Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
 Sarah Dessen.
‘We put our heart and soul into the stories we write’ … Sarah Dessen. Photograph: Robin Marchant/Getty Images
‘We put our heart and soul into the stories we write’ … Sarah Dessen. Photograph: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

War of words breaks out after YA novelist’s fans go after critical reader

This article is more than 4 years old

Twitterstorm unleashed after Sarah Dessen reveals hurt feelings about graduate’s wish to see her dropped from university curriculum

A bestselling author’s decision to respond to a recent graduate who criticised her books in a local newspaper has seen the graduate bombarded with online abuse and her university apologise for her comments.

YA author Sarah Dessen retweeted a story from South Dakota’s Aberdeen News to her 268,700 Twitter followers in which the graduate, Brooke Nelson, spoke about joining a committee at Northern State University to help choose a book that new students would be required to read on its Common Read course. Nelson said she had joined specifically to speak out against Dessen’s novels being included.

“She’s fine for teen girls,” Nelson was quoted as saying. “But definitely not up to the level of Common Read. So I became involved simply so I could stop them from ever choosing Sarah Dessen.”

Dessen shared a screenshot of the comments with Nelson’s name obscured. “Authors are real people,” she wrote. “We put our heart and soul into the stories we write often because it is literally how we survive in this world. I’m having a really hard time right now and this is just mean and cruel. I hope it made you feel good.”

Dessen quickly drew the support of other authors including Angie Thomas, Roxane Gay, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, who all shared their responses on Twitter.

Picoult wrote: “Not only does it suck because Sarah Dessen is one of the loveliest women you’ll ever meet [but also because] this suggests stories about young women matter less. That they are not as worthy or literary as those about anything but young women.” Weiner called the comment “catty and cruel … [it] carries on the proud tradition of denigrating any and all things that give young women pleasure”.

The Northern State University apologised to Dessen, saying that Nelson’s views “do not reflect the views of the university”, and that “we love young adult novels, and we appreciate [their] broad-ranging impact”. The journalist behind the original story, Katherine Grandstrand, also tweeted an apology: “I definitely didn’t mean to be cruel by including this quote. I am so sorry.”

But Nelson, whose name was soon found by those who searched for the story, told the Washington Post that her quote was taken out of context and that after sustained attacks on social media she had deactivated her Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Nelson, who graduated in 2017, had one vote on the committee choosing the next title for students. She said she had argued instead for Bryan Stevenson’s memoir about being a black man wrongly sentenced to death, Just Mercy, as well as Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory, and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. Stevenson’s book was eventually chosen.

“These three books are beautifully written and push readers to stand against the racial inequality that the judicial system perpetuates, to consider the heritability and influence of tradition and trauma, and to contemplate what brings meaning to one’s life,” she told the Post, adding: “If anything comes out of this larger conversation, I hope it is that others will make it a point to read books like [Just Mercy] that push them beyond their usual perspective and challenge their assumptions of society.”

Dessen’s response sparked a backlash from readers and journalists, who criticised all the authors involved for using large platforms to complain about one reader’s opinion without seeming to consider the abuse she would receive from their fans.

Journalist Hillary Kelly tweeted: “Very strange to watch a host of female authors pile on to show love to Sarah Dessen after Dessen threw a public hissy fit b/c [Nelson] offered some tepid criticism of her work. You are novelists. Facing (valid) criticism is part of the job.”

Gay, who had supported Dessen, denounced the harassment Nelson received. “I thought she was anonymous,” she told the Post. “People shouldn’t be harassing her. That’s unacceptable.”

Most viewed

Most viewed