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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I also thought that the author was a non-native speaker until I read more about her. Given the kinds of mistakes she makes, though, I'm a little skeptical that more education in grammar would have helped. Maybe some ESL.
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Her bio says she was born & raised in London, not that she's a native speaker of English. She may have grown up in a multilingual household where English was only used occasionally, and the grammar and syntax were irrelevant as long as the meaning was understood--which is a lot easier to manage in face-to-face encounters than in text.
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And while there may be some piling on by reviewers, I'm actually fairly sympathetic to the reviewers given that the author began arguing with the reviewers.
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She didn't just begin arguing; she started with insulting and demanding. I'd have more sympathy for her if she didn't start by insisting the reviewer had read the wrong copy and it was an unfair review. (As far as anyone's been able to figure out, the reviewer read the correct copy. At least, a couple of the quoted lines are still in the sample available at Smashwords.)
Most of the commenters were fairly restrained, just pointing out that yes, that was awful grammar, and that her comments indicated a lack of expertise in writing, so they were inclined to believe the original review. The "piling on" didn't start until she started insulting individuals and telling them to shut up.
While there's room for sympathy if she's just gone through something awful in her offline life,
she didn't have to comment. This isn't like criticizing a co-worker and finding out that he's just faced a devastating family crisis; her work is being discussed by strangers, in a place she wasn't required to comment. The co-worker can't just leave the building (and keep his job); she has the option of clicking the back-button, and nobody would've known.