Last year, a first-time author was dropped by her U.S. publisher and book agent after being accused of posting fake negative reviews on the Amazon-owned site Goodreads. Additionally, Cait Corrain’s behavior—known as review-bombing—targeted mostly authors of color.
Corrain’s publisher Del Rey Books—which is owned by Penguin Random House—confirmed on X that she was no longer on its 2024 publishing schedule. The “Crown of Starlight” author was also dropped by her agent Rebecca Podos. “Cait and I will not be continuing our partnership moving forward,” Podos said on X in December.
“I deeply appreciate the patience of those directly impacted by last week’s events as I worked through a difficult situation.” The repercussions of her actions were apt but in a new interview with The Daily Beast, Corrain blamed it on substance abuse followed by a psychotic breakdown.
“I want to just be extraordinarily clear that race had absolutely nothing to do with the authors that I chose to go after,” Corrain said to the tabloid. “The fact that there were a large number of people of color amongst the authors that I targeted is an unfortunate coincidence that happened because I was going off of Goodreads lists.
“That was the only driver, and I am so distressed and heartbroken by the fact that the impression that people have of me now is that I am a racist.” Corrain was first called out by “Iron Widow” author Xiran Jay Zhao, leading her to confess to the despicable online commentary she made.
“Let me be extremely clear: while I might not have been sober or of sound mind during this time, I accept responsibility for the pain and suffering I caused,” she wrote in her Dec. 12 apology. “And my delay in posting this is due to spending the last few days offline while going through withdrawal as I sobered up enough to be brutally honest with you and myself.”
Corrain has said she is a Jewish neurodivergent person and that her family has dealt with “serious mental illness” as well as addiction. She also said she has self-medicated with alcohol and marijuana in the past in addition to using ADHD medication, mood stabilizers and IV ketamine treatments before the Goodreads controversy.
Ultimately, Corrain acknowledged the harm she caused to authors of color (some had to make a new Goodreads account to combat the Corrain’s negative words). “I think that [the authors that I actually targeted] are allowed to be as angry with me as they want to be,” she stated.
“I do not want to invalidate their pain, their anger, their feelings because I think that would be completely inappropriate for me to do.”