Novelist’s book is canceled after she acknowledges ‘review bombs’ of other writers

NEW YORK (AP) — A debut author who used fake accounts to “review bomb” other writers on the influential online platform Goodreads has been dropped by her agent and had her book deal cancelled.

Cait Corrain’s novel “Crown of Starlight” had been scheduled to come out next year through Del Rey, a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. Both Del Rey and Corrain’s agent, Becca Podos, announced this week that they would no longer work with Corrain, who had a two-book deal.

On Tuesday, days after the scandal broke online among Goodreads users, the author posted an apology on Instagram, blaming her actions in part on struggles with mental health and substance abuse.

“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, “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 acknowledged using multiple pseudonyms to disparage such novels as Bethany Baptiste’s “The Poisons We Drink” and Molly X. Chang’s “To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods,” a Del Rey book.

Goodreads, the Amazon.com-owned site on which readers post reviews, has been involved in previous controversies over online assessments. Last summer, author Elizabeth Gilbert postponed a historical novel set in Siberia after hundreds criticized the book, which had yet to be published, as insensitive amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.