Author stalked blogger who gave bad review on Goodreads

[Shryke]

There is more than one link in the original post. I think a few of you need to read the other articles that were linked.

I didn't see anything in the OP that covered what anyone but the author said happened.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Rhom,

You mean it's not Scot A Ellison?!!?

Next, you'll tell me you aren't a knight either!!!!!

:dum dum DUUUUUMMMMM:

[mormont]

Couple of thoughts:

First, the author was a fool and an ass. Reading her account, the question that remains unanswered is 'why are you doing any of this?'

There's a bit of the old 'boiling a frog' scenario that often gets people into trouble: the first thing seems reasonable, then having done that the second step is just a bit further, then the third is just a bit further than that, then before you realise it you've come so far you've crossed the line. But that's not the whole story here, because even the initial steps are just wrong. Neither is lack of insight - 'it can't be stalking, people like me don't stalk others, it's psychos do that'. There's an element of that, maybe, but it's clear she knows - and is told - that what she's doing is wrong.

No, mostly it's just that she refuses to behave like a rational adult. Hurt feelings, entitlement, arrogance, stupidity, they all play a part, and all of them are pretty piss-poor reasons for ugly behaviour.

The blogger, though: I would say this. If she is the person who wrote the reviews, there's a difference between using a pseudonym, wanting anonymity, and actually manufacturing a whole alternate persona that you then lie about. The latter is not particularly healthy behaviour. Anonymity is one thing, deceit is another, and this is the latter. Having said that, the author should never have been in a place where she found out about the deceit. Two wrongs don't make a right, particularly where one wrong is massively greater than the other.

[Myshkin]

I have a confession yo make. I am not, in fact, David Bowie. Sorry dudes.

[SilentRoamer]

Of course not, you are Jareth the Goblin King

[Darth Richard II]

I didn't see anything in the OP that covered what anyone but the author said happened.

The dearauthor link has sections that debunk some of the authors claims.

[Rhom]

I have a confession yo make. I am not, in fact, David Bowie. Sorry dudes.

Its like my whole reality is coming tumbling down around me...

:leaving:

[Theda Baratheon]

The blogger, though: I would say this. If she is the person who wrote the reviews, there's a difference between using a pseudonym, wanting anonymity, and actually manufacturing a whole alternate persona that you then lie about. The latter is not particularly healthy behaviour. Anonymity is one thing, deceit is another, and this is the latter. Having said that, the author should never have been in a place where she found out about the deceit. Two wrongs don't make a right, particularly where one wrong is massively greater than the other.

Completely agree. It's not healthy for the blogger but the author should never have went as far as she did to ever know this.

[DanteGabriel]

The story is deeply creepy and the other items by and about Hale that have been posted here, particularly her story about stalking and harassing a fellow middle-schooler, are really alarming.

The aftermath of the Guardian piece has certainly proved to be 'fascinating' but I'm a bit boggled that they actually gave an author a platform to confess to stalking a reviewer. Just seems...wrong? Was the Guardian wrong to publish this piece in the first place?

Comments from the Dear Author article you linked have turned up this New York Times piece, which suggests at least that Hale travels in some influential company (if she is the Kathleen Hale who is also a writer that the NYT piece mentions).

In contrast, the brothers Nathaniel and Simon Rich — the sons of the New York literary notables Frank Rich and Gail Winston — make it look like a walk in Central Park. Nathaniel, 32, is a former editor at The New York Review of Books and The Paris Review and author of the well-received novel “The Mayor’s Tongue.” Simon, 28, was six years ago one of the youngest writers ever to be hired by “Saturday Night Live,” has published two novels and two humor collections, and regularly contributes to The New Yorker. Aspiring writers from Peoria might roll their eyes, of course.

The senior Mr. Rich, the former columnist and cultural critic for The New York Times and now a writer-at-large at New York magazine and creative consultant to HBO, is one of the most connected journalists in New York. His former wife, Ms. Winston, is an executive editor of HarperCollins.

And surely there has to be some sibling rivalry there; indeed, the brothers confronted the issue head-on in a faux-interview published in a 2010 anthology called “Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry,” the only time they’ve collaborated.

...

Simon, since 2011 living in San Francisco, is a screenwriter at Pixar Animation Studios whose next book, to be released this month, is a collection of humor essays about relationships titled “The Last Girlfriend on Earth.” (He dedicated it to his live-in girlfriend, Kathleen Hale, also a writer.)

I even feel creepy bringing up parts of Hale's bio. Just a story to make everyone feel gross all around.

[Darth Richard II]

Regarding the pub analogy, even if you did walk into a pub and could see everyone's real name, I still wouldn't say its ok for someone i had an argument with in said pub to FOLLOW ME HOME TO MY HOUSE.

[rozemarijn]

I really felt a lot of sympathy for the writer. What the blogger is doing is not just writing a review, it is about power. She wants the power to 'make' or 'break' someone in her own community I have not even heard of.

If you read what she is doing, it is really cyberbullying: making fun of everything the author says upon twitter, arguing with everyone who thinks it is a good book. This is not just about 'reviewing' a book. A review is something you write, you post, and you get on to the next book. This is so much more. Even if she was a real person it would not be acceptable behaviour, it is just bullying and a thirst for power. Since she is writing herself she is probably just jealous.

I don't think what the author did is wise. But she is very young and it is very difficult to handle the internet pages of people who you feel have unfairly treated/criticized you. I have known such a person and everytime something showed up in my feed I became depressed, so I blocked him. Suddenly I spent less time upon fb and I felt ... Happy. So I guess I did the sensible thing. But I feel a lot of sympathy for this author and I think she has been put through a lot of bullying.

[sologdin]

I completely understand. the other day I followed myshkin home because he wrote a lewd limerick that oppressed me.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Rozemarijn,

I do see your point. However, we have to take the author absolutely at her word to turn her cybertracking into something non-creepy. I'm sure it's very frustrating to deal with poor reviews and what she sees as harassment but figuring out who the reviewer is, traveling to their home, and then calling them on the phone multipule times... because of a particularly bad review is really weird.

While, accepting the author's version of events as true for sake of discussion, the dogpileing is frustrating it was in the context of a discussion about a book. Should Robert Stanek be tracking all of us down because of our repeated discussions of his works and behavior?

[Yersinia]

I was puzzled by the author's willingness to reveal the extent (assuming she held nothing back) of her mental instability to so many people. Some things are perhaps better not shared.

Or does she hope to boost her sales with the generated (bad) publicity?

[Theda Baratheon]

I really felt a lot of sympathy for the writer. What the blogger is doing is not just writing a review, it is about power. She wants the power to 'make' or 'break' someone in her own community I have not even heard of.

If you read what she is doing, it is really cyberbullying: making fun of everything the author says upon twitter, arguing with everyone who thinks it is a good book. This is not just about 'reviewing' a book. A review is something you write, you post, and you get on to the next book. This is so much more. Even if she was a real person it would not be acceptable behaviour, it is just bullying and a thirst for power. Since she is writing herself she is probably just jealous.

I don't think what the author did is wise. But she is very young and it is very difficult to handle the internet pages of people who you feel have unfairly treated/criticized you. I have known such a person and everytime something showed up in my feed I became depressed, so I blocked him. Suddenly I spent less time upon fb and I felt ... Happy. So I guess I did the sensible thing. But I feel a lot of sympathy for this author and I think she has been put through a lot of bullying.

You gotta take the author's word for it to see this as cyberbullying. I am not a fan of bullying in anyway whatsoever, but I just don't really trust the Guardian article which is written by the author herself and designed to make her actions seem justified when i really, really don't think they were.

It seems like this Blythe person wrote some bad status updates for the book; people agreed and then wrote some things on twitter; half of these instances of "cyberbullying" wouldn't have been *known* to the author HAD SHE NOT BEEN STALKING HER. The author is the one that went to this lady's house, left a creepy as fuck passive agressive gift on the door-stop, rang this lady at work, paid money for a background check and hired a rental car, shouted down the phone. And she's done this sort of thing before. The only feelings of pity I have the author is her obvious issues she needs to sort through. I empathise with the anxiety and negative thoughts but those things don't justify being a Major Fucking Creep.

[mormont]

I'm honestly not sure that, even if we did accept every single thing the author says as true, I believe that the author's behaviour is not out of line, or that the blogger's actions amounted to cyberbullying. Maybe, maybe, the allegation about 'mirroring' her Twitter comments would do so. But what makes the 'catfishing' allegation so ridiculous is that almost every interaction is initiated by the author, not the blogger. You can't be 'catfished' if you're the one poking and prodding the 'fish'!

[lady narcissa]

Saw a lot about this over the weekend on the internet. Most especially comments from other authors saying Hale had crossed the line and an author should never do this. I totally agree. This author crossed the line.

Comments from the Dear Author article you linked have turned up this New York Times piece, which suggests at least that Hale travels in some influential company (if she is the Kathleen Hale who is also a writer that the NYT piece mentions).

Hale's potential future father in law, Frank Rich, has written some extremely negative reviews in his life as a critic. Imagine if Andrew Lloyd Webber had shown up in person at Frank Rich's apartment and the New York Times offices and called him on the phone at home and work and otherwise systematically stalked Rich after Rich published his extremely negative review of "The Phantom of the Opera" in the New York Times when it debuted on Broadway. No one would have found that acceptable behavior.

It does bring to mind the end of the movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" where Jay and Silent Bob track down the addresses of every fanboy who has ever posted anything negative about them on the internet (using a print out of their IP addresses) and show at their houses to confront them and I think beat them up. You know when you are doing something Kevin Smith puts in a movie as comedy its not something you should ever do in real life.

[Theda Baratheon]

Yeah, I don't see anything Blythe did as bullying either but the only way you could come to that conclusion is if you're especially taken in by the self-deprecating article the author wrote about herself to make herself seem more charming and justified. Personally, the more I hear about Hale, the more of a weirdo she comes; needs to sort herself out. Too bad she's so well connected and will get away with this crap.

[Yersinia]

But at least we know how to get a free copy of her book!

[maarsen]

Some people do take things a bit too far. Long before the internet came along, Harlan Ellison, infamous bad boy writer that he was, mailed a dead rat to one critic, mailed copies of every writing award he ever received to his high school English teacher who had told him he would never be a writer, and even took on Frank Sinatra after Sinatra badmouthed a movie for which he had written a screenplay. Gay Talese wrote about the incident in his piece "Frank Sinatra has a cold."