‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Author Pulls Book Set in Russia after Social Media Backlash

Elizabeth Gilbert's novel, slated for 2024 publication, was set in Russia. Goodreads users, citing war in Ukraine, expressed outrage

Elizabeth Gilbert became one of the literary world’s biggest stars with the 2006 publication of her memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, which sold more than 12 million copies and became the source material for a 2010 movie starring Julia Roberts.

In books that followed, which included another memoir, Committed, published in 2010, and a self-help book, 2015’s Big Magic, Gilbert continued to build her career as a relatable, wry and warm voice particularly attractive to her many readers. She also published a novel, The Signature of All Things, in 2013.

But Gilbert announced on social media today that her next novel, The Snow Forest, which had been slated for publication in early 2024, would be put on pause indefinitely. She had publicly announced its publication just last week.

The new announcement followed an avalanche of negative pre-publication reviews on the site Goodreads, on which users can post their assessment of books — whether they have read them or not. By the afternoon of July 12, more than 500 Goodreads users had registered their disapproval with one-star ratings, the lowest the site makes available. “I have heard these messages, and read these messages, and I respect them,” Gilbert said in a recording posted to social media. “It is not the time for this book to be published.”

The one-star reviewers cited their objection to the book being set in Russia at a time when Russia is engaged in a war of aggression against Ukraine. The book, which is a work of fiction, is not set during the present day, but rather in the Siberian wilderness in the middle of the previous century. Although the book’s publisher has already removed the book from its site, the Goodreads page is still up, allowing more negative reviews to be posted.

The Snow Forest isn’t the first book to be shut down by pre-publication negative reviews on Goodreads. Previous cases have mostly involved young adult novels, including several books that were pulled by their publishers after coming under fire in what readers call “review-bombing” on Goodreads. The same dynamic has taken place on the film rating site Rotten Tomatoes, most recently where reviewers downvoted the 2023 adaption of The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey.

PEN America, a literary organization that aims to “protect open expression in the United States and worldwide,” issued a statement expressing disappointment in Gilbert’s decision to delay the book’s publication.

“Ukrainians have suffered immeasurably, and Gilbert’s decision in the face of online outcry from her Ukrainian readers is well-intended,” PEN America wrote. “But the idea that, in wartime, creativity and artistic expression should be preemptively shut down to avoid somehow compounding harms caused by military aggression is wrongheaded.”

Readers expressed surprise, with some supporting Gilbert’s decision and others voicing their alarm that she was being silenced before the book even had a chance to be read.

Among the literary community, writers took to Twitter, many recounting their own stories about bad experiences on Goodreads, including negative reviews posted months before their books were even completed. Goodreads was launched in 2006 and acquired by Amazon in 2013.

The PEN America statement ends: “The choice of whether to read Gilbert’s book lies with readers themselves, and those who are troubled by it must be free to voice their views. We hope Gilbert might reconsider and we urge others to rally around the on-time publication of her book, and the principle that literature and creativity must not become a casualty of war.”

As for Gilbert, she says that she’s still writing. “I’ve got other book projects that I’m working on, and I’ve made a decision to turn my attention to working on those now.”

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