Friday, July 5, 2024

Book Review: "The Haters" by Robyn Harding

After many years, Camryn has finally achieved her dream: her first novel has been published. She can’t believe her book will be sold online and in stores.

But Camryn’s joy is short-lived, because the night of her book launch party, she receives an email from a person she’s never heard of, insulting her and accusing her of horrible things related to the book. She can’t understand what would possess this person to do such a thing, but she tries to put it out of her mind and revel in her accomplishment.

When Camryn checks reviews for her book online, she is upset to see a one-star review, one which levels some of the same accusations she received in the email. More and more similar reviews and ones that react to the negative ones show up, and Camryn can’t understand who would want to ruin her career in this way. And when her publisher tries to intervene by getting some of the negative reviews removed, it sets off a larger firestorm.

Things continue to spiral out of control, wreaking havoc in her relationships with her boyfriend Theo, her daughter Liza, and her best friend Martha, not to mention her job as a school counselor. The attacks become more personal and more unhinged, causing Camryn to begin mistrusting everyone.

But in an effort to understand who might be behind all of this, Camryn makes misstep after misstep. She risks her relationships, her job, her publishing career—maybe even her life. How will she regain control, if at all?

I am a big Robyn Harding fan, but this book wasn’t my favorite. Everyone was a little bit crazy and weird, and Camryn didn’t strike me as particularly smart. And while I was glad the perpetrator wasn’t whom I thought it was when I started the book, I wasn’t satisfied with the resolution. But I’ll still read everything Harding writes!!

No comments:

Post a Comment