Let’s Talk | That Time a NYT Bestselling Author Came @ Me: Mackenzi Lee Edition

I think one of the most important things that I’ve learned while being in college is to speak up for what you believe in, otherwise how will anything be changed — how will you make a difference? I mean, that’s one of the core parts of humanity, being able to speak up for what you believe in, right?.

One thing I believe in, or, should I say, have been against for a very long time now is publishers releasing these very tiny works of, like, 50 pages and then charging fans upwards of $10 for this practical chapbook of something.

Note, that I am not one to usually voice my opinion on social media about things, but when I saw this post by NYT Bestselling author Mackenzi Lee, I felt the urge to say something:

I think the main thing that made me upset about this was the fact that this was a pre-sale incentive for people who decided to buy the novel early and now they’re gong to be selling it? To me, that just made me a little upset.

Now, if you scroll through my twitter, I hardly, ever post anything on there anymore (besides the automatic posts from my blog), but I decided to reply to this. For everyone who knows me off the blog, they know I hate getting into confrontations, I hate hurting people’s feelings and I hate to see others hurt. So, when replying to the tweet, I knew I had to do it in a way where it didn’t seem I was coming off harshly, or in a rude way. But, I just felt the urge to say something about this:

Someone replied, and I replied back:

And I thought that was that. I thought I had made my point, respectively.

Well, two days later, I get out of my Shakespeare class and am having lunch with my friends when I see this:

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Okay, first off, WOAH . . .

Not only do I feel this response is a slight (if not huge) overreaction, my first point of criticism is that she seems to want to be addressing a wide variety of “harassers” and people who are “coming at her,” yet, I seem to be the only one tagged in this.

Later, on her Instagram story, she posts things like:

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These really made me upset. While she didn’t directly call me out in this one, we definitely know what spurred it.

I had this nice reply to my tweet later on:

Considering I literally said in my tweet (let me quote here), “I know you probably had nothing to do with this decision . . .” (where she later said she kind of did), does make me slightly . . . very angry.

In my opinion (and this will be the last one I state about this, because apparently stating any kind of opinion to someone with a large following will make them retweet it and complain and have tons of people blindly come to their defense . . . or maybe that’s just one person. Idkidk), when you post something on social media, it is then out of your control. If someone doesn’t like something you say and politely tells you so, do I think someone should have the right to push back to defend themselves? Abso-freaking-lutley. But Lee’s complete disregard for the power of her platform, the way in which she addressed the issue — i.e. specifically re-tweeting my specific tweet — and the overall rudeness of this entire thing has made me lose all respect for this author.

So here I am, retaliating and expressing my anger on my own, much smaller, platform. But I love all of you guys and am thankful every single day for everyone of you.

It deeply disappoints me to see such a blatant disregard from someone I used to have respect for.

One person out of 20k+ to stop supporting someone isn’t really much of anything. But I feel this was inappropriate on her side, and I just cannot support something like this.

You’re welcome to check out this whole conversation for yourself, as I will leave a link at the end of all of this (I had to get sassy with a couple of people trying to fuel this very unnecessary fire, so please excuse that).

Here’s the link: https://twitter.com/themackenzilee/status/1115269391111921665

Also, I will admit, I made a slight mistake . . .

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. . . it’s actually $14.99.

P.S.

P.S.S.

This one’s a bonus, just for fun! She didn’t tweet this directly @ me, but it’s neat, so I thought I’d share:

Now, whoever Mel is talking about I am sure is, in fact, an “entitled little asshole,” and I’m sure Mel did all of her research before deciding to bring hate speech into things. Since Mel must have forgotten to tag the person she was talking about, I decided to help her out:

Thank you, Mel . . .

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I would really like to get your opinion on this! Let’s chat in the comments!

THE GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE by Mackenzi Lee | Review

Amazon | TBD | Goodreads

501 Pages

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

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What compelled me to buy this book and read it after it having been out over a year? Who knows, because when this came out, initially, I never thought I would read it, as at the time it didn’t seem up my ally.

However, I’m so glad I did, because I ended up loving it.

The beginning of this book I feel is typical of a love story in the making, however the setting is something that really seems to throw it off and make it sort of “abstract” from the rest.

Monty is hilarious. I loved him throughout the entirety of the book. I thought he was great and just all around a good character.

Percy was also very likable. While I felt he was more of a mirror of Monty and his emotions towards the end, he was definitely a very good love interest.

Felicity was just downright kick-ass. I’m afraid she beats out Percy when it comes to favorite characters aside from the MC.

This book’s synopsis doesn’t really give much away. Only that Monty does something that is quit stupid which sends them on this fantastical journey. The journey they end up going on is not something that I expected at all and probably would have made me not read the book if it had been in the synopsis. However, I felt, in the end, it was very fun.

A couple of things I really didn’t like about this book, as every book has its imperfections, is that it felt very “fly by the seat of your pants”. That is, I felt that the author was kind of making it up as she went along rather than having a set plan, other than the outcome of the relationship between Monty and Percy at the very end.

I also didn’t particularly care for the way things were wrapped up, as I felt that characters kind of avoided confrontation that I felt was building up throughout the work. There was a point in this novel where I thought I was going to make it a solid five stars, but I’m going to have to knock it back to four.

Overall, fun story, amazing characters. Overall a great time.

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