The news that author Lauren Howard was pulling the release of her debut novel over this kind of
mob - mentality after she was virtually brutalized by some members of the Goodreads community resulted in an outpouring of
support from authors and readers alike; had the news of the vicious
attacks on her and on her book not been shared so readily — as the Beihang study indicates — many online community members may have never even heard of Howard or her novel.