Elizabeth Gilbert, the “Eat, Pray, Love” author, isn’t publishing her next novel.
Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote the 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, said Monday that her upcoming novel won't be released as scheduled after she received backlash from Ukrainian fans over the fact that the book is set in Russia.
Over the weekend, over 500 people gave the book one star on the book review platform Goodreads; many of the reviewers said they were Ukrainian and were worried that the book would romanticize Russia at a time when the country is accused of committing war crimes.
This is ridiculous.
I’m not blaming Gilbert for her decision. But I think it’s insane that long before a novel has been released, it can be tanked by a group of “readers” who … haven’t read the book yet.
It’s like going on Yelp and giving a one-star review to a restaurant that hasn’t opened.
This kind of thing has happened regularly in recent years. Here’s a piece from Time Magazine in 2021:
Scammers and cyberstalkers are increasingly using the Goodreads platform to extort authors with threats of “review bombing” their work–and they are frequently targeting authors from marginalized communities who have spoken out on topics ranging from controversies within the industry to larger social issues on social media.
Gilbert is an author whose success ought to make her uncancellable. But the decision to tank her novel shows that Goodreads still has a problem, two years after the Time article appeared.
Matthew Zeitlin makes a good point:
He’s right. Goodreads practically invites the heckler’s veto with this process.
I don’t blame Ukrainians for their hatred of Russia right now. But it’s also wrong to declare all Russians — and all of Russian history — off-limits for the rest of us to discuss, read and write about. Goodreads is supposed to facilitate communities of readers. Instead, it is letting partisans crush writers and their work.
While this is certainly a problem, you can write advance reviews on Goodreads because people receive ARCs. This can help build momentum for a book before it's released, especially if you're not an author who is going to get reviewed in the NYT or Kirkus or Publishers Weekly.
For many books, Goodreads are the only place they'll get reviewed. And these advance reviews can help.
But, yes, there should be a solution to review bombing.
Agreed. You can’t see it, but I’m nodding lugubriously, here.
I generally find that online reviews are riddled with stupidity and bad faith. I don’t like EG’s work, but she doesn’t deserve this.