonymity and friendship is the lens they bring to their own work. I mean, it makes sense I suppose—if you love yelling about characters and words, why wouldn’t you do that once you start to produce your own? This really came home to me hearing about that reviewbombgate “scandal” and how people involved were in reylo circles and that was used to provide receipts. You’re interacting with your readers and peers about your intimate work but they are also all strangers. They will not always give you the benefit of the doubt, and now—as opposed to the past when maybe the worst that could happen was a handful of bad reviews in newspapers—you will either be tagged in hate reviews, sub-tweeted, explicitly called out, demanded to atone for your sins. It’s no longer the morality of consumption but the morality of production. Of course, the easy answer is just log-off, touch some grass. But that can work only when you and everyone else are separated by anonymous accounts or when you have no platform to maintain. As an author trying to make your livelihood from this, suddenly it’s do or die. We’re in a strange moment of authorship bringing the Internet’s echo-chamber and claustrophobic into the real world (this is a lie: publishing now is no longer the real world. But it looks like it) and thus you can kind of no longer escape things.

Will the average reader who isn’t aware of all these machinations care about reviewbombgate? Would a reader browsing at Target think about the controversies around Lightlark? Very likely not. But the impression I’m getting more and more is that the average reader isn’t the one buying all the books. Or shall we say—a bestseller’s status relies on bookstore stock. Bookstore stock is only huge when they know a book will be a good investment. They’ll only know a book is a good investment if it and its author has street cred based on booktokkers, bookstagram, bloggers and reviewers (have you noticed how many books out these last maybe 1-3 years have these kinds of accounts thanked in the acknowledgments? Yeah), and THESE are also chronically online people who will Know. And decide the cast of fate.

Honestly, @batrachised, I see why you avoid these kinds of writers, though I wonder how long it’ll be before the disease becomes epidemic.

[power-chords]

Just about herniated a disc rubbernecking this reviewbombgate mishegas. Good god.

[sequencefairy]

As of this am, we have a statement from Cait, via their twitter:

[ transcription:

Dear friends, family, readers, fellow authors, and members of the publishing community,

Since June 2022 I've been fighting a losing battle against depression, alcoholism and substance abuse, the full scope of which I've hidden from everyone in my life out of shame and a misguided belief that with the right medicine or enough therapy, I could beat it.

In late November, 2023, I started a new medication, and on December 2nd, 2023, I suffered a complete psychological breakdown. During this time, I created roughly 6 profiles on Goodreads, and, along with 2 profiles I made during a similar but shorter breakdown in 2022, I boosted the rating of my book, bombed the ratings of several fellow debut authors, and left reviews that ranged from kind of mean to downright abusive.

Two of those authors--Molly X. Chang and Danielle Jensen--are fellow Del Rey authors. Kamilah Cole and Bethany Baptiste, just happened to be on the wrong Goodreads lists at the wrong time. I felt no ill will towards any of them, it was just my fear about how my book would be received running out of control. My memories of this are extremely fuzzy, so it's possible there are a couple of other authors. If so, please know I take full ownership of what I did to you as well. I'm sorrier than you'll ever know. There's nothing I can say to erase what I did to you.

When I was slapped on the wrist by Goodreads and vague-tweeted by a handful of people, I panicked that my secret was about to get out and rather than taking responsibility for my actions, I tried to cover my tracks. Still in the middle of this breakdown, I made up the world's sloppiest chat with a non-existent friend who was supposedly to blame, and sent fake apologies for the actions of said "friend", which only made things worse. I betrayed the confidence of my agent, my pub team, my readers, and my friends, and betrayed my own deeply held values.

I also dragged one of my dearest friends and fellow debut authors into the mud with me when she came to my defense. I'll leave her name out of this so as not to pull her in even deeper, however if she wishes to come forwards, I'll apologize to her publicly as well.

Let me be extremely clear: while I might not have been sober or of sound mind during this time, I accept responsibility for the pain and suffering I caused, and my delay in posting this is due to spending the last few days offline while going through withdrawal as I sobered up enough to be brutally honest with you and myself. No one ever wants to be judged by their worst actions, but theye not always up to us.

I'll be reaching out to everyone directly impacted, though that may take some time, since I'm checking into an intensive psychiatric care and rehab facility, which means I'll mostly be off social media, as I need to give 100% to the program if I want it to stick. All I can do going forward is to try to live my life in a way that shows you these aren't empty words.

Yours, with so much love and utmost heartbreak,

Cait Corrain

/end transcript]

Since this article was published, according to tweets from the parties involved, two of Corrain’s publishers have removed their book from their 2024 schedules, and Corrain’s agent has announced that she and her client are parting company.

[throughtosunrise]

Been following the Reviewbombgate thing with morbid fascination, but every time someone says they've "never seen this level of drama before," I discover that I can, in fact, feel even more unfathomably old.

[siffrins-therapist]

Meh maybe I'm just wishy-washy but despite being a lover of retellings, especially fairytale retellings, but I see where both sides is coming from. I love LO mainly for the aesthetics. I like the art, and while there are definitely dark moments, I mostly keep reading for the parts that make me squee. A Persephone retelling that got mentioned in that whole #reviewbombgate thing sounds interesting, taking place in the 1920s I think. But there are also plenty of Cinderella retellings that are my beloathed. Usually the ones that try to girlboss-ify Ella. Lots of retellings want to keep only enough of the story to make it recognizable and use it as a selling point, not really caring as much as working out how to use the original themes and symbols to tell a new story. Lots of retellings are fun but empty, ig. So I can see then why that "modern retelling? Oh you mean make it worse" post has so many notes (parly due to a fight in the notes idk I didn't look)

I'm just rambling to myself now lmao when I saw the first post celebrating people dunking on Hades and Persephone retellings, I felt defensive (I've been sitting on a fic idea that retells the myth but focusing on Gil as Demeter) but I can also see their point . Sometimes retellings end up reading like the author wanted to use the myth or fairytale as a shortcut, not actually out of any love or thoughtfulness towards it

[the960writers]

Since Cait Corrain posted an apology in the mean time, citing depression and medication as the reasons for this, I want to emphasize that she has been doing this SINCE APRIL 2023!

This was not a "lapse of judgement one night under new medication" thing. Especially since she mainly targeted BIPOC authors. This was a monthlong, targeted attack against other authors she saw as competition.

As per my last post, if yall arent aware — Cait Corrain, the author of the upcoming Crown of Starlight made a bunch of fake accounts on Goodreads to review-bomb other debut authors, almost entirely BIPOC, with 1 star while 5-starring her own book. She also added traditionally published debut authors to a list derogatorily labeling them as "self-published" hacks. She went after random books that are Greek mythology retellings, like her own is, and again targeted BIPOC authors. She even targeted my good friend RM Virtues, who is an indie author who writes queer Black Greek myth reimaginings.

Many of those she attacked were people who considered her a colleague and friend. She's tried to spin a lie about how she's being framed by someone from her Reylo fandom days, but Reylos have disproven that already.

Cait allegedly liked to brag about how her publisher treated her like royalty, and she had a massive Illumicrate deal. Her book was also getting favorable advanced reviews and had a beautiful cover, so she had nothing to be jealous of. She's potentially destroyed her career due to racism alone. Do not buy her book and do not support her.

Here is a thread if you want specifics and here is the 31-page doc of evidence.

[anoonzee]

While scrolling in the bird app, I find out from Bethany Baptiste's twitter account (not giving Melon Husk the satisfaction) that notorious reviewbomber and well-known two-faced person Cait Corrain has been interviewed by The Daily Beast.

For some reason, The Daily Beast thought giving her a platform to give out her (unbelievable) excuses for reviewbombing is a good idea. What many are seeing and reading: they're giving her leeway to broadcast her gaslighting and lies and excuses to everyone else.

There are receipts.

And more receipts:

I'm taking screenshots from this travesty of an article so you don't have to...

Oooh, what a coincidence that her victims were all authors of color. Shocking, absolutely shocking. The one person who became racist because the medicines made her do it.

Puh-lease. Roseanne Barr tried that and nobody bought it.

They (the agent, publisher and book distributors) were right in dropping her like a hot potato. I would venture a guess that they've seen some glimpses of her narcissistic behavior. The reveal of her ridiculous actions sealed it for them.

LOL, really? There have been a LOT of people dropping receipts of your behavior long before you were approached to publish your book.

Bethany mentioned on the bird app that it seemed like Cait visited a professional to gather some mental-health buzzwords. The article IS full of those words. This part, in particular:

And this part made me go WTF?!

Did the same medication also make her write favorable reviews for her own book? Strange that she didn't mention that.

Yeah--not a racist rampage, but you somehow managed to target POC authors. Mmmhmmm... and then when you were getting the heat, you invented Lilly, the supposed Reylo who created those accounts on Goodreads. Effectively throwing a fandom under the bus, rather stupidly considering how close-knit Reylos are.

Also, did Cait deliberately choose this as the userpic for "Lilly"?

Oh look, Lilly is clearly the bad guy!

Yeah, so she's trying to spin herself as an ambassador for disabled people and mental health. Keep in mind that Bethany Baptiste--the person I mentioned at the beginning of this post--is one of Cait's Goodreads victims, is POC, and also disabled.

However--autism and mental health do not result in people doing what she has done. And she has said hardly anything in this article about being sorry for what she has done. All she did was to blame it on her autism, mental health and the medications she was prescribed, when there are dozens of people who have interacted with her who say otherwise: that if you are not worth anything to her, she will not treat you well.

Hell, there were folks who took screenshots from her own Twitter feed that did not age well.

Yeah, I don't think she did anything about that.

Also...

[anoonzee]

If she goes out and try to pin this on her alter ego Lilly or some other character or attempt to prove that one of her medications made her do it, I will eat a hat.

this week, cait corrain, whose book was dropped by the publisher and who was dropped by their agent after she review-bombed books by BIPOC authors (mainly other 2024 debut authors), put out an “apology” article in the daily beast. the article was very sympathetic to cait, but ultimately this apology failed to take actual responsibility for her actions, and has been roundly criticised for this

and now i’m hearing on twitter that it’s fucking happening again. these authors are getting review bombed AGAIN, including authors critical of the apology. absolutely fuck off. if/when i get more details (i don’t have a xitter account and my backend, nitter, is gone) i will share because i firmly want to rally support around the authors being review bombed