Goodreads won’t let users review ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ in wake of J.D. Vance VP news
Yesterday, former President Donald Trump named Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election, sparking an explosion of responses on social media.
Now, one particular site is having to shut down the discourse.
Goodreads, a book-focused social network, restricted users from being able to review Vance's 2016 bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance details his childhood and adolescence growing up in Kentucky in Appalachian rural poverty. The book was adapted into a movie starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams in 2020.
And after Vance was chosen as Trump's vice presidential pick, people wanted to read the book—so many people, in fact, that it rose to the top of Amazon's bestseller list.
But just as the book is experiencing another wave of popularity, Goodreads restricted its users from being able to review the book on the site. Though users are prompted to write a review on the book's Goodreads page, they aren't able to do so when they click the site's "write a review" button.
According to a message on the site, Hillbilly Elegy has "temporary limitations on submitting ratings and reviews." The site also states that the limitations "may be" a result of unusual behavior that doesn't follow Goodreads' review guidelines.
According to the review guidelines, reviews that focus mainly on the author of the book and their personal life are less likely to be shown to other Goodreads users. And "Goodreads reserves the right to remove a review at any time for any reason."
"If we detect unusual reviewing behavior on a book, we might temporarily limit the ability to submit ratings and reviews," the review guidelines state.
Goodreads shows five reviews of Hillbilly Elegy that were written yesterday, when Vance was named Trump's running mate. Four of them are about the content of the book—including a one-star review that says "wish I could unread it"—but one does criticize Vance himself.
"I was so underwhelmed by this book..and not even because I think J.D. Vance is a hypocrite to his own apparent people," the reviewer wrote. "My people are people from the 'hills' and I was hoping this book would help me understand why people like 'us' tend to go politically against our best interest."
In response to Trump choosing him as his running mate, Vance tweeted last night that he was "overwhelmed with gratitude."
"What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he'll do it again," Vance said. "Onward to victory!"
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