As a journalist for Fox News, Megyn Kelly was the center of much controversy during the last election cycle.  On November 15th, Kelly released her new book, “Settle for More”, and was slammed with a brigade of 1-star, unverified reviews.  

This is a textbook example of a Review Brigade: a flood of 1-star, unverified reviews attacking the author rather than the book.  Redditors on r/The_Donald even bragged about their successful brigade.  While Amazon seems to have done a thorough job of cleaning up the reviews, the data we have on the deleted ones show a disturbing trend of misogyny.  

Here’s a review written by Dave B on the day her book was released (which was subsequently deleted a few days later):

This is such a piece of crap.  The only reason I bought it was hoping maybe there was some more skin showing, maybe I’d get a nipple shot, but to no avail.  What a hateful, vindictive man hating bitch.  Get over your self Meg, by the way that nose job isn’t working for you either, can’t take my eyes off that thing to look at your half exposed breasts, which, by the way aren’t really that impressive.  Grow the hair back out, that butch isn’t working either.  Wish I could comment more on the actual content inside the cover, but by page three I was using it in the bathroom.

While we could post endless horrifying examples of the deleted reviews that we have saved in our database, we’ll instead take a look at the habits of the reviewers behind these deleted reviews.

The top 5 most commonly reviewed items from the Anti-Kelly Brigade include attacks on 4 other books written by women.

37 reviewers also brigaded Hillary Clinton’s “Stronger Together”.  36 are 1-star; 1 is 5-star.  All are unverified, only 7 were deleted.

The reviews for Stronger Together were also the subject of much debate during the recent election.  Hundreds of reviews were deleted, many blamed Amazon of “fixing” the reviews, yet thousands of unverified 1-star reviews still remain.  Here’s an example of a review from someone who also had their 1-star review for Kelly’s book deleted:

And another reviewer who had their 1-star review for Kelly’s book deleted.  This is the 5-star review for “Stronger Together”:

13 reviewers also brigaded Amy Schumer’s “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo”.  All are 1-star, all are unverified.  Only one has been deleted.

Back in August, we did an in-depth breakdown on the Anti-Schumer Brigade.  Well, many of those who left nasty reviews on Amy’s book also brigaded against Kelly’s book.

Here’s two examples of reviewers who left 1-star reviews on Amy’s book who also had their 1-star reviews of Kelly’s book deleted:

14 reviewers also brigaded Michelle Fields’ “Barons of the Beltway”.  One is 2-star, the rest are 1-star.  All are unverified.  None have been deleted.

Michele Fields is another female journalist at the center of political controversy whose recent book is clearly being brigaded.  While 28 reviews have been deleted, there are still hundreds of unverified 1-star reviews that remain.

Here are a few examples of reviews on Fields’ book by users who were also part of the Anti-Kelly Brigade:

17 reviewers also brigaded Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices”.  All are either 1 or 2 stars.  None have been deleted.

Hillary Clinton’s older book also seems to be the victim of a brigade.  Amazon has only deleted 9 reviews, and thousands of unverified, 1-star reviews remain.

Here are a few examples of reviews on Hard Choices by users who were also part of the Anti-Kelly Brigade:

11 reviewers also reviewed Donald Trump’s “Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America”.  All are 5-star.  Only three are verified purchases.

The 5th most commonly reviewed item by the Anti-Kelly Brigade is, in fact, Trump’s campaign book.  While there’s clearly a brigade against Trump’s book as well, all the reviewers from the Anti-Kelly Brigade gave Trump’s book 5-stars.

After Trump’s book, the next most commonly reviewed items by the Anti-Kelly Brigade seemed unrelated.  For example, 9 also reviewed Taste of the Wild Dry Dog Food, and 6 also reviewed Amazon Echo.

Brigaders seem to target female authors.

While we can’t necessarily prove anything with the data, the trend it somewhat alarming.  Plenty of male authors spoke out against Trump, but this group of brigaders specifically targeted female authors.  Furthermore, Amy Schumer didn’t play a major role in the recent election, yet she was the target of the brigade as well.  It seems like there may be more to these fake reviews than just political disagreements.

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