British Writer Attacks Teen Who Dissed His Book

As authors, we all know how painful a bad review can be. While some of us sit back and take the high road, choosing not to respond, others take … a less advisable route. Such was the path of British writer Richard Brittain, who stalked down and attacked a teen girl who gave his book a bad review on Amazon, reports Gawker.

Brittain had posted his self-published book The World Rose on Wattpad, claiming on his blog that the work was first met by widespread praise—and then later complaining about poor ratings from “idiots” and “teenagers.” Paige Rolland was one of those reviewers. In her summation of The World Rose she panned the entire book, saying, “As a reader, I’m bored out of my skull and severely disappointed in what I might have paid for. As a writer (albeit an amateur one) I’m appalled that anyone would think this was worthy of money.”

Rolland even went on to state that Brittain was well known on WattPad for threatening users who didn’t appreciate his work—a reputation that would soon prove to be true. Upon reading Rolland’s review, Brittain stalked her through Facebook, discovered where she worked, and traveled 500 miles to the Asda supermarket to confront her. He then snuck up from behind and bashed her over the head with a full bottle of wine. Rolland was knocked unconscious and suffered a gash to the skull.

While Brittain pled guilty to the assault this past Monday, it has also been discovered that this was not his first offense. The World Rose, in fact, is based on his infatuation with another woman he stalked, the events of which were described in a blog post he titled “The Benevolent Stalker.”

What does the LitReactorVerse have to say about responding to bad reviews? How would you go about replying to negative criticism?