Just found out Goodreads banned a bunch of negative reviews for a popular book last year

I was scrolling through a thread on the r/books subreddit and saw someone link to an article showing Goodreads removed over 300 one-star reviews from a novel that came out in June 2024. The publisher claimed they were spam, but the people writing them said they just hated the plot holes and bad writing. Has anyone else noticed reviews disappearing on sites like that when you speak your mind?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan_clark4015d ago

Guess plot holes are a violation of Goodreads terms of service now.

lisat6015d ago

Guess plot holes are a violation of Goodreads terms of service now" - that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? But here's something nobody seems to be talking about: what if it's not just the publisher or Goodreads doing this, but the author's fan base mass-reporting those reviews? I've seen it happen in other online spaces where a popular creator's followers will flood a site with complaints about critical feedback until it gets taken down. That would explain why so many one-star reviews vanished at once, not just a random batch. It's a sneaky way to silence people without the publisher having to get their hands dirty.