I did it. I actually hit deactivate on my Twitter account.

That app is where I found so many kindred spirits and a lovely community of writers, many of which I’ve met in person or have chatted to online. It was where I finally felt seen as an author and felt the joy of having complete strangers compliment my work.

These are not feelings that fade, but they do tarnish.

What Elon Musk has done to the app should honestly be studied in the future as a cautionary tale of how to turn an incredible app into a billionaire submersible equivalent. Musk has managed to tarnish his own legacy by being an outright idiot and doubling down on being so. I can still remember, many moons ago, that Elon had me intrigued. The man was a billionaire and investing in the things I wished I could have. Electric cars! Home Batteries! Solar Roofing! Space travel! I even said at one point that the man was like a living Tony Stark, minus the fancy metal suit.

Fast forward a few years and I harbour a hatred for the man that he has fostered through his arrogant public persona. From his transphobia, to his backing of Trump, to simply claiming credit for much of his teams’ successes, I simply am in awe at his fall from grace. The last nails in that coffin for me? Coming for my social media platform of choice. This may seem petty, but it was a place where I’ve had some incredible interactions. Famous authors have commented on my posts, I’ve had famous folks like my tweets, and it all felt like a brush with circles otherwise distant from me.

Now? Twitter (now aptly named X, for it is now my ex social app of choice) is rife with racism, folks slinging around slurs, I’ve seen photos/videos of people dead or dying, and the block button is worthless. The ads are always irrelevant, the Elon Cheer Squad are always prioritised (blue ticks), and frankly with his latest update stating that whatever we share on there WILL be used to train AI, well, in short, feck that.

So, while I’m on Threads, Facebook, and a few dozen other apps I rarely use, I will miss old Twitter. I’ll miss interacting with authors such as Anthony Horowitz who leapt into a conversation about his book Magpie Murders. I’ll miss having my literary heroes coming across my tweet and tossing me a like. These things could change the mood of a day or rejuvenate me for another writing session.

Anyway, I’ll step down off my soapbox for now.

In other news, I’m seriously considering writing book reviews in the hopes it can earn me a few extra dollars for the bookshop. I read any and everything, and I believe my rating system to be far more just than other folks.

• 5 stars – Excellent read, enjoyable through and through, easily recommended.
• 4 stars – Great read, an issue or two, but still recommendable.
• 3 stars – Average read, perhaps just not for me, possibly recommended for particular readers.
• 2 stars – Not enjoyable, perhaps content with no warning that should have had one, misleading marketing, broken parts.
• 1 star – I tend not to use, this is for books that haven’t been edited properly, misleading, broken, confusing, awful dialogue, poor writing in general, plot flaws, etc.
• No Rating – For books that were clearly not to my taste.

For a no rating example, I read a book that was essentially a checklist of traumas with no trigger warnings (it would have required a chapter for them) and was sold as a dark comedy. As someone who made a “Guess I won’t bring the marshmallows” joke to my Mom when she told me they couldn’t wait for me to get come to cremate my Dad, dark comedy is where I live. No, this wasn’t dark comedy. None of it was funny. I felt like the “semi-autobiographical” label was a cry for help and I should have been calling someone for a welfare check on them. So, no rating, but the review was around the reasons why as stated here.

Also, I am a firm believer that you CANNOT and SHOULD NOT rate or review a book if you don’t finish it. “I was in the Louvre, didn’t see the Mona Lisa, but one star.” The book I’ll use as my example here is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. I loathed the unnamed protagonist as she began spiralling into her own thoughts and manufacturing her own despair. I would have put the book down, but I was listening to it in my car, so I soldiered on. Then, out of nowhere, the twist drops and I nearly had to pull over to listen to it again. Completely changed the book. After that, I finished the book before bed.

Perhaps people think I’m too generous, and maybe I am. I know how much work goes into these books and I’ll be damned if I’m going to One Star/DNF for an author.

Anyway, it’s something I’m thinking about. We will see how we go. For now, I’ll continue trying to squeeze in some writing time and running the bookshop as best I can!