The Haters
By Robyn Harding
Simon & Schuster
Camryn Lane had spent three years pouring her soul into the manuscript of her novel. After paying money she didn’t have for workshops and courses, being scammed by a fake agent and feeling guilty for neglecting her daughter while she continued to write, it finally paid off.
After the years of struggle and rejection, her first novel is finally published and she is feeling great. There’s positive feedback from family and friends and the sales have been strong. Then she receives a disturbing email from a total stranger.
Camryn, who is still working as a high school counsellor three days a week, was told by her publisher that haters were part of the deal and not to engage. But why was this person repeatedly posting bad reviews and even making accusations to threaten her career?
Sharing custody of the seventeen year-old daughter with her ex-husband and his new wife, and living in a small apartment, Camryn becomes concerned when the harassment creeps into her personal life.
When the people closest to her are attacked, her friends are targeted and her relationship and her job are threatened, she needs to find out if this troll is an anonymous reader or someone she actually knows and trusts.
Woven into the narrative is the story of her successful book Burnt Orchid – where politics and privilege clash with poverty and desperation. And another parallel story emerges where a high-achieving student at her daughter’s school is being mercilessly bullied.
This page-turning psychological thriller brings to life our worst nightmares about the electronic world that is an essential part of all our lives. It also reminds us that although the tactics have changed, there are people who think nothing of destroying the lives of others if they are to come out on top.
Lezly Herbert
