by Robyn Harding
Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2024
Publisher’s blurb
The bestselling author of The Party and The Arrangement returns with a twisted tale of fame, obsession, and the dark side of social media.
Camryn Lane is living her dream: after years of struggle and rejection, her first novel has finally been published. She’s on top of the world – until she receives a disturbing email from an unknown sender.
Rattled, Camryn swallows the sick feeling and resolves to put the missive out of her mind. But when she checks her ratings online, she finds an aggressive one-star review, and soon Camryn’s book is flooded with negative reviews and publicity. Could the reviewer be the same person who sent the ugly email? And why do they want to ruin her?
As the online harassment creeps into Camryn’s personal life, she vows to find out who’s behind it. Is it really a disgruntled reader, or could it be someone she knows? When the abuse escalates, Camryn will need to unmask the enemy so intent on destroying her – before it turns deadly.
Review
by Jacquie Byron
Almost every writing class or instructional book on writing will put forward the “what if” approach as a great place to start when looking for story ideas. You know how it goes: What if there were snakes on a plane? What if P.D. James wrote a crime novel set it in the world of Pride and Prejudice? The Haters is arguably the tale of the most horrible “what if” concept a novelist – especially a debut one – could imagine: What if you wrote a book, and a particularly vicious citizen reviewer not only drifted into stalker territory but also rallied an army of fellow negative reviewers? What if, by engaging with that original negative reviewer, your personal safety was threatened, and your career decimated? And, for me, the scariest outcome of all: What if you your dreams of being a professional author are smashed on the rocks of reality and you never get to give up your day job? Just kidding.
In my humble opinion, this book is one for other writers and folk working in and around the publishing industry, plus the real book nerds among us, the lovers of interviews, radio shows and podcasts involving authors. It’s quite niche. If you’re up for that then you’ll be entertained and unnerved by The Haters.
To be fair, it’s not that the book doesn’t address other issues. Camryn Lane, the protagonist and debut author at the centre of the maelstrom, works as a school councillor and has a teenage daughter. A very prominent storyline here deals with online bullying and the insidious, often anonymous sharing of photos and videos that can ruin young people’s mental health if not their lives. Author Robyn Harding comes from Canada and, sadly, she says real life cases informed this part of the book.
However, anyone familiar with the horror stories surrounding sites like Goodreads – where fake accounts have been created specifically to “review bomb” certain authors, and new books can fail or falter even before they’re published[1] – will be drawn to the central plot. It follows Camryn, a woman who, after years of dreaming and perseverance, finally secures a publishing deal with all the associated bells and whistles, only to see it unravel after receiving a single malicious email. This email sets off a chain of events in which, with each chapter, the reader suspects a different character, while Camryn proceeds to make almost every mistake and poor choice possible, including becoming a bit of a stalker herself.
I admit twists are great in theory and, like all crime readers, I normally love trying to identify culprits and causes before the author makes the final disclosure. With this book, however, I felt the constant shifting of chess pieces – which led me to suspect a different character of being the stalker every few chapters – meant not many of them got the chance to grow roots in a story sense. I didn’t feel like I knew anyone very well.
Still, The Haters is one of those hugely timely novels. Lately I’ve noticed lots of well-followed Instagrammers or people with public profiles saying they should probably expect criticism and “input” from strangers if they’re putting themselves out there. I suppose this is true – one can order a coffee or purchase sneakers without posting on social media about it after all – but the kind of vicious, hateful stuff people express online seems to go way past acceptable standards. For Harding’s part, she has said in interviews that her book is a sort of “cautionary tale” for new writers who may not know the sting of negative online chatter, but also a “reminder to those who post mean things that there are real people on the receiving end of their nasty words”[2]. I definitely have no nasty words to contribute.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/18/goodreads-review-bombing
[2] https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/vancouver-author-robyn-harding-book-the-haters