‘Review bombing’: How it harms book ratings, misleads readers

If you’ve been on BookTok or Book Twitter, realms of the internet where people discuss trending or their favourite books and literature, you may have caught wind of the recent drama surrounding American author Cait Corrain.

The first-time author was dropped by publisher Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House, after admitting to one-star review-bombing other debuting authors on book review and recommendation site Goodreads.

In other words, Corrain had intentionally “left reviews that ranged from kind of mean to downright abusive,” under multiple different profiles she created on the Amazon-owned site so that the release of her novel would appear to be better received in comparison to her peers.

Originally slated to debut in March 2024, Del Rey stated on X that it would no longer be publishing her sci-fi novel Crown of Starlight. Corrain’s literary agent, Rebecca Podos has also parted ways with her client.

Corrain mentions “a losing battle against depression, alcoholism and substance abuse,” in her apology addressing her actions, and says after beginning new medication in November, “suffered a complete psychological breakdown,” the following month.

“During this time, I created roughly six profiles on Goodreads and, along with two 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,” Corrain posted on X.

The authors Corrain had targeted, including Bethany Baptiste, Thea Guanzon, Kamilah Cole, R.M Virtues, K.M Enright, and Frances White, appear to be mostly writers of colour, as fellow authors and those in the literary community have pointed out.

Two authors whose books Corrain had left one-star reviews on belong under the same publisher — Molly X. Chang, due to debut To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods next April, and USA Today bestselling author Danielle L. Jensen, who is expected to release A Fate Inked in Blood in February.

“Goodreads takes the responsibility of maintaining the authenticity and integrity of ratings and protecting our community of readers and authors very seriously. We have clear reviews and community guidelines, and we remove reviews and/or accounts that violate these guidelines,” a spokesperson from the site told The Washington Post.

Targeted harassment

With millions of members, Goodreads is regarded as an essential platform for building an audience as well as creating excitement for books at a time when garnering a wider set of readers online is seen as key by publishers.

The site, which Amazon acquired in 2013 for a reported $150 million, has been criticised for allowing users to review books before they come out, even when they have not read an advanced reader copy.

Since Amazon bought out the site, some believe Goodreads is a shell of its former days, harming the community it is designed to inspire.

“It can be incredibly hurtful, and it’s frustrating that people are allowed to review books this way if they haven’t read them,” the New York Times reported author and editor Roxane Gay saying. “Worse, they’re allowed to review books that haven’t even been written. I have books on there being reviewed that I’m not finished with yet,” added Gay, who also posts reviews on Goodreads.

In October, Goodreads released an announcement, calling for users to report suspected review bombers, a predicament it acknowledges on the site, adding that, “Earlier this year, we launched the ability to temporarily limit submission of ratings and reviews on a book during times of unusual activity that violate our guidelines, including instances of ‘review bombing.’”

Speaking on the topic of review bombing to WBUR, a public radio station located in Boston, host and creator of The Stacks, a podcast about books, Traci Thomas said, “I do think that piling on and leaving these reviews when books haven't been read is a real problem …. This isn't a new thing.”

Targeted harassment through negative reviews has also resulted in established authors pulling the plug on their books.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the beloved and bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love received hundreds of negative reviews on Goodreads for her book, The Snow Forest, a historical fiction set in mid-20th-century Siberia, originally due for release in February 2024.

However, it wasn’t necessarily the book nor its premise of a Russian family seeking refuge from Soviet oppression that people drew ire from — some had claimed the book’s setting in Russia was insensitive to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

In response, Gilbert announced that the publication of her book would be indefinitely postponed, saying in a video posted on Instagram, “I am making a course correction and I’m removing the book from its publication schedule. It is not the time for this book to be published.”

Amir Muhammad, managing director of Buku Fixi, a Malaysian independent urban and contemporary book publisher, says readers tended to rely on sites like Goodreads for book recommendations, more so in 2011 when his publishing company first launched.

“If the consensus tends to be negative this is a sign that readers won't like the book anyway, and sales will eventually reflect that. Just a few negative reviews won't matter,” Amir tells TRT World.

But in recent years, Amir, who is also a writer and filmmaker, has seen Malaysian book enthusiasts shift towards other popular platforms, such as TikTok, for the latest reads.

“We can see the earlier books [on Goodreads] have more reviews than the later ones, even though some of the later ones have sold more.”

Amir adds, “We have found recently, since 2021, that TikTok reviews from people who have read the book are much more influential than Goodreads when it comes to sales.”

According to Nielsen BookData, adding the keywords ‘TikTok/BookTok’ collectively sold 2.2 million copies of books in the first four months of 2022 in the UK, as measured through BookScan. With more than one billion active users globally, TikTok’s influence and significance are not only growing, but also changing the way books are recommended, and ultimately purchased by readers.