Author Loses Book Deal After Blaming Star Wars Fans for Bizarre Review-Bombing Scheme [Update]

Update: Late Monday evening, Corrain confirmed that she’d been review bombing POC authors, attributing it to past struggles with mental health. As she explained on Twitter, she had a mental breakdown earlier this month, which resulted in her creating the Goodreads accounts to boost A Crown of Starlight’s rating and negatively review the books of other debut fantasy/sci-fi novels.

“Two of those authors—Molly X. Chang and Danielle Jensen—are fellow Del Rey authors,” Corrain said. “Kamilah Cole and Bethany Baptiste just happened to be on the wrong Goodreads list at the wrong time. I felt no ill will towards them, it was just my fear of how my book would be received running out of control. […] I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know, and there’s nothing I can say to erase what I did to you.”

Corrain further confirmed that her alleged friend “Lilly” was non-existent, acknowledging that it only further exacerbated the issue. In taking “full responsibility” to what happened, she said she’ll be reaching out to the affected authors and going into an intensive psychiatric care and rehab facility. “All I can do going forward is to try to live my life in a way that shows you there aren’t empty words.”

While Del Rey has removed A Crown of Starlight from its 2024 schedule, Amazon currently lists the book’s release as May 11, 2027.

Update #2: Del Rey has now said it will no longer publish Corrain’s book, or “any other works on that contract.” Starlight’s Amazon page is now basically dead.

Earlier: Late last week, the fantasy/sci-fi book scene found itself in disarray following allegations of an author review bombing several other authors in the community. The end result has seen writer Cait Corrain lose her deal with Del Rey Publishing, and other partnerships she had in the works also canceled.

Let’s back up a bit: Corrain is an author whose debut novel, A Crown of Starlight, was intended for release on May 14, 2024; per Goodreads, it’s a “steamy, sci-fi reimagining” of the story of Greek gods Dionysus and Ariadne. The controversy began on social media, where community members like Iron Widow author Xiran Jay Zhao claimed than an unnamed author was penning one-star reviews for books by debut authors of color on Goodreads. These reviews had been appearing over the last several months from six Goodreads accounts that were also spotted liking one another’s reviews. The reviews—which included takes on Bethany Baptiste’s The Poisons We Drink and Molly X. Chang’s To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods—included turns of phrase like “it’s so bad, I’m writing a review about it,” and questioned publisher Del Rey’s choice of debuts to invest in.

While Zhao opted to not name the author so everyone could resolve the matter privately, things reached a point where that was basically no longer an option. After their post, it didn’t take long for users to deduce that Corrain was behind the one-star reviews. A publicly available Google doc titled “Review Bomb Receipts” tallied 31 pages’ worth of evidence showing the Goodreads accounts, and how they were all linked together through individual user-made lists that seemed to keep track of debut authors whose works were releasing in 2024. As Zhao notes, some accounts used to give these reviews had user names that were “clearly POC” (including Oh Se-Young, also the name of a well-known South Korean actress). And if that didn’t give it away, the accounts had Corrain’s own book listed as their favorite upcoming titles; some even gave the book five stars.

After the Goodreads accounts were discovered, Corrain—speaking in a Slack chat for debut authors, screenshots of which were shared on social media—claimed she had evidence linking the review bombing to her friend “Lilly.” That evidence consisted of Slack and Discord screenshots of conversations in which “Lilly” admitted she wrote the negative reviews because Corrain had previously named books she thought would steal her own debut’s thunder; onlookers suspected either the pair were in on it together or Corrain was just talking to herself. Either way, the authors wanted to reach out to “Lilly,” but Corrain wasn’t forthcoming with ways to do that. What she did reveal is that “Lilly” was supposedly an overzealous Reylo fan (those who ship Kylo Ren and Rey from Star Wars)—an oddly specific detail that blew up in her face almost immediately, after other Reylo fans conferred and agreed that particular person didn’t seem to exist among their ranks.

Ultimately, Corrain’s now been dropped by her agent Becca Podos, and A Crown of Starlight has been completely pulled from Del Rey’s 2024 publishing slate. Further, the book subscription service Illumicrate will no longer carry Starlight in its May 2024 box. If the author herself has commented on the matter, it’s unclear, as her entire social media presence is now locked and has been since Zhao’s allegations last week.

Perhaps even weirder than the Reylo connection is the fact that before all this came to light, Corrain was in an enviable position: A Crown of Starlight had gotten positive early reviews from those who’d read it, and she had a two-book deal with Del Rey. As of now, her future in the publishing world seems unclear; io9 reached out to Del Rey for comment and will update if and when we hear back. For those curious, the list of review-bombed books and their release dates are as follows: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole (January 16, 2024); Voyage of the Damned by Frances White; The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste (March 5); To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang (April 16); and Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright (August 13).

Correction: An earlier version of this post had a headline identifying Corrain as a YA author.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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