#victims of cait corrain

[reblogalanaartdream]

If there is any writer I’d recommend you follow on TikTok I recommend the writer/ author for Iron widow (not only is the book is awesome I’ve read it; my sister borrowing atm to read it but I may have to get the book again being as she’s taking so long with getting around to read it)

They are also giving us all the tea about Cait corrain drama and what they’ve done but they also recommends we give the victims of this drama books a chance

Witch is why I have a list of some of them here that sound interesting to me so I’m gonna try and check some of them out once I have some money again being as I have pre ordered to gaze upon wicked gods book and had to get some Christmas presents this month as well as been busy with work so I’m making my book list a a goal for 2024 so I can give these writers a chance (plus also some of these books sound like good reads so I might really like them)

[nellasbookplanet]

Isn't it funny how today it’s pretty common belief on here that the idea of 'cringe' and shaming of people who like 'cringe' things is bad. That the big fandoms back in the day that people like to make fun of - superwholock and john green books and twilight and homestuck and whatever was popular at the time - certainly had elements very deserving of critique, but how that critique largely drowned under people pointing and laughing at, the mostly teen girl, fans. Like, we are pretty agreed that this was bad, right? That it’s cruel to actual people and makes it difficult to have genuine conversations about the actual flaws of the media and fandoms in question, right??

And yet here we are today and I see people doing the exact same thing to newer fandoms with the defense that the fans are cringe or, if you're trying to be all moral about it, problematic and possibly evil for liking a popular media. Like, I don’t care about reylo or our flag means death or taylor swift or romantasy novels to any particular extent. I don’t have a horse in this race. But I keep seeing their fans treated as acceptable targets for harrassment or bullying. Posts talking about how immoral they are and then their screenshoted 'proof' is mostly just. Women being passionate about a thing that they love, or god forbid daring to defend it or being bummed about everyone else harrassing them. And I think it's kind of scary how we keep repeating this cycle of designating a media as inherently problematic, therefore all of its fans are problematic, therefore they are deserving of every ounce of mocking and public shaming they get.

[audvidis]

last post about this ever(deleted my earlier post bc it was too long and too whiny) but i do not buy that cait corrain suddenly magically had her meds change her behavior bc five years ago when she got called out about the fact that her reylo story 'play to win' rips off geguris scandal (a real esports scandal that resulted in a teenager getting death threats) but warped into a meet cute for rey (victim) and kylo (accuser) her response was "lol idk what overwatch league is" and then weaponized her fanbase to attack all ppl discussing it on owl tumblr.

[genericpuff]

i'm sorry because this might seem like an extreme comparison (TW for mentioning of shootings ahead) but this is just like the racial disparity that inevitably crops up every time there's a mass shooting in america

when it's a non-white person, it's "a terrible crime committed by a terrible person", but when it's a white person suddenly it's a sad story about how they cracked under pressure and untreated mental health problems

need I remind you that Cait is not one of those stories of someone genuinely acting outside of themselves during a mental health crisis. She tries to paint it as such in her "apology", but even that "apology" contradicts her actions and blatantly lies about the timeline of events.

This wasn't something that started and happened suddenly in December, this was something she's been doing routinely for the past several months, if not longer. it wasn't a "one time mistake", it was a series of calculated and targeted moves done by a white person who felt so insecure and threatened by POC authors existing around her that she felt the need to directly sabotage them multiple times.

It wasn't "cracking under pressure". It was racism and sabotage. Full stop.

If we're gonna talk about the overwhelming pressure that authors face, let's talk about the authors who were victims of Cait Corrain and other people like her - authors who have to go above and beyond to get even a shred of the recognition and opportunities that people like Cait get handed to them, so easily that they don't even seem to consider the consequences of what they may lose if they get caught for committing hate crimes; victims who the press will conveniently hyperfocus on and use to distract from the real perpetrator if it means not acknowledging racism.

We damn well shouldn't let Cait and the press around her be able to just sweep this under the rug as a "one time mistake". It wasn't a mistake. It wasn't an accident. It was fully intentional and willing. It was - and is - racism in an industry that still refuses to acknowledge it and correct it.

[someoneintheshadow456]

I said before, now that Cait Corrain’s true self has come out, I can finally elaborate on what happened with her. To put a long story short, I was one of her very first victims - long before she became an original fiction author and back when she was known as Enterprisingly on AO3 - the author of Play to Win.

I know that #reviewbombgate was back in December, but at the time, I did not know about it because I’m not involved in BookTok. However, I WAS involved with the Reylo fandom, albeit indirectly.

The final chapters of Play to Win went on a tangent that seemed bizarre to me at the time. In fact, it seemed so strange that I brushed it off almost completely. It was only when I found Play to Win’s Wayback Machine page after recalling memories of the Reylo fandom last year when I read the chapter properly (instead of skipping ahead to get to the Reylo scenes). And a proper reading made me realize what was so unnerving about it:

Anyone who has engaged with my blog (especially from 2015-2019, when I used to post a lot more content about my personal life) can see the strangely... specific way this character was described. In order to go into this level of depth, one has to have been following me intently and keeping tabs of all the personal things I posted.

And then, she goes from eerily specific descriptions, to straight up maliciously lying about me:

Keep in mind, this screed takes up an ENTIRE chapter in itself. Said character, Ejya Fjord, is a background NPC who is mentioned a total of 121 times in a 161,000 word story. In fact, her name is mentioned so little that you could be forgiven for not remembering her at all:

You'd think, if someone would do something like this, I had to have done something terrible to her, or even just gave her a negative review. But I never did.

As you can see here, I have only engaged positively with her. Since Play to Win was also taken down and you can’t see old comments on Wayback Machine. Unfortunately after this, I can only give my word without receipts.

Play to Win was published first in 2018. I reviewed her story in March of 2018, possibly even earlier. In my review, I praised the writing, worldbuilding, and dialogues, but gave a small constructive criticism in that the politics could be better integrated into the story without feeling disjointed.

In the very early chapters, Ejya was clearly intended to be 100% Swedish - as one can tell from the name. However, at some point in the later half of the story, she retroactively became mixed race and a rival for Ben's affections, while Ben seems to be having none of it. It's clear these choices were made to portray me as some kind of horny fangirl for Kylo Ren who will stomp on other girls for his sake:

When I read the last chapter first, I was horrified. But now I'm just... bemused that someone would ever see me as some kind of calculating vixen who dresses like a Euphoria high school student and only likes masculine hobbies to pick up dudes. When in reality it took me until 2020 to be able to type the word "sex" without having heart attack and have never so much as posted a selfie on here.

It's also funny that Ejya is petite and flat chested while my actual body type is the exact opposite... which she would know since she stalked my blog so thoroughly. Almost as though she's implying something about her own insecurities...

Initially, I was under the impression that Corrain targeted me because of my association with @ainomica - due to her ruffling the Reylo fandom’s feathers (and ending up on Corrain’s hit list) over her opinions on John Boyega. However, that controversy happened in 2020. When Corrain wrote this libel about me, @ainomica wasn’t even on her radar, not to mention it was a year before we had ever even met. This libel was done to target me, and me exclusively.

In essence - Corrain weaved libel about me into her story because my existence pissed her off. We know now that Corrain had a penchant for targeting sapphic authors and WOC almost exclusively. So it's safe to say she was just being a typical white saviour liberal who shows what she actually thinks of minorities when they don't toe the line.

While this does make her less unhinged in my eyes than using me to target someone else, it still means that Corrain was, and always has been capable of aggression towards anyone she’s remotely offended by. Especially if said person happens to be a minority of some kind.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/745918907041382400/httpsolderthannetfictumblrcompost74579019348

The problem with this is that Cait the Reviewbombracist didn't just 'post an article'. She wasn't raving into the void on her own social media, she was interviewed for a professional publication--the same publication that had previously interviewed several of the authors she victimized about the situation, in fact, which, I'm sorry, was absolutely 100% deliberate on her part. If Cait Corrain had just been yelling on her own social media about whatever, yeah, I'd say at some point she just needs to be ignored until she goes away.

But she wasn't doing that. She was getting a professional interview published that was heavily slanted towards her self-victimization narrative, and that absolutely needed to be talked about. Her mental health is no excuse, nor should it function as a 'get out of consequences free' card. Mental health problems can certainly provide explanations for bad actions or behaviors, but it does not excuse them, and when someone gets interviewed specifically so they can publish their 'my meds made me racist' excuses, that's gonna get called out, and deservedly so.

--

[luminouslumity]

If you're still unfamiliar with the Cait Corrain situation, this video explains it! Under the cut are the blurbs for books of the authors Corrain targeted.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED by FRANCES WHITE

For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor's ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess's Mountain.

Aboard are the heirs of the twelve provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing.

Except one: Ganymedes Piscero - class clown, slacker, and all-round disappointment.

When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people without a Blessing to protect him, odds of survival are slim.

But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia?

Or will the empire as he knows it fall?

MISTRESS OF LIES by K.M. ENRIGHT

FATE IS A CRUEL MISTRESS

The daughter of a powerful but disgraced Blood Worker, Shan LeClaire has spent her entire life perfecting her blood magic, building her network of spies, and gathering every scrap of power she could. Now, to protect her brother, she assassinates their father and takes her place at the head of the family. And that is only the start of her revenge.

Samuel Hutchinson is a bastard with a terrible gift. When he stumbles upon the first victim of a magical serial killer, he's drawn into the world of magic and intrigue he's worked so hard to avoid - and is pulled deeply into the ravenous and bloodthirsty court of the vampire king.

Tasked by the Eternal King to discover the identity of the killer cutting a bloody swath through the city, Samuel, Shan and mysterious Royal Bloodworker Isaac find themselves growing ever closer to each other. But Shan's plans are treacherous, and as she lures Samuel into her complicated web of desire, treason and vengeance, he must decide if the good of their nation is worth the cost of his soul.

TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS by MOLLY X. CHANG

In this magical epic fantasy, a young woman cursed with the power of death must decide if saving her family is worth betraying her country—the first installation of a gripping new series.

Heroes die, cowards live. Daughter of a conquered world, Ruying hates the invaders who descended from the heavens long before she was born and defeated the magic of her people with technologies unlike anything her world had ever seen.

Blessed by Death, born with the ability to pull the life right out of mortal bodies, Ruying shouldn’t have to fear these foreign invaders, but she does. Especially because she wants to keep herself and her family safe.

When Ruying’s Gift is discovered by an enemy prince, he offers her an impossible deal: If she becomes his private assassin and eliminates his political rivals—whose deaths he swears would be for the good of both their worlds and would protect her people from further brutalization—her family will never starve or suffer harm again. But to accept this bargain, she must use the powers she has always feared, powers that will shave years off her own existence.

Can Ruying trust this prince, whose promises of a better world make her heart ache and whose smiles make her pulse beat faster? Are the evils of this agreement really in the service of a much greater good? Or will she betray her entire nation by protecting those she loves the most?

SO LET THEM BURN by KAMILAH COLE

Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who’s forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland.

Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.

"By turns hopeful and devastating, So Let Them Burn is a masterful debut with a blazing heart. I was captivated from beginning to end by Cole’s sharp, clever prose and by her protagonists—two remarkable sisters with an unforgettable bond." — Chelsea Abdullah, author of The Stardust Thief

THE POISONS WE DRINK by BETHANY BAPTISTE

In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.

Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.

Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.

As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust… Herself included.

And because Corrain went after him as well...

DRAG ME UP

They say he’s a myth...

And Hades prefers it that way. He may do all the work, and Zeus may get all the credit, but at least it allows Hades to preserve the one thing he truly cares to have: his solitude. The mere mention of the Wraith of Khaos Falls is enough to keep order, and he is rarely forced to leave the shadows of Casino Asphodel.

She belongs in the spotlight...

And Persephone clawed her way out of Demeter’s shadow to reach it. Now she’s lead in Calliope’s Cirque production but not without great cost, and there is not enough money in the world to pay off the debt accrued for the simple mistake of trusting Zeus. Though it’s easier to ignore the bars when she still has room to fly.

Landing a residency at the legendary Casino Asphodel is everything she trained for. Meeting a man she’d been convinced didn’t exist? She could never be prepared for that. Hades isn’t prepared for her either, but it’s soon evident they’re a force when together. He gives her a soft place to land, and she makes him want to reach for the stars. But when Zeus ups the stakes, they must be willing to go all in, even if it means coming down from the sky. Or stepping into the light.

KEEP ME CLOSE

She is the closest thing Khaos Falls has to a goddess…

And Aphrodite is feared and worshipped in equal measure. She has dedicated her life to being a savior for the lost regardless of the risk, but when unknown enemies nearly assassinate her in her own club, she realizes her reckless vigilante tactics won’t cut it anymore.

He is the furthest thing Khaos Falls has from a hero…

In fact, Hephaestus is who you call when all the heroes have fallen. Still, he is the best at what he does, strengthening the city’s weaknesses and keeping his feelings out of it. When tasked with Aphrodite’s personal security, it’s easy for him to detach himself from their mutual disdain. Until disdain is no longer the only thing he feels for her.

With their enemies elusive and snakes in their midst, good hearts and sharp wit may not be enough. But he made a vow, and he will keep it. Even if it means turning newfound feelings into newfound strengths and using them as a weapon to protect her.

LET ME IN

She never cared about being perfect.

Raised under Zeus’s self-serving influence, Athena only ever cared about being right. But with Zeus gone and everything changing, it’s been difficult trying to break free of the chains he so expertly secured her in as a girl. Especially when constantly worrying about Dionysos.

And he never cared much about saving himself.

Raised under Hades’ self-sacrificing influence, Dionysos only ever cared about pleasing everybody else. But when the opportunity to prove he’s more than a winemaker presents itself —with the promise of spending more time with Athena— he has no choice but to take it.

In a bid for peace, Athena and Dionysos are sent to an ailing Thassos City to try and strike a treaty. But with war within reach and rules rearranged, wit and charisma may just fall short. But they’ve long since decided that to protect each other, blood is a small price to pay. Even their own.

LOVE ME NOW

Achilles loved playing the hero…

Being a mere man had never been enough for him. He wanted to be a great one. And when he finds out that Helen, his childhood best friend, has gone missing, taking the mission is instinct. Even if it meant returning to the place he was born and raised, a place he swore never to return to—Heraklion. But he goes nowhere without Patroclus.

Patroclus loved being one…

But being a hero was nothing like playing one. It was a senseless sequence of pyrrhic victories he'd carry forever. Yet when Achilles needs him to return to Heraklion and the arena he had been forced to claw his way out of, he says yes because… well, of course he does. He would follow Achilles anywhere.

Yet both had left more of themselves in Heraklion's notorious arena than they'd taken. So returning would not require heroes but something else, something worse, especially when Helen is not the only one in need of rescue. They both must determine not only what it means to be a man, but what it means to be a good one.

[anoonzee]

While scrolling in the bird app, I find out from Bethany Baptiste's twitter account (not giving Melon Husk the satisfaction) that notorious reviewbomber and well-known two-faced person Cait Corrain has been interviewed by The Daily Beast.

For some reason, The Daily Beast thought giving her a platform to give out her (unbelievable) excuses for reviewbombing is a good idea. What many are seeing and reading: they're giving her leeway to broadcast her gaslighting and lies and excuses to everyone else.

There are receipts.

And more receipts:

I'm taking screenshots from this travesty of an article so you don't have to...

Oooh, what a coincidence that her victims were all authors of color. Shocking, absolutely shocking. The one person who became racist because the medicines made her do it.

Puh-lease. Roseanne Barr tried that and nobody bought it.

They (the agent, publisher and book distributors) were right in dropping her like a hot potato. I would venture a guess that they've seen some glimpses of her narcissistic behavior. The reveal of her ridiculous actions sealed it for them.

LOL, really? There have been a LOT of people dropping receipts of your behavior long before you were approached to publish your book.

Bethany mentioned on the bird app that it seemed like Cait visited a professional to gather some mental-health buzzwords. The article IS full of those words. This part, in particular:

And this part made me go WTF?!

Did the same medication also make her write favorable reviews for her own book? Strange that she didn't mention that.

Yeah--not a racist rampage, but you somehow managed to target POC authors. Mmmhmmm... and then when you were getting the heat, you invented Lilly, the supposed Reylo who created those accounts on Goodreads. Effectively throwing a fandom under the bus, rather stupidly considering how close-knit Reylos are.

Also, did Cait deliberately choose this as the userpic for "Lilly"?

Oh look, Lilly is clearly the bad guy!

Yeah, so she's trying to spin herself as an ambassador for disabled people and mental health. Keep in mind that Bethany Baptiste--the person I mentioned at the beginning of this post--is one of Cait's Goodreads victims, is POC, and also disabled.

However--autism and mental health do not result in people doing what she has done. And she has said hardly anything in this article about being sorry for what she has done. All she did was to blame it on her autism, mental health and the medications she was prescribed, when there are dozens of people who have interacted with her who say otherwise: that if you are not worth anything to her, she will not treat you well.

Hell, there were folks who took screenshots from her own Twitter feed that did not age well.

Yeah, I don't think she did anything about that.

Also...

[shadowmaat]

Reading Cait Corrain's nonpology and, as predicted, she tries to paint herself as a victim of mental illness. They blame a "new medication" for making them mentally "fuzzy," which is what led to the review bombing. Depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse: the white person trifecta.

I'm beginning to wonder how they got a book deal at all when they're so terrible with words. At least it sounds more coherent than the fake convo with "Lily" but yikes. No mention of why they targeted BIPOC, of course, though it's safe to assume that's also the fault of the meds. *insert massive eyeroll* Also no mention of how the attacks have been going on for most of the year rather than the past month or so. Of course.

Anyway, the whole debacle is still bizarre in terms of "you had everything going for you, WTF?" but I guess between being a darling white person and having immersed themself in toxic fan culture* that's all the answer that's needed. At least now it's over and we can move on to the next drama. What's next? Beloved actor turns out to be a sack of shit?

*I'm not blaming reylos, specifically, since they got thrown under the bus in all of this; I'm just saying that fandoms in general- especially the shippy ones- tend to be very, very toxic, petty, and backstabbing.

ETA: past victims of their pettiness are coming forward to say that this behavior is nothing new and that they've always been like this. Seems they tried to horn in on Critical Role fandom as well and was an absolute ass to everyone. Some people really are Like This. I'm so glad to have never known one. Yikes.

[h34vybottom]

Gonna be mean real quick. Context is that this is from a post about Cait Corrain, an author who went on a racist offensive against BIPOC indipendent authors. There's a lot more to this, of which you can probably just check Xiran Jay Zhao's Twitter for more information, given that they're directly involved in this. Xiran is the focus of this post btw, not like directly, they've done no wrong. I will however be bitching about a person's bad post. So there you go. Context is context. I'm frankly kind of too annoyed to properly be a bitch to someone rn (very rare!) hence all of this.

Post in question is a reblog of a much larger post about Corrain, though it's (in tumblr fashion) just screenshots of a Twitter post that features screenshots from Twitter. Here you go:

Now let me pinpoint my issues w/ these notes.

Inserting proship/antiship bullshit into an actual, serious conversation about white supremacy and racism as a whole

Using the wrong pronouns for a semi-public figure who you can just like. Search up their profile on socials. For free. It's not hard.

Gonna start on the second point. I'm not going to be too harsh here as I get that actually doing basic shit like looking at someone's Twitter bio is tedious but like. It's so easy to find. You don't even have to be logged in. You can just search their name. I don't even watch Xiran's videos and I've never read one of their books but all it took was me looking at their fucking biography. Not actually hard mate.

Onto the main point. Inserting fandom bullshit discourse into a very serious conversation about such an important topic w/ very real victims is just. Like actually maybe go fuck yourself? Fishing for reasons to hate on Xiran is fucking bonkers shit too. Like actually seriously get help. This is some perfect victim type shit yall are doing. Let's just clear some shit up right fast: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PROSHIP. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ANTISHIP. Are we clear? I think we're clear. If you're going to try to argue w/ me about this prepare to get fucking insulted. There are real problems in this world that end people's lives and yall have to invent fake reasons to hate another person. That's some real penis behaviour. Grow the fuck up.