You all remember the post where one of the Amazon/GR bullies tormented someone with special needs. Well, here is another example of an attack on such a person. This article comes from an anonymous blog reader who wanted to share their opinion on GR troll attacks.
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Reviews that have merit and are written with some substance and thought, regardless of whether they’re negative or positive, on the book itself. Anytime, a review brings things in that are hearsay , or are gossip, by nature about the writer, that is not pertinent to the review itself; you no longer have a book review.
Emilie Autumn, an independent author, musician, and poet, recently was the victim of a mob of trolls on Goodreads, who left nearly two pages worth of reviews about her work, which were all one-star reviews. Some were not as egregious, but were still clearly part of some act of retaliation. The sheer number in such short time can only mean that there was a troll mob attack.
Emilie Autumn’s book “Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls,” is a book that is partly about her experience in a mental hospital, but it is really about her bipolar disorder, which defines a lot of her work.
I have paid witness to many trolls over the years on Goodreads, leaving many vulgar, abusive reviews, but these reviews really seemed more egregious, in their tone and vulgarity, about Emilie’s work, in specific. They are demoralizing in tone, when speaking about those with either mental illness or some traumatic incident of abuse in their past. Therefore, I caution anyone reading this to please exercise caution, when reading either of the below reviews.
For example, this one reviewer left a review of her work, containing very disconcerting, false accusations that Emilie Autumn faked her mental illness, and by extension, any fans of her work are thus similarly faking their mental illness:
Link to Goodreads review:
Another review, right around the same time, much like the one, implies that anyone with a past of self-mutilation, suicide attempts, must show proof for it to be legitimate. It also further implies how you act in response to the deep, paralyzing experience of sexual abuse, somehow evaluates whether that trauma was genuine or not:
Link to other Goodreads review:
This was really a last straw moment for me, with respects to Goodreads. To say this issue is about censoring criticism is beside the point, the above reviews are not even critical analysis of the content itself. They are more like veiled attempts to discredit an important advocate on the issue of mental illness, and to further bully those who are fans of her work. That is hardly a review, it is really harassment
Goodreads should be about reading and evaluating what we’re reading in a civil, ethically democratic way, and not about bullying, nor about spreading gossip. We venture to reviews to read responses on content. The above type of reviews become indiscernible, by the fact that they contain so much hearsay, and false allegations.
Most important, Emilie Autumn’s work was an artistic act of really legitimizing what happened to her in her past, when she herself, as a sufferer from bipolar disorder, struggles with really feeling mentally grounded to this reality. When people spread the dangerous idea that those that suffer from mental illness lack credibility, they are basically dehumanizing these people, shutting out their freedom to express themselves artistically and creatively.
How do these reviews help anyone? Goodreads should be about intelligent, thoughtful discussion of books. Period. Reviewers should absolutely be free to give negative reviews, of course. But not this. If it doesn’t add to a meaningful discussion or assist other readers in their buying choices, what’s the point?
I completely agree here. Criticism is fine – everybody is different with different likes and dislikes. The world would be a pretty boring place if everybody was the same. But this isn’t criticism, this is harassment. There is no empathy here. There is no dialogue about any real grievances about her book. The really disconcerting thing about it all is that so many say they have mental illnesses themselves while tearing someone else down about their own! Shouldn’t they know, then, that everyone reacts to their problems in different ways? Saying that Emilie Autumn does not suffer from bi-polar disorder or had overcome abuses in her past because she continues to be a sexual being is not only ridiculous on the face of it, but a truly one-sided juvenile insult to anybody who has ever suffered through something in their own way. It is shameful thing for them to do, but since they decided that getting on the internet and tearing down someone with a mental illness was a good idea, then they will never have the self-awareness to realize it. And that’s really sad.
I am a musician. I am bipolar. I am in treatment for bipolar disorder. I have been in and out of mental health treatment for 24 years. I am a childhood sexual abuse and rape survivor.
I have posed nude. I am not ashamed of my body. I sought help for self-acceptance, which I have to remind myself I am entitled to every day. Posing nude was empowering, for me. I did not pose nude in a sexually gratuitous fashion.
I was never a cutter, per se. I scraped, burned, bit or beat on myself when I was younger. I had bruises, scabs and still have scars. However, I have more that have faded away to nothing but memory. Scars heal.
This tirade against Emilie Autumn for what the public perceives as falsified mental illness is a joke. Not everyone handles bipolar or survives rape in the same way. Some victims do begin to sleep around and behave recklessly. Others close up and can never be comfortably touched again. No two of us are the same. Some of us totally lose interest in sex, others cannot be stimulated sexually by touch alone, and need to be emotionally nurtured and feel safe.
Bipolar Disorder can be confusing for outsiders to see- mental illness is largely internal. I had incredible mood or energy swings and suffered from paranoid thoughts and anxiety so severe I could not trust my own perception of the things happening around me. I feared that everyone, even the people I am closest to, did not like me or were hiding things from me. I felt like I was going insane, until I got treatment.
It is not up to you to tell someone else how they should react to their disease, their trauma or their recovery. The entire point of art is to express and view that expression. No review should ever be written about art unless that person has actually viewed it.
These reviews were written by desperate, hateful, disgusting people.
“It is not up to you to tell someone else how they should react to their disease, their trauma or their recovery. The entire point of art is to express and view that expression. No review should ever be written about art unless that person has actually viewed it.
These reviews were written by desperate, hateful, disgusting people.”
A-fucking-men. <3
Shame on goodreads for posting those stupid reviews written by a bunch of ignorant bully mobs. I’m beginning to think goodreads is a big part of this problem. They are advocating this type of behavior by allowing it on their site. Really, it is mostly their fault in that they are not weeding out the trash and are allowing those screwballs to shit on authors the way they do. An honest review is one thing but attacking authors personally is just creepy and has nothing to do with the book itself. That should never be allowed. Goodreads will eventually be it’s own downfall. I blame them for helping to spread this garbage that comes from the filthy, evil brains of very mentally ill bullies.
Goodreads needs to take better control of their site. They need to scan these comments and reviews before they go up. They have the ability to do that, they are just playing along with the bullies in MY opinion. They could take better control if they tried.
Sadly, as an author myself, these reviews don’t shock me as to the vulgarity that can be put out into the mainstream as reviews.
Writing is an art… any art that can move people to react either with commentary or action should be complimented. However, because it is easy to project a grotesque comment without the backlash of a true face to face setting many find it easier to be overly rash. This rashness results in expressed insults that often have no merit.
Goodreads went to h*ll in a handbasket when it was bought AMAZON, the king of allowing trolls to attack authors and allowing people to buy a book, say I didn’t like it, and refund them despite them repeating this behavior. I never go to goodreads anymore. I have not logged into my account in months and don’t ever plan on doing it. As an author, I have been stalked, had people who are authors post hateful reviews about my book…. I just don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. Amazon will do nothing to back up an author. It doesn’t surprise me they don’t do it with Goodreads either…. we need a safehaven for authors that is monitored and when people want to be trolls, they get banned…
I hear you, Candace. I understand your frustration when you say “Amazon will do nothing to back up an author.” I do think Amazon will remove abusive reviews but only when we lobby Amazon to do so. And it does seem we have to put quite a bit of effort into it. —- That the site is passive, that it depends on reporting, this is what often gives organized bully campaigns an upper hand. Bullies and abusers on Amazon communicate with one another in places like the Top Reviewers Forum and rally the troops to go after their targets, authors or reviewers who for one reason or another they want to destroy. Individual authors are often helpless in the face of this kind of organization. — What can we do to open the eyes of the Amazon management to what is going on — how hard it is for an individual author to stand up against even a small organized gang of abusers? —- The abusers really know how to game the system, too. They’ve been doing it for years — carpet bombing victims on Goodreads, “cooking” the negative and positive “helpful” votes on Amazon, and writing “fake” attack reviews that aren’t reviews at all, but making them sound just authentic enough to pass inspection. It’s frustrating. I say report. Take the time to report whenever you see abuse. No matter how discouraged you might be, report, and take time to explain to the management just how the abuse you are witnessing is being perpetrated.
I feel dirty just by reading those ‘reviews’. What gets me is this one podcast I once listened said never to respond to reviews. That’s all fine and good if it’s one nasty review (which this isn’t a review at all really), but it’s entirely another thing when an entire site basically jumps on an author about their work giving streams of one star reviews.
Are they still advocating abusive reviews when online reviews take the form of this? How could anyone, podcast or not, seriously advocate for this kind of garbage? And yet in Twitter constantly get people plugging blogs about wanting authors advice on how to handle negative ‘reviews’.
How can an author safely give their opinion in this toxic environment? Or what scares me, is whether the reviewers above are actually authors dogging on other authors.:/
Goodreads should be ashamed, truly ashamed. I stopped giving them my business a long time ago. I can’t in conscionable fashion affiliate myself with a place that allows these ‘reviewers’ to roam free. And considering dropping people who affiliate with goodreads.
From the Goodreads Review Guidelines: “And here are some of the things that might cause your review to receive a lower priority in our internal ranking system, which may affect whether or not your review appears on the book page:
Reviews of the author. Mentioning the author in the context of a review is always acceptable, but reviews that are predominantly about an author’s behavior and not about the book will be deleted.
Reviews with off-topic, irrelevant comments about the author’s personal life will be deleted. For example, if the author owes you money, that is not appropriate information for a book review, and it will be deleted entirely.”
Seems obvious that these attacks on Emilie Autumn violate these guidelines. And it seems to me the book world —- the world made up of those who love books, love to read them, write them, write about them and talk about them — has everything to gain in supporting high standards on book sites, and nothing to gain from letting book sites become cesspools of abuse. —– The mystery is, why is the oversight on Goodreads and Amazon so lax? Why do we have to lobby the sites incessantly to take down reviews that blatantly violate their guidelines? —- But it seems that is what we have to do. We have to report this kind of abuse. And this is why I appreciate this article. It draws our attention to something with which we have to become concerned. It inspires her to do something positive in reporting this kind of behavior.
As another author, I can empathize with Emilie. This is one of the reasons I’m considering pretty much never going with Amazon to publish my work. I honestly feel weird thinking that all the other merchandise I bought is going to supporting a site that allows for this kind of behavior by reviewer by passive ignoring. That just feels like several funds of money going down the drain now.
And you know on reviews, I bought a book recently where I disliked the author’s voice. But unlike some of these losers I’m not going to go on some website and talk trash about the author because of it.
Now they can a step beyond just ‘reviewing’ and libeling bi-polar people. Or it would be considered that in any other profession. Fast food? Company comes knocking at your door with a cease and desist. Shoe store? Company comes knocking at your door with a cease and desist letter.
But indie authors like her? Can’t even defend herself. Are some of the publishing people talking about not responding to reviews even aware that abuse of author’s like Emilie are even going on? I would like to think they wouldn’t approve of it if they knew, and would like to be optimistic. But lately I’ve wondered.
It seems like there is an increasing level of cognitive dissonance between those who say don’t respond/report reviews and those who going on the rampage like the ‘reviews’ in the above post.
Do you know if any of the bullies hang out at Tumblr? It seems odd that for a website claiming to stop cyberbullying, something like users encouraging users to kill themselves is some sort of violation of their terms of service.
What a disgrace. Cannot begin to explain how mortified I am at this. This should be used as an example of how bad these bullies can be. Reminds me, whats Gavin H doing these days?
Ha. “The English wouldn’t write their accounts in American English.”
I don’t know anything about Ms Autumn but my other pen name writes in American English because that’s the target audience. I know other English authors who do as well.
That peice of info in the review was a moot point anyway because the journals written about Emily with a Y England could arguably be considered figments of her own imagination or a past life. Either way they would communicate in Emilie’s current voice. Everything else took place in California. But hey that’s what happens when they read a book just to troll. They don’t think critically or try to unravel the story. They just find stuff to hate. All I can do is laugh because that book is expensive and in their attempts to spread hate they are funding her art.