Literary Clusterfucks 2013

This is just another level:

In the author’s note, Klein writes:

“And please note this – both novels were read by an entire Barnes & Noble store management team and were deemed so good by the two assistant store managers and the store manager that they were ordered and shelved right next to the works of Mr. King himself.”

Dean Klein, author’s note for Hell’s Shadows

man, I bet Koontz was on the other side

You laugh, but consider how prominently jacket blurbs from Barnes & Noble store management teams are featured on your average Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

the prologue alone will make you think you're reading an Indiana Jones novel

You know - one of those classic Indiana Jones novels we all love.

https://cdn.empireonline.com/jpg/50/0/0/640/480/aspectfit/0/0/0/0/0/0/c/features/560ebf0950e6c513721c3534/indiana-jones-philosophers-stone.jpg

The birth of a new copypasta is unfolding before our very eyes.

Think you've read just about every type of haunted house story out there? Uh uh. Not like this one. You won't have a clue as to what happens next. Hell's Shadows is a wild tale of two people whose deep love for each other is severely tested by a house and the unfathomable creatures within it. And outside it. Gil and Robin Turner reside in the most haunted house of all time, a house so dangerous the Turners come to realize the house itself is hell itself. Evil. Deadly. Alive.

Hell's Shadows was inspired by the great and classic film, Poltergeist. Here, however, every character, every relationship, every place, thing and supernatural occurrence has been vastly increased in intensity.

https://i0.wp.com/www.rowsdowr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/n9bn0za.jpg

i highly recommend indiana jones and the hollow earth

Will glue your fingers to the pages.

I appreciated this image.

sci-fi self-publishing scene appears to the the absolute fucking worst

Wow

sci-fi self-publishing scene appears to the the absolute fucking worst

ya don’t need to be rude, they were just stating an opinion

"My ability to conceive and prepare prose are off the chart high."

<3

same

ya don’t need to be rude, they were just stating an opinion

isn't ya all speculative sci-fi these days anyway

"My ability to conceive and prepare prose are off the chart high."

Can we get a board description change, please? Even one of the minor, underused ones will do.

https://slate.com/culture/2019/07/delia-owens-crawdads-murder-africa.html

I had, in fact, only heard of this book because my sister read it for a book club, she said it was bad. Somewhat concerned that this story is going to drive me to read an ultra-long Jeffrey Goldberg article.

I am all in favour of wildlife poachers dying horrible deaths, so I have no problems with this writer's murky background.

Yeah this thing is weird since this seems to be pretty common knowledge—something her publisher def knows about. I think maybe the goopy Reese Witherspoon connection makes it a strange contrast.

I couldn’t find any info but I’m going to assume that poacher they killed was black

lol at However, the Wikipedia entry for Owens comes as only the fourth result when you Google her name

I am all in favour of wildlife poachers dying horrible deaths

Tbh this in itself would be one thing, but the whole 'white saviour' thing makes me feel pretty unsympathetic to these people.

xpost I love how the media is full of these stories that are just the writer discovering an article from less than 10 years ago.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/benjamin-moser-and-the-smallest-woman-in-the-world/

God I loathe the petty and abusive statusgrubbing of men like that. Hope he sinks.

Bestselling Authors Band Together to Dunk on a College Student

https://jezebel.com/how-to-use-the-fictional-teenage-girl-1839863520

Every time this thread gets bumped I assume YA fiction is involved.

Why are people who exclusively consume culture made for children always so angry about it

― A funny tinge happened on the way to the forum (wins), Tuesday, March 5, 2019 7:03 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

We are very sorry to @SarahDessen for the comments made in a news article by one of our alums in reference to our 2016 Common Read. They do not reflect the views of the university or Common Read Committee. (1/4)

— Northern State U. (@NorthernStateU) November 13, 2019

pathetic!!!!!!

One of the tweets Dessen liked yesterday read “Stop shaming girls for the things they enjoy.” But what about shaming them for the things they don’t enjoy?

Not enjoying something is self-evidently negative and counter-productive and deserving of our suspicion.

hmm. Not sure about this one. The "college student" graduated in 2017, was quoted in an article saying: “She’s fine for teen girls. But definitely not up to the level of Common Read. So I became involved simply so I could stop them from ever choosing Sarah Dessen.” Dessen shares the quote with the girl's name scribbled out, with a "authors are humans too" message, then I suppose her followers start trashing the girl? Fans suck, I guess.

Like is Dessen not allowed to comment on stuff people say about her in print?

lol 50% of the fans in her replies are fellow YA authors who are like 40, they think they're 'standing' with someone because 'it could be any of us'

wonder if ya authors' toxic defensiveness stems from their insecurity over taking the easy money way out

PK the problem is that she extracted an apology from the college and hounded the student off twitter, using her follower-clout, for voicing the relatively non-challoppy op that maybe college students should read books at grade level, an op that you would think a successful (?) author could let be aired with a bit more grace

tears

Dessen also provided zero context for the quote and basically invited her followers to go on the attack.

p much the same as every artist who links to a negative review

Authors are real people. We put our heart and soul into the stories we write often because it is literally how we survive in this world. I’m having a really hard time right now and this is just mean and cruel. I hope it made you feel good. pic.twitter.com/tt2CN13n2a

— sarahdessen (@sarahdessen) November 12, 2019

what good is being a successful best-selling author if one young woman in south dakota doesn't like your work? ;_;

p much the same as every artist who links to a negative review

well yeah, which is corny and shld generally be beneath most artists above age 18

from her TL it looks like dessen intially ID'd the woman then thought better of it and deleted the tweet and replaced it with the one w/her name redacted, too late for her fans (and ppl who called her out for bullying)

There’s also the thing with her responding “I love you” to another YA author’s “Fuck that fucking bitch.”

I love that the quote in question begins "she's fine for teen girls", which is now The Worst Cruelest Thing you can possibly say to an author of books for children in 2019

That’s a lousy thing. I am sorry you had to see it. People have strange and inflated ideas about their taste level

— roxane gay (@rgay) November 12, 2019

"i am sorry you had to see it."

Regardless, the university's apology is truly pathetic. It's not even their apology to make.

i don't care what ppl read but honestly every time i encounter one of these stories i come a little closer to just saying seriously fuck the cult of modern YA fiction and the ppl who are so goddamned precious about it

'had to see it' because dessen is a die-hard reader of the aberdeen (south dakota) news

"People have strange and inflated ideas about their taste level" = 2019 USA in a nutshell. "People who act like they prefer adult things over childrens things are obviously lying phonies."