There Are No Girls on the Internet The Goodreads Scandal That Predicted Publishing's AI Crisis
Apr 4, 2026
Mike Amato, contributing producer and frequent conversational partner on the show, joins to revisit the Cait Corrain Goodreads scandal. They unpack how fake review accounts targeted mostly Black, Asian, and queer authors. Conversations cover the receipts that exposed the scheme, the fabricated cover story, platform failures that enable review-bombing, and the fallout for the author and publisher.
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Author Exposed For Coordinated Goodreads Manipulation
- Kate Corian had a highly anticipated debut, Crown of Starlight, until she admitted to creating fake Goodreads accounts to boost her book and trash others.
- Ziran Jay Zhao compiled a 31-page Google doc of screenshots that first exposed the coordinated activity showing identical accounts praising Kate and bashing mostly Black and queer authors.
Racialized Fake Accounts Amplified The Harm
- Kate used fake account names that sounded like people of color to upvote negative reviews on books by authors of color while praising her own work as a white author.
- Bridget Todd and Ziran Jay Zhao highlighted this as an especially racist tactic likened to 'yellow face' in online identity manipulation.
Fake Friend Story Imploded Under Scrutiny
- When confronted, Kate posted fabricated chat screenshots blaming a fictional friend named Lily, then later admitted there was no Lily and she was responsible.
- The fake conversation read like a single person playing both parts and failed to provide corroborating earlier messages asked for by other authors.
