Over the years, I've been a part of and following the book community, particularly the Young Adult book community. Since I started following it in 2012, there have been a lot of changes — some for the good and some for the bad. Readers have become more aware of problematic themes in some of the books, like slut-shaming and unhealthy relationship portrayals, and the community has started taking strides to becoming more diverse and welcoming to a wider variety of both readers and writers.

All of these changes have been positive and are helping the book community become a place that is more accepting, diverse, and healthy for the members in it.

While some of the changes have definitely been positives, other changes have been less so. I'm referring to the toxic and often unproductive way of attacking the author and readers of books some in the community don't like. While I'm sure this negativity has existed since the beginning of the book community, never has it been as pervasive as it is now.

This toxic behavior often happens with novels and authors who are popular — Cassandra Clare and Sarah J Maas are a couple that immediately comes to mind. People read their work, don't like it or certain themes or aspects in it, and rather than criticize the novel.

They attack the author and the readers who enjoyed the book. I've read many reviews in which insults are made to the author. Often calling them stupid or ignorant and many other horrible things and in which they call readers who enjoy the book "trash". These sort of reviews and behaviors are unproductive and only spread more negativity throughout the community as a whole.

Now, I'm not saying that books shouldn't be criticized — or even authors for the books they write. In fact, I think this is totally okay and should be practiced regularly. Hey, it's even okay to hate books; I've hated more than my fair share of books in the past.

However, there's a huge difference between hating a book compared to spewing and spreading hate about the author and the readers.

Look, I'm very aware that several popular books in the YA community are problematic and these books need to be criticized and those problematic aspects need to be brought to the attention of readers. But going on to threaten the authors or call the readers "trash" crosses a line.

There's a constructive way of pointing out the problematic aspects of novels but attacking the author and readers is not constructive.

This sort of toxicity only leads to more problems and more negativity throughout the community as a whole.

Yes, many books contain problematic themes and ideas. Yes, these books need to be criticized and these problems need to be pointed out. But attacking the author and readers only perpetuates the negativity that exists within the book community.