Recent events have left my remembering the very reason I started this review book and so I wanna share it while its fresh on my mind.

A story of why I choose to give my criticism's via a review book designed around neutral, blunt, and fairness for what works and doesn't work within the scope of my opinion.

Originally I didn't plan to have a review book. I have written nearly a dozen stories spamming millions of words over multiple decades of my life, and wanted to give something back more directly. So I found a Read-4-Read here on Wattpad in February a year ago.

The author I got paired with did not read my story, breaking the rules, but I pressed on anyway. I could have stopped, wanted to stop, for the single reason that it was by far the worst story I have ever read, and to this day I have still not found a story as bad. Not in terms of grammar, but in the story itself. It was truly painful to get through the first chapter alone, so you can imagine how much percerverance it took to get through all eleven that were currently written. Along the way I made comments, as I came to understand this to be the best way to help. Compared to what you might see here in this review book, I was VERY VERY VERY gentle. Mostly my emotion was expressed via a lot of "??????????" and me going "what? this makes no sense. [lays out the events that just transpired and why it makes no sense]". and I also pointed out comma spots and a few punctuation issues. And then when I was done I spent pages and pages of text explaining in the forum thread of Wattpad why the author's character was a problematic mary sue that needed to be corrected. I explained to the author how a few small changes, that wouldn't rework any chapters at all but remove or add single sentences here and there, would correct it and make the character less toxic and hard to bear with. The author has autism, like me, and has a medical problem so she can't use her legs easily so, out of sympathy, I made sure to be so gentle I felt I was petting a broken bird. Other people on the same thread joined in on the conversation, agreed with my points, and tried to help her understand. When she didn't understand, despite hours and hours every day for a week trying to explain things on such a basic level I felt I was explaining things to an infant, I then took it up to DM and tried to help her understand there.

So, yes. I put a lot of effort into helping the author understand a few basic things. If you have seen my smashing reviews here, you know I can be blunt, and I promise you I approached her with all the tenderness of a feather. I held back easily 99% of my bluntness and spent hours trying to make sure I phrased myself both gently and easily understandable.

In response, she made excuses that her medical leg issues and autism apparently make her stupid. (which is an insult to me, but I ignored that.) And so she cannot improve and not only doesnt understand, but doesn't WANT to understand.I find it complete bullshit. Having leg issues doesn't mean brain issues, nor does autism mean stupid.

Yet, fair enough. Thats fine. Some people just want to write for fun and I respect that. So I left the conversation. She did not leave it, however, as apparently I have become a permanent fixture in her life.

It was at this point I landed on the book club by a guy called princess. Met some really cool people, and we took off to Discord because we liked who we were so much. Since then we have only continued to grow, some of us have started publishing as of this week (YEAAAAAAH!!!!) and we encourage and love each other. I wanted to contribute, but I didn't want to put myself through the many many many MANY MANY hours I spent with 'Author' trying to help her via comments and forum threads, and allow myself to be blunt and actually say what I want, so I started this review book. I did it with Nigel as the theme because even as blunt as I wanted to be, I still wanted to cushion it with a hint of humor.

If only it stopped there.

For the next 6-8 months, since I left 'Author' behind, a number of events happened that I will briefly gloss over. 1) A number of her extremely vocal and zealous fans harassed me via DM, via the comments I made in her story, via the forum threads, via comments in my own story, and in the conversation tab on Wattpad. I don't know if she sent them or not. Wouldn't surprise me if she did, wouldn't surprise me if she didn't. I ignored them, closed the conversations off from the start, and moved on. I bring it up simply because, well, it did happen, a lot. 2) There was not a single post she made, among which were hundreds across dozens and dozens of threads, where she did not mention me as being a cruel person who gave her PTSD. Not. One. I know this because after a couple months, some random people came to me having heard of me from her and were like "dude wtf is going on? she wont stop talking about you." and I looked her up, checked her post history, and my god it was incredible how much crying a person can do, how much nonsense, lies, and empty words a person can use, how many excuses a person can do, and how long someone can hold onto a grudge. Like seriously, If I actually gave her PTSD by touching her with a feather-like gentle touch, then she needs professional help for far more things in her life than me going "yeah, this sequence of events doesn't make sense." 3) she mentioned me in her story and announcements as having been cruel to her as to bring her beyond the point of tears.

Did I bring her to tears? Possibly. Only if "why would he call her bean? lol thats a bit odd for someone u just met. :)" is enough to bring someone into being a crying wreck. (thats an actual thing I said, not a random example.)

My response to her, and her fans, actions?

Well: People from the book club or who heard about me wanted to say something to her. I told them not to, just to leave her be. I had no intention of approaching the situation as she did. I wasn't going to send fans to harass her, I wasn't going to say anything in any threads or posts or conversations or stories. In fact, the opposite. When I did stumble into the same thread as one she was actively conversing in, I would go "hey [author] how you doing? Still writing? :D Cool!!! Good luck hun, you can do it. Best of luck to ya." I would encourage her to join a few contests, and when someone wanted to know what autism was like, I also referenced her as someone who can possibly be of help. and its not like I was smiling with my face while secretely holding a knife behind my bask like a two-faced jackass. I truly wished the best for her and chose to ignore what she was doing to me.

People on my discord would ask me for permission to say something to her, to give her a piece of their mind as she continued to speak poorly of me, and I would again and again just laugh it all off and tell them "no, just leave her be. im not upset. I find it funny in a sad way." Was I aggravated? Yes. But was it worth fighting? Was it worth bringing up? Not really. I would rather just close the conversations when her fans come after me, and I'd rather be nice to her when she accuses me of horrible things than to get into a long debate on her behavior with her, of which she will no doubt refuse to listen to anyway. and I am not a fan of wasting my time on a lost cause.

After the wattpad forum went down, things pretty much settled. There was no longer a platform for her to cry on. Her fans stopped coming after me via various platforms.

More recently, in the last month, my past comments have been bombarded with 50+ notifications a day from 'Author' and various simp fans using my critiques as a platform to, not only talk crap to me about me, but to have general conversation. This has proven annoying, but I've been ignoring it and will continue to ignore it. I haven't joined in the conversations. I don't plan to. I have no need to. If they wish to talk shit to me or about me in these comments or use me as a forum thread, then whatever. I have bigger things in my life to deal with than to worry about kindergarten behavior.

But one thing has finally taken things to a new level. This is a point to which I was stunned speechless.

On February 1st 2021, I was presented with an instagram post where, either the author or another fanboy simp, presented one of my comments and told thousands of followers about how cruel I am. 1) He didn't even use one of my bigger critiques, but the most simple and gentle. 2) I shit you not. This person has 1000+ followers. Not 5, not 100, but a lot. (i actually dont know what qualifies as a lot, I dont watch Instagram.)

The fact this person has so many followers yet chooses to behave like this is just amazing. Truly. Bravo. She managed to surprise me. I thought the harassment and name calling and crying and point fingers and blame and screaming about ptsd would stay in private or small circles, but apparently, a year after it happened almost to the day, Author and Simp want to actually make the scope of name calling bigger.

Does the Instagram post accurately portray my words? Yes. It is a screenshot. It isn't modified. It shows exactly what my comment says.

Does it show the context? No. Does it show other instances of my so called 'behavior' they wish to portray as villanious? No. It only shows one instance and from that tries to establish a pattern. Does it show what else I have done for Author? No.

So basically it tries to paint a picture of me in the long term, while ignoring any and all context, willfully ignoring what I did and have done in contrast to what she and her fans have done, willfully choosing to not use any other comment, willfully choosing to not even include the part of the story I was commenting on so other people can't see the quality of the writing I was critiquing and being able to, on their own, come to a determination as to whether an (amazingly gentle) critique is valid or me being anal. All in an effort to paint a picture of me as a horrible person to a large audience. Why? Cannot begin to understand someone who's mind works like this but it seems to clear everyone who has seen it that I know that it is aimed at harming my image and name as a person.

This qualifies as Libel and as Defemination. (I looked it up and spoke with people i know who understand law out of curiosity.)

Yet, you know what? My stance now is the same as it has always been. I'm not taking anyone to court, though I legally could. I'm not sending my fans at them. I'm not wishing harm nor harassment nor bad times on anyone. I want people to ignore them and not to engage with them in any way even though they may come after me.

I am not even going to use their names, just to make sure no one ever treats them the way they treat me, even though they are using my name in an attempt to smear who I am.

the reason I am even writing this is so that 1) people can understand a bit of who I am and why I choose to help people via this review book. 2) Why I wrote some of the things I wrote in the submission form. 3) If it comes down to it, I can just point to this as my side of the story.

In the end I just find it sad and pathetic, and its behavior like this as to why I smash. :)