Second Bookses

Satire is a really difficult thing to pull off. Those who do it well are amazing. Those who do it poorly, well...Dave Franklin's The Goodreads Killer is supposed to be a commentary on the current culture of the site. For those who are frequent users of the site, there's a prevailing opinion that authors -- who are often frustrated by ad hominem attacks by reviewers that have little to do with their work -- have no recourse, because Goodreads is a site that favors readers/reviewers over authors.Franklin's book is less a satire than a self-insert fan fiction. We get it; authors would love nothing more than going out and killing those reviewers who personally attack them. But there was an opportunity here to skewer the culture, to make intelligent commentary about the state of the community. Instead, it pretty much reads like a junior high school girl's Burn Book with fictional names. It's a quick read (and free), but it feels like Franklin let a great opportunity pass him by.