A few days ago on TikTok, I was seeing this cover...
At first glance, I thought huh, this would be within the area of my interest so I added it to my never-ending TBR. Well, it has officially been taken off because Sarah Stusek decided to go after a reviewer on her page without blocking out the name or the profile picture. She proceeded to say that her 'perfect' five-star holding on her book was ruined by '"I had a perfect 5-star average till this bitch came up". Like WHAT!?
In my personal opinion, Sarah has effectively fucked herself by being so terrible and aggressive with this reviewer who gave her a GOOD REVIEW!
Here is that review- 'This was a really great first novel!!! Stella’s experiences were obviously based on the true stories of the author. And I loved how intricate the details about the show Stella was on were lol. The ending was kind of predictable, but other than that is was incredible!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.' (Her scoring was 4 out of 5 stars)
And the edited review- 'EDIT: the author is now attacking me on tik tok for not giving her a 5-star review(it was a 4) 😭😭😭😭 giving her a 1 just for her attitude! I didn’t think the book was bad but her attitude certainly is!
This was a really great first novel!!! Stella’s experiences were obviously based on the true stories of the author. And I loved how intricate the details about the show Stella was on were lol. The ending was kind of predictable, but other than that it was incredible!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.' (Now it is rated with one out of five stars.)
Sarah was published through Spark Press, a company authors have to spend close to ten thousand dollars to use. With everything that has happened the last few days the publishing company has officially dropped her from their line-up.
Here is the Spark Press statement:
'A statement from Brooke Warner, Publisher, SparkPress
For a number of reasons, including but not limited to attacking a reviewer and multiple others online, we have decided to part ways with one of our authors. We appreciate our readers and value the time it takes to read and leave author reviews. While we cannot mandate our authors’ actions and reactions to their reviews, we do not condone attacking or making disparaging comments about reviewers under any circumstances. We are a publisher whose founding principles are rooted in elevating authors’ voices, which is not possible without readers. This lack of alignment, in addition to the behavior exhibited by one of our authors, has led us to part ways. We value our community of readers and reviewers, and our authors and team work so hard to amplify and uplift authors' voices and to share in the beauty and privilege of publishing books and finding readers. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share thoughts with us.'
As I stated above Sarah effectively fucked herself which is sad, from the five-star reviews posted, this book seems like something I would have actually enjoyed. So, the moral of the story is don't be so fucking entitled to shit, especially a review seeing as they are for fellow readers NOT THE AUTHORS!
To end, Sarah's once well-rated book on GoodReads is now at the lowest rating she could possibly have, One star, due to the influx of one-star reviewers with most people saying 'Sorry girl but calling the reviewer "a bitch" because she gave 4 stars to your book instead of 5 is pretty shitty.
The quote:
"I had a perfect 5-star average till this bitch came up"
Please note, aside from the Spark Press statement, I have not quoted the names of any other reviewers as it may put them at risk and I do not want to be responsible for things like that.