'The Selection', Netflix's newest adaptation, is based on a book embroiled in controversy over cyberbullying
Netflix recently announced that it was adapting young adult (YA) book ‘The Selection’ by Kiera Cass. The book is quite like ‘The Bachelor’ and follows the story of America Singer who is one of 35 girls who is vying to win Prince Maxon’s affections and become the next Queen Illea. The movie is set to be directed by Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour.
This won’t be the streaming service’s first adaptation of a YA novel. Netflix’s ‘To All The Boys’ trilogy is based on the book series of the same name by Jenny Han. However, ‘The Selection’ is different in that the book already raised controversy years ago when Cass and her agent, Elana Roth resorted to cyberbullying a reader who left a one-star review for ‘The Selection’.
A Goodreads user with the screenname Wendy Darling wrote in her review of ‘The Selection’, “Sometimes your gut is just trying to do its job, as I kept struggling with the book until I finally admitted that I didn't find a single aspect of this story that I enjoyed.”
The review continued, “Mentioning it in the same breath as The Hunger Games is a travesty, however, since this book barely qualifies as a dystopian novel and certainly the quality of the story, characters, themes and writing don't come even close to comparing.”
In the since-deleted tweets, Roth and Cass engaged in a conversation they must have thought were private. Roth first tweeted, “Goddamn, Goodreads really needs better filtering and algorithms for how it displays reviews and ratings by default. So horrible.” To this, Cass replied, “I think it’s by likes & it’s easier to like mean stuff. Whateves.” Roth then wrote, “That bitch at the top is really pissing me off. She complains before reading, then barely reads, then complains. What’s her deal?”
Roth also wrote, “I think I need to go through and like all the positive reviews,” adding that she went through and liked all the four- and five-starred reviews. Cass and Roth also discussed a strategy to get others to like the top-rated reviews so that the one-star review would not be featured.
Many readers took to Goodreads to express support for Wendy Darling and to call out Cass and her agent’s reaction to her review. One wrote, “I hate it when authors do that. instead of taking low ratings as constructive criticism to improve on next books they just complain and insult readers.”
Another wrote, “Wendy, don't let them get to you. We respect your reviews and greatly value your opinion, but most importantly, we love you, as a person. You're handling this so much better than I would ever have.”
However, not everything was alright for Darling. She was soon bogged down by trolls and fans of Cass who sent her hate mail and threats following the author’s public denunciation of the review.
Moreover, an author friend of Cass then posted a five-star review of ‘The Selection’ and called negative reviewers a "cesspit of stupidity." The author also tried to doxx Darling by posting what they claimed was Darling’s real name, photo, and email. This got the author banned from Goodreads and the review was then deleted.
The controversy surrounding Cass, Roth, and the reviewer then sparked a discussion about the power imbalance between authors and readers. In a Publishers’ Weekly article, Darling said, “It’s very unfortunate the focus is taken off books, and now we’re spending all our time focusing on people’s egos.”
”What I find very unseemly is that you have public figures who are on the attack with private citizens,” continued Darling. “Certainly these outbursts are not the way to draw fans and to protect your reputation.”
Eight years later, the controversy has nearly died down -- ‘The Selection’ now has a four-plus rating on Goodreads and with the announcement of Netflix’s adaptation, Cass and her team could not be feeling prouder. However, for those familiar with the book world, ‘The Selection’ will always bring back sour memories of when an author and her cohorts crossed the line when it came to a reader’s review.
