The Bench

A friend on an e-group I'm a member of was crowing about Meghan Markle's new children's book, The Bench, being panned by critics (he's no fan of Markle, for some inexplicable reason). He maintained it was selling at 50% because book shops couldn't shift it.

I did a little searching and discovered that 

1. It has only been out for a day or two.
2. It was on a two-for-one deal in a WH Smiths in Newcastle. Such deals are done by the publisher, not the shop. It's a marketing tactic to increase sales and hence interest. 
3. It was panned by critics in the News Corp press and the Daily Mail - the publications leading the attacks on the Duchess of Sussex and the chief protagonists in the War on Woke.
4. All other reviews were positive.
5. It's already in Amazon's top 40 list.
6. The positive reviews on Amazon UK are all verified purchases.
7. None of the negative reviews when I looked on Amazon UK are verified purchases - they're negative comments by people who have apparently never even read the book.

Seems the gutter press is leading an assault on Meghan. Nothing new here.

When a review begins and ends with; "A piece of self-indulgent crap," then you can rest assured it's not a review of the book, but someone expressing their hate-filled view of Meghan Markle. 

The acid test is whether your children like the book, not whether you like the writer. I wasn't particularly fond of the literary style of The Hungry Caterpillar and though the plot of The Jelly Monster was somewhat thin, but my kids absolutely loved them and insisted I read them time after time.

I haven't bought or read it, so I'll reserve judgement.