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Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World
INSIDE KATE GOSSELIN'S 'HOUSE OF HORRORS'
Conspiracy. Massive Coverup. Lawsuits and Legal Threats. Exploitation. Fraud. Abuse. Animal Cruelty. Lies.
Read The Book that two of the most powerful law firms in the country have tried to stop from being published.
You'll never look at 'Reality' TV the same again.
"She has as much right to this being kept private as anyone," Gosselin's attorney, Marc Randazza, told ABC News.
Conspiracy. Massive Coverup. Lawsuits and Legal Threats. Exploitation. Fraud. Abuse. Animal Cruelty. Lies.
Read The Book that two of the most powerful law firms in the country have tried to stop from being published.
You'll never look at 'Reality' TV the same again.
"She has as much right to this being kept private as anyone," Gosselin's attorney, Marc Randazza, told ABC News.
728 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
October 3, 2012
I give this book a 4 stars not because of the writing but because someone finally exposed Kate Gosselin for the vile money hungry soulless person she has become. There needs to be regulations put in place to protect kids against being exploited on "reality" tv.
It's too bad that Robert Hoffman had to self publish this book as there were times I found the information repetitive and the book could've been condensed. Now Discovery/TLC has sued Hoffman for exposing "trade secrets" except they really dont want it known they covered up so much including CHILD ABUSE!
It's too bad that Robert Hoffman had to self publish this book as there were times I found the information repetitive and the book could've been condensed. Now Discovery/TLC has sued Hoffman for exposing "trade secrets" except they really dont want it known they covered up so much including CHILD ABUSE!
July 24, 2014
So? One night I was waiting for a 2nd book in a series to get to me, so I was bored and decided to rent this via Kindle. At one point in time, I "loved" Jon and Kate Plus 8, so I was curious as to what would be said. Now I'm no Kate fan. Nor am I a Jon fan. I'm basically a: free the kids from both of their stupid motherfucking parents!fan. And I would not be shocked at all if it were 100% true that Kate barely spends time with her children, abuses them, and uses them as cash cows. Still? This author. DUDE. HIRE AN EDITOR. Also he gave way too many excuses for Jon's bullshit behavior and seemed obsessed with Kate's DWTS partner. He gave way too many excuses for any male that was even remotely involved in this whole mess. It was sorta gross. And he just kept masturbating over how great he is and how great a parent he is. He took something that could have been used to tell people about how fucking insane reality tv is, how it can treat children, and how fame and money can destroy people, and just turned it into some wank fest over how much he hates Kate but still loves that she looks so hot and like a "slut" (his words.) Like no, dude. Go away. Stop stalking and making money off the Gosselin kids yourself. Yeah, you're not their parents but you're basically standing around near their backyard jerking off and hoping to catch Kate "in the act." But then you kiss Jon's ass and act like he had nothing to do with all of this. And act like you are the da bomb for digging through people's trash and leaving your own children on holidays to go stalk the Gosselin kids? SON, PLEASE.
Basically. For the love of God and Buddha: HIRE AN EDITOR.
Basically. For the love of God and Buddha: HIRE AN EDITOR.
July 17, 2014
Disappointed with this book.
It must be nice to be able to use twitter to write seemingly half of your book. Also to use examples repeatedly. And then there is the author's criticism of Kate's spelling when he needed to give the book a good line edit. I noticed, among other things, that the author misspelled Collin's names repeated (in the oh so convenient copy past of his own notes from his work with US Weekly) as well of that as Jon Gosselin.
Book is a disorganized mess.
Also book is not appropriate formatted to Kindle.
It must be nice to be able to use twitter to write seemingly half of your book. Also to use examples repeatedly. And then there is the author's criticism of Kate's spelling when he needed to give the book a good line edit. I noticed, among other things, that the author misspelled Collin's names repeated (in the oh so convenient copy past of his own notes from his work with US Weekly) as well of that as Jon Gosselin.
Book is a disorganized mess.
Also book is not appropriate formatted to Kindle.
August 31, 2014
Don't do it!!!
I don't normally write reviews, nor do I leave books unfinished. This is a first for both. Let me start by saying I am not a Kate or Jon fan. Long ago I did watch their show, I'm not sure why. The way she treated her kids and Jon then bugged me.
I had just finished a book and was looking for something new to read. This popped up on my Kindle as a free read and I though "why not"? Here is why not. The book is poorly written. It is all over the place, jumping from year to year and back again. The author used to write for US Weekly and this reads like a huge mash up of articles and blogs from US weekly. He's pulled information from twitter and written entire sections about it. He tells the same story over and over. His hatred for Kate is evident.
Even as a free book I wouldn't waste my time. I'd rather wait until one of the kids writes a "tell-all" book to find out the real crazy truth.This review is formatting weird. Sorry of it reads funny.
I don't normally write reviews, nor do I leave books unfinished. This is a first for both. Let me start by saying I am not a Kate or Jon fan. Long ago I did watch their show, I'm not sure why. The way she treated her kids and Jon then bugged me.
I had just finished a book and was looking for something new to read. This popped up on my Kindle as a free read and I though "why not"? Here is why not. The book is poorly written. It is all over the place, jumping from year to year and back again. The author used to write for US Weekly and this reads like a huge mash up of articles and blogs from US weekly. He's pulled information from twitter and written entire sections about it. He tells the same story over and over. His hatred for Kate is evident.
Even as a free book I wouldn't waste my time. I'd rather wait until one of the kids writes a "tell-all" book to find out the real crazy truth.This review is formatting weird. Sorry of it reads funny.
August 2, 2014
It's hard to review this book. Essentially it's good information that is poorly presented. It reads very much like a series of blog posts written by a person not trained as a writer. This is unfortunate because I believe--thanks to TLC/Discovery's efforts to block it--the content is accurate.
It's a quick read, an engrossing read but above all else Hoffman's book is a downright _disturbing_ read.
I'm a Christian who grew up in the Evangelical culture. I watched with skepticism as the Gosselins pled with local churches for "love offerings" (eg. gifts of money) even as they were lavished with earthly wealth from corporations. I'm hoping that the truths in this account serve as a warning to the faith community so that the next viper doesn't find a place in the bosom of the Church as easily.
Still, I wish the book had better writing and some actual documentation for the reader. "Trust me, I'm in possession of these documents" isn't really kosher journalism. In fact, had I not read about the TLC attempts to block this I wouldn't have given nearly as much credence to what Hoffman writes. Silly how they shot themselves in the foot like this.
Oh well. The Gosselin story is rife with stupidity and sorrow. And now you can read all about it.
It's a quick read, an engrossing read but above all else Hoffman's book is a downright _disturbing_ read.
I'm a Christian who grew up in the Evangelical culture. I watched with skepticism as the Gosselins pled with local churches for "love offerings" (eg. gifts of money) even as they were lavished with earthly wealth from corporations. I'm hoping that the truths in this account serve as a warning to the faith community so that the next viper doesn't find a place in the bosom of the Church as easily.
Still, I wish the book had better writing and some actual documentation for the reader. "Trust me, I'm in possession of these documents" isn't really kosher journalism. In fact, had I not read about the TLC attempts to block this I wouldn't have given nearly as much credence to what Hoffman writes. Silly how they shot themselves in the foot like this.
Oh well. The Gosselin story is rife with stupidity and sorrow. And now you can read all about it.
September 3, 2014
Short Take: Kate Gosselin is a terrible person. So is Robert Hoffman. Both of them are also terrible writers.
I’m not much of a gambler. But I do love my Steelers. So when a friend suggested that they MIGHT lose to the Eagles, OF COURSE I said “I’ll bet you ANYTHING (except money cause I’m cheap) that they win!”
So the deal was, if Pittsburgh won, I would have to read and review a book I did NOT want to read, let alone review, and if Philly won, my friend would actually read a book. Congratulations, M., you won fair and square. Enjoy.
I’ll admit, when Jon & Kate + 8 first came on TLC, I was absolutely charmed by it. The children were all adorable, Jon was clueless but loving, and Kate was trying to hold it all together and losing at times due to the stress - hey, who wouldn’t??
But then it morphed into something darker and uglier. Like the rest of America, I watched as this sweet family story began to unravel. Jon was cheating, Kate was an overbearing, nasty, joyless shrew who didn’t really like her kids that much, they were getting a divorce, and all of it played out on TV, in the tabloids, and across the internet for all the world to see. It was morbidly fascinating and depressing at the same time, the proverbial train wreck we couldn’t look away from. Were it not for the kids caught in the middle of all of it, it would’ve been just another all-American freak show, where ordinary people are granted some degree of fame and fortune, spiral out of control, and become another reality-tv cautionary tale.
But the unfortunate fact is that there were eight (EIGHT!!) innocent children at the heart of all of it, eight beautiful kids with broken hearts and a broken home. Their mom was in ever more desperate pursuit of new ways to hold onto her fame, and their dad was an overgrown adolescent too busy partying and getting laid to deal with them. How did this happen? I was more than a little curious to see exactly what had unfolded behind the scenes, so I thought that this book might actually be a little bit interesting.
I was wrong.
For starters, I thought this would be a biography. There is an opening chapter or two briefly outlining Kate’s early life, then it’s just paraphrased journal excerpts, and the author’s opinions of them. Yes, Robert Hoffman got a hold of Kate’s private journals by going through her trash. I suppose there’s something poetic about Kate’s trash being turned into this trash.
Robert Hoffman’s editorializing is horrendous. Reading a grown man repeatedly say nasty things about a woman (even if she is no saint herself) just feels icky. Some examples:
(after a list of entries in which Kate claims that God has provided this or that to her family) “No wonder the whole world is so screwed up. God is spending all of His time taking care of Kate Gosselin.”
“Kate called her kids boring because they didn’t do anything interesting like the trained monkeys they usually behave like apparently.”
And so on. There’s a lot more, but I can’t bring myself to skim back through it. Why not just state the facts & let readers sort it out for themselves? If she’s that bad, it’ll be obvious, no need to add your own sarcasm to it. This is a 500+ page burn book written by a teenage Mean Girl.
Hoffman writes quite a lot about his gut feeling that Kate is lying about trying to conceive sextuplets because she “protests too much”, in other words, she says over and over again that she wanted JUST ONE MORE child. Meanwhile, he states over and over again that he has no interest in damaging Kate’s reputation, and that he verified everything he wrote over and over again, that he’s only telling the truth for the children and that even though Jon’s a good friend of his, he would tell the truth even if it made Jon look bad. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was protesting too much.
For example, there were lots of words devoted to the fact that Kate didn’t try to stop her Twitter followers, fans, etc. to stop insulting Jon. However, there’s not one sentence stating that Jon asked people to stop insulting Kate. Robert Hoffman wrote a good 80 pages about Kate going tanning & getting her nails done, but barely mentioned Jon sleeping around and partying in Vegas.
The whole book is a mess. It’s not organized in any coherent way, whole chapters seem to have been repeated several times, and the misspellings are plentiful. For a man who mocked Kate Gosselin’s spelling (in her private journals no less), you’d think Hoffman would’ve learned the difference between roll and role at some point.
There are long, drawn-out descriptions of the abuse Kate inflicted on her kids and pets. There are painful recaps of the scenes in the show where the children’s privacy was violated over and over when they were sick, on the toilet, exhausted, upset, and so on. It’s painful to read. The worst part of all is that apparently it’s bad to exploit the Gosselin children for money, unless you are Robert Hoffman. I must’ve missed the part where he took all of this information on child abuse to CPS, or pledged the profits of the book to child abuse charities. How exactly does this book help the kids AT ALL??
Seriously, I wonder if Robert Hoffman and Kate Gosselin conspired to write this book together, drum up some controversy, and split the profits.
The Nerd’s Rating: No happy neurons. Zero stars. It might be the worst thing I’ve ever read.
I’m not much of a gambler. But I do love my Steelers. So when a friend suggested that they MIGHT lose to the Eagles, OF COURSE I said “I’ll bet you ANYTHING (except money cause I’m cheap) that they win!”
So the deal was, if Pittsburgh won, I would have to read and review a book I did NOT want to read, let alone review, and if Philly won, my friend would actually read a book. Congratulations, M., you won fair and square. Enjoy.
I’ll admit, when Jon & Kate + 8 first came on TLC, I was absolutely charmed by it. The children were all adorable, Jon was clueless but loving, and Kate was trying to hold it all together and losing at times due to the stress - hey, who wouldn’t??
But then it morphed into something darker and uglier. Like the rest of America, I watched as this sweet family story began to unravel. Jon was cheating, Kate was an overbearing, nasty, joyless shrew who didn’t really like her kids that much, they were getting a divorce, and all of it played out on TV, in the tabloids, and across the internet for all the world to see. It was morbidly fascinating and depressing at the same time, the proverbial train wreck we couldn’t look away from. Were it not for the kids caught in the middle of all of it, it would’ve been just another all-American freak show, where ordinary people are granted some degree of fame and fortune, spiral out of control, and become another reality-tv cautionary tale.
But the unfortunate fact is that there were eight (EIGHT!!) innocent children at the heart of all of it, eight beautiful kids with broken hearts and a broken home. Their mom was in ever more desperate pursuit of new ways to hold onto her fame, and their dad was an overgrown adolescent too busy partying and getting laid to deal with them. How did this happen? I was more than a little curious to see exactly what had unfolded behind the scenes, so I thought that this book might actually be a little bit interesting.
I was wrong.
For starters, I thought this would be a biography. There is an opening chapter or two briefly outlining Kate’s early life, then it’s just paraphrased journal excerpts, and the author’s opinions of them. Yes, Robert Hoffman got a hold of Kate’s private journals by going through her trash. I suppose there’s something poetic about Kate’s trash being turned into this trash.
Robert Hoffman’s editorializing is horrendous. Reading a grown man repeatedly say nasty things about a woman (even if she is no saint herself) just feels icky. Some examples:
(after a list of entries in which Kate claims that God has provided this or that to her family) “No wonder the whole world is so screwed up. God is spending all of His time taking care of Kate Gosselin.”
“Kate called her kids boring because they didn’t do anything interesting like the trained monkeys they usually behave like apparently.”
And so on. There’s a lot more, but I can’t bring myself to skim back through it. Why not just state the facts & let readers sort it out for themselves? If she’s that bad, it’ll be obvious, no need to add your own sarcasm to it. This is a 500+ page burn book written by a teenage Mean Girl.
Hoffman writes quite a lot about his gut feeling that Kate is lying about trying to conceive sextuplets because she “protests too much”, in other words, she says over and over again that she wanted JUST ONE MORE child. Meanwhile, he states over and over again that he has no interest in damaging Kate’s reputation, and that he verified everything he wrote over and over again, that he’s only telling the truth for the children and that even though Jon’s a good friend of his, he would tell the truth even if it made Jon look bad. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was protesting too much.
For example, there were lots of words devoted to the fact that Kate didn’t try to stop her Twitter followers, fans, etc. to stop insulting Jon. However, there’s not one sentence stating that Jon asked people to stop insulting Kate. Robert Hoffman wrote a good 80 pages about Kate going tanning & getting her nails done, but barely mentioned Jon sleeping around and partying in Vegas.
The whole book is a mess. It’s not organized in any coherent way, whole chapters seem to have been repeated several times, and the misspellings are plentiful. For a man who mocked Kate Gosselin’s spelling (in her private journals no less), you’d think Hoffman would’ve learned the difference between roll and role at some point.
There are long, drawn-out descriptions of the abuse Kate inflicted on her kids and pets. There are painful recaps of the scenes in the show where the children’s privacy was violated over and over when they were sick, on the toilet, exhausted, upset, and so on. It’s painful to read. The worst part of all is that apparently it’s bad to exploit the Gosselin children for money, unless you are Robert Hoffman. I must’ve missed the part where he took all of this information on child abuse to CPS, or pledged the profits of the book to child abuse charities. How exactly does this book help the kids AT ALL??
Seriously, I wonder if Robert Hoffman and Kate Gosselin conspired to write this book together, drum up some controversy, and split the profits.
The Nerd’s Rating: No happy neurons. Zero stars. It might be the worst thing I’ve ever read.
July 20, 2014
Incredibly poorly written. I think the book sheds light on some hypocritical aspects of Ms. Gosselin, and how the kids were affected by their fame, but it book is very difficult to read because of lack of basic writing conventions. It appears to have not have been edited; Mr. Hoffman seems to have just printed everything he had off his computer and mashed it together and called it a book. I think it is clear to everyone familiar with Ms. Gosselin that she likely has a narcissistic personality disorder. This book would have been stronger if Hoffman didn't use such rabid, tabloid-style language throughout. A 700+ page book, that with proper editing, could be cut to under 300. Don't waste your money on it.
August 19, 2014
If this is even close to being true , I feel so bad for these kids and with Kate's personality I could see how she could lose it and do these things. She seemed so controlling and bossy , not very sympathetic to her kids , husband or anyone for that matter- it's do as she said , her way or the highway , she does seem to have the me me me it's all about me mentality. Well written , sad sad so very sad. I remember watching the show and would think during some episodes why she felt the need to treat her family the way she did but again I didn't have so many kids but I did have 4 very close in age with my youngest being twins and couldn't imagine being so controlling at all cost , there comes a time when enough is enough and I guess that's why Jon ran like he did but it left the kids with nobody to stand up for them like only daddy can.
July 15, 2014
So he spends the beginning talking about how he isnt writing the book for Jon his friend but to help the kids.. yet he spends the entire book going over and over and over private emails, journals etc he "found" I am by no means a Kate fan but this book felt dirty and it wont help the kids later, it will only hurt them. Gross.
September 10, 2014
Poorly written, disorganised and depressing. Lots of repetition. I liked watching this show but was turned off by the way Kate behaved. So I agree with the author that she is narcissistic and nasty. But leave it at that, personally I will wait until the children grow up and tell their stories.
didn-t-couldn-t-won-t-finish
July 15, 2014I'm not sure why I'm reading this...It's total trashy tv gossip expose stuff.
April 23, 2015
Yes
About Damon time someone said it. I loathe that vile woman and God bless her kids! She's a con artist and a thief
About Damon time someone said it. I loathe that vile woman and God bless her kids! She's a con artist and a thief
January 20, 2016
meh, it was free
September 16, 2023
Where... Do I start with this?
Okay, first: Kate Gosselin is awful. I have plenty of information independent of this book to draw that conclusion. She is exploitative, she is abusive (to her ex-husband and her kids), and she is attention-hungry. Not debating those facts in any way.
However: This book was just... the WORST possible way to convey that.
1. This book was terribly written.
Robert Hoffman, look at me: Do not ever fucking write another book without a coauthor, or a team of editors.
I have noticed that people more accustomed to writing articles for newspapers or magazines (I believe the author said he worked for Us Weekly?) have a 50/50 chance of being... Really NOT good at writing books. It's a longer form of writing that requires a certain amount of organization and structure, whereas article writers tend to write in shorter form.
This book- or at least the kindle version- is 728 pages long. if you need a book for size comparison, Dan Simmons's The Terror is 784 pages. It's fucking LONG, and the author is so ridiculously disorganized in how he lines up his information that he bounces back and forth in time constantly and frequently rehashes things he's already talked about.
He goes into so much fucking minutiae about every single bad or mildly shady thing that Kate Gosselin has done. A better writer could have condensed that and organized it better throughout the story so that it didn't come across as a weirdo screaming about his hatred for someone on the sidewalk, but that is, incidentally, how it comes off.
Which leads nicely into my next point:
2. The author is blatantly, unapologetically biased against Kate Gosselin.
I cannot stress enough here that this book comes off as a gigantic, petty attack against Kate Gosselin. The way this book was written suggests to me that the author would not know professionalism and objectivity if it hit him broadside.
And for those of you whining "but she deserves it because she's bad!" Doesn't matter. This book is meant to persuade people that Kate is a bad person, but the author engages in so much snide ad hominems against her that even I began to feel like she was getting railroaded- and as I made it clear already, I don't like Kate Gosselin.
There was one particularly disgusting comment regarding Kate having gotten a boob job that I'll quote directly from my update: "Kate was, and I quote, looking "bra-less, standing firm, and looking fabulously slutty". This comes on the heels of the author encouraging the audience to go to a particular episode and pause on that scene, after calling her out for having a boob job."
That's something that an ass says. That is something a MASSIVE ass says.
Robert Hoffman, look at me: When a lot of the damning evidence you have in your book about Kate Gosselin is you PARAPHRASING her diary entries and emails, because you're concerned she'll try to sue you for copyright, you are asking us to trust that you have no embellished, misquoted, or misrepresented the spirit of what Kate has written.
And when I spend an entire goddamn book seeing you go for this woman's throat in the most unprofessional, blatantly biased way possible, I am going to begin to question whether or not you have embellished, misquoted, or misrepresented the spirit of what Kate has written.
If you had kept a neutral tone, if you had restricted your obvious bile for Kate to a few drops of sarcasm here and there, I might be less willing to side-eye you. But you didn't do that, and so now I'm questioning the evidence that you are not printing in full.
3. The author is blatantly, unapologetically biased towards Jon Gosselin.
Robert Hoffman is a friend to Jon Gosselin. He says this outright and implies it constantly throughout the book. This book is about Jon Gosselin's ex-wife. So naturally, that's a red flag: You're writing about your friend's ex-wife, obviously you will be biased in favor of your friend, and that means that a reader with anything resembling common sense and critical thinking skills is going to scrutinize how you talk about the two of them.
I have both, and noticed this just... Utter unwillingness to pin anything approaching equal blame to Jon for how things unfolded with the kids. There are so many examples of this in the book I've honestly lost count, but one in particular I remember clearly:
The author talks about how he sat down with one of the twins (iirc he didn't specify who) and offered to listen to some of her poetry. He says that she seems shocked than an adult would care about her writing and that clearly she was starved of attention.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this child has two parents, correct? And Jon is one of them? And so, as such, if she is starved of adult attention and clearly doesn't receive validation for her writing, that would reflect on both Kate AND JON, would it not??
But of course, the way the author frames this, 100% of the responsibility lies on Kate. Exploiting the kids lies on Kate (even though Jon willingly allowed the show to go on for years), the kids being allowed to live in an abusive household lies on Kate (even though Jon has 100% legal responsibility to intervene), exposing them to the public lies on Kate (even though Jon, according to the author, was FRIENDS WITH THE PAPARAZZI and allowed them to interact with the children occasionally).
All Kate, never Jon.
Author, you are so ridiculously biased in favor of Jon that it makes it impossible to take you seriously. How can I not take what you've written with a thousand grains of salt when you've proven in your writing that you will cut Jon all the slack in the world for his mistakes while hammering Kate on the minutiae of her mistakes?
4. The author's conduct in investigating Kate and the Gosselins was, at times, 100% over the line inappropriate.
Robert Hoffman admits- ADMITS!- to digging through their trash, following them around from place to place, taking photos of Kate in public (and then acting like she's a bitch for finding that irritating or intrusive), running with the paparazzi, and then CALLING them on one occasion to photograph Kate for once having a nice day at the playground with her kids.
Bro, you have got a megafuckton of nerve to complain about Kate exploiting her kids when you are literally part and parcel of the machine that is enabling that exploitation. You have a lot of goddamn nerve to act holier-than-thou (and oh CHRIST did he) and self-righteous in this book when you admit to running with paparazzi that were literally waiting outside a house to take photos of the children. Some of the shit the author says in this book about following Kate around, waiting at the bus stop for the kids to get off- it comes across as so fucking stalkerish, and it makes me wonder exactly how he distinguishes himself from the paparazzi.
Kate is terrible, but you were absolutely complicit in the children's exploitation and it is PEAK hypocrisy to be taking Kate's inventory as you make excuses for your own behavior. The hypocrisy was astounding, and the author's lack of self-awareness had me wanting to scream.
Oh, and how can we forget the comment you left on Dana's blog regarding Kate? "Admittedly, it was not my most mature moment. I was just stirring the pot to get people engaged in conversation. I'm a bit of an antagonist."
Yes, you are, and the fact that you're owning that proudly amidst your self-righteous tirade against someone else really just sent any credibility I might have afforded to you down the toilet, buddy.
This book was just... It was terrible. The writing is terrible, and if you actually give a shit about whether or not the author is telling the truth, it's impossible to take seriously because the author is SO obviously biased that I can't take a word he's said as fact, except in where he has directly quoted or referenced things that I can go find on my own.
Had he maintained anything resembling professionalism in this book, it might have carried off better because people would have less reason to suspect that he's outright slandering the subject of this book.
Okay, first: Kate Gosselin is awful. I have plenty of information independent of this book to draw that conclusion. She is exploitative, she is abusive (to her ex-husband and her kids), and she is attention-hungry. Not debating those facts in any way.
However: This book was just... the WORST possible way to convey that.
1. This book was terribly written.
Robert Hoffman, look at me: Do not ever fucking write another book without a coauthor, or a team of editors.
I have noticed that people more accustomed to writing articles for newspapers or magazines (I believe the author said he worked for Us Weekly?) have a 50/50 chance of being... Really NOT good at writing books. It's a longer form of writing that requires a certain amount of organization and structure, whereas article writers tend to write in shorter form.
This book- or at least the kindle version- is 728 pages long. if you need a book for size comparison, Dan Simmons's The Terror is 784 pages. It's fucking LONG, and the author is so ridiculously disorganized in how he lines up his information that he bounces back and forth in time constantly and frequently rehashes things he's already talked about.
He goes into so much fucking minutiae about every single bad or mildly shady thing that Kate Gosselin has done. A better writer could have condensed that and organized it better throughout the story so that it didn't come across as a weirdo screaming about his hatred for someone on the sidewalk, but that is, incidentally, how it comes off.
Which leads nicely into my next point:
2. The author is blatantly, unapologetically biased against Kate Gosselin.
I cannot stress enough here that this book comes off as a gigantic, petty attack against Kate Gosselin. The way this book was written suggests to me that the author would not know professionalism and objectivity if it hit him broadside.
And for those of you whining "but she deserves it because she's bad!" Doesn't matter. This book is meant to persuade people that Kate is a bad person, but the author engages in so much snide ad hominems against her that even I began to feel like she was getting railroaded- and as I made it clear already, I don't like Kate Gosselin.
There was one particularly disgusting comment regarding Kate having gotten a boob job that I'll quote directly from my update: "Kate was, and I quote, looking "bra-less, standing firm, and looking fabulously slutty". This comes on the heels of the author encouraging the audience to go to a particular episode and pause on that scene, after calling her out for having a boob job."
That's something that an ass says. That is something a MASSIVE ass says.
Robert Hoffman, look at me: When a lot of the damning evidence you have in your book about Kate Gosselin is you PARAPHRASING her diary entries and emails, because you're concerned she'll try to sue you for copyright, you are asking us to trust that you have no embellished, misquoted, or misrepresented the spirit of what Kate has written.
And when I spend an entire goddamn book seeing you go for this woman's throat in the most unprofessional, blatantly biased way possible, I am going to begin to question whether or not you have embellished, misquoted, or misrepresented the spirit of what Kate has written.
If you had kept a neutral tone, if you had restricted your obvious bile for Kate to a few drops of sarcasm here and there, I might be less willing to side-eye you. But you didn't do that, and so now I'm questioning the evidence that you are not printing in full.
3. The author is blatantly, unapologetically biased towards Jon Gosselin.
Robert Hoffman is a friend to Jon Gosselin. He says this outright and implies it constantly throughout the book. This book is about Jon Gosselin's ex-wife. So naturally, that's a red flag: You're writing about your friend's ex-wife, obviously you will be biased in favor of your friend, and that means that a reader with anything resembling common sense and critical thinking skills is going to scrutinize how you talk about the two of them.
I have both, and noticed this just... Utter unwillingness to pin anything approaching equal blame to Jon for how things unfolded with the kids. There are so many examples of this in the book I've honestly lost count, but one in particular I remember clearly:
The author talks about how he sat down with one of the twins (iirc he didn't specify who) and offered to listen to some of her poetry. He says that she seems shocked than an adult would care about her writing and that clearly she was starved of attention.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this child has two parents, correct? And Jon is one of them? And so, as such, if she is starved of adult attention and clearly doesn't receive validation for her writing, that would reflect on both Kate AND JON, would it not??
But of course, the way the author frames this, 100% of the responsibility lies on Kate. Exploiting the kids lies on Kate (even though Jon willingly allowed the show to go on for years), the kids being allowed to live in an abusive household lies on Kate (even though Jon has 100% legal responsibility to intervene), exposing them to the public lies on Kate (even though Jon, according to the author, was FRIENDS WITH THE PAPARAZZI and allowed them to interact with the children occasionally).
All Kate, never Jon.
Author, you are so ridiculously biased in favor of Jon that it makes it impossible to take you seriously. How can I not take what you've written with a thousand grains of salt when you've proven in your writing that you will cut Jon all the slack in the world for his mistakes while hammering Kate on the minutiae of her mistakes?
4. The author's conduct in investigating Kate and the Gosselins was, at times, 100% over the line inappropriate.
Robert Hoffman admits- ADMITS!- to digging through their trash, following them around from place to place, taking photos of Kate in public (and then acting like she's a bitch for finding that irritating or intrusive), running with the paparazzi, and then CALLING them on one occasion to photograph Kate for once having a nice day at the playground with her kids.
Bro, you have got a megafuckton of nerve to complain about Kate exploiting her kids when you are literally part and parcel of the machine that is enabling that exploitation. You have a lot of goddamn nerve to act holier-than-thou (and oh CHRIST did he) and self-righteous in this book when you admit to running with paparazzi that were literally waiting outside a house to take photos of the children. Some of the shit the author says in this book about following Kate around, waiting at the bus stop for the kids to get off- it comes across as so fucking stalkerish, and it makes me wonder exactly how he distinguishes himself from the paparazzi.
Kate is terrible, but you were absolutely complicit in the children's exploitation and it is PEAK hypocrisy to be taking Kate's inventory as you make excuses for your own behavior. The hypocrisy was astounding, and the author's lack of self-awareness had me wanting to scream.
Oh, and how can we forget the comment you left on Dana's blog regarding Kate? "Admittedly, it was not my most mature moment. I was just stirring the pot to get people engaged in conversation. I'm a bit of an antagonist."
Yes, you are, and the fact that you're owning that proudly amidst your self-righteous tirade against someone else really just sent any credibility I might have afforded to you down the toilet, buddy.
This book was just... It was terrible. The writing is terrible, and if you actually give a shit about whether or not the author is telling the truth, it's impossible to take seriously because the author is SO obviously biased that I can't take a word he's said as fact, except in where he has directly quoted or referenced things that I can go find on my own.
Had he maintained anything resembling professionalism in this book, it might have carried off better because people would have less reason to suspect that he's outright slandering the subject of this book.
August 20, 2014
This is a difficult book to review. The author, Robert Hoffman, was a celeb magazine reporter assigned to the Gosselin family, so he has had quite a bit of access to them (especially Jon, who’s apparently a friend or at least acquaintance of his). The book is huge, at over 700 pages. It’s mostly not written in a narrative style, but more as a data dump: tons of Kate’s journal entries. Tons of tweets by Kate, grouped by topic. I found it interesting, since I’m fascinated by the whole Gosselin tale, but if you’re not, I can’t imagine wading through all this.
What did I learn? A few new assertions. One, that Kate had purposely set out to have sextuplets, and that she had possibly even adjusted the timing/amount of fertility drugs she was taking to increase her chances. It was interesting, although disheartening, to watch her descent from Christian, churchgoing mom to someone who actively worked to book speaking appearances at churches and take in thousands of dollars from them, playing poor while in her real life she had stopped going to church almost entirely and was far from needy anymore.
She allegedly treats her kids and dogs very badly — once leaving one of the dogs outside whimpering in the cold all night while mocking it through a glass door. Another time, leaving one of her boys outside without a coat in sub-freezing temps as punishment for some infraction.
Since her kids’ arrival (and possibly even earlier), she is all about the freebies. Apparently she wrote to Gymboree when the sextuplets were born, writing “if there is a way my children could be a help in marketing your clothing lines, we’re all for it!” An incident is noted of her shopping at a Gymboree store, realizing that a gift card Gymboree had given her had run out, and calling from the store to see if they could load more money onto it.
Sometimes, the book veers into the petty: criticizing Kate for typos and misspellings (which comes across badly as this book is full of them from the author as well). Kate is also criticized for wrapping the kids’ Christmas gifts in plain paper. Sorry, but although I fault her for many things, I’ll give her a pass on wrapping paper choice.
So, a long, winding look at a rather nasty personality. Can you think of another way you’d rather spend 700+ pages of reading?
I didn’t think so :)
What did I learn? A few new assertions. One, that Kate had purposely set out to have sextuplets, and that she had possibly even adjusted the timing/amount of fertility drugs she was taking to increase her chances. It was interesting, although disheartening, to watch her descent from Christian, churchgoing mom to someone who actively worked to book speaking appearances at churches and take in thousands of dollars from them, playing poor while in her real life she had stopped going to church almost entirely and was far from needy anymore.
She allegedly treats her kids and dogs very badly — once leaving one of the dogs outside whimpering in the cold all night while mocking it through a glass door. Another time, leaving one of her boys outside without a coat in sub-freezing temps as punishment for some infraction.
Since her kids’ arrival (and possibly even earlier), she is all about the freebies. Apparently she wrote to Gymboree when the sextuplets were born, writing “if there is a way my children could be a help in marketing your clothing lines, we’re all for it!” An incident is noted of her shopping at a Gymboree store, realizing that a gift card Gymboree had given her had run out, and calling from the store to see if they could load more money onto it.
Sometimes, the book veers into the petty: criticizing Kate for typos and misspellings (which comes across badly as this book is full of them from the author as well). Kate is also criticized for wrapping the kids’ Christmas gifts in plain paper. Sorry, but although I fault her for many things, I’ll give her a pass on wrapping paper choice.
So, a long, winding look at a rather nasty personality. Can you think of another way you’d rather spend 700+ pages of reading?
I didn’t think so :)
September 8, 2014
Interesting read. It was free with Amazon Prime so I gave it a read. I wasn't a huge fan of Jon and Kate Plus 8, but I have seen many episodes. The material in the book is eye opening. The author spent two years of his life essentially stalking Kate Gosselin. He went through her trash, followed her to her daily trips to the UPS store, Planet Nails, and tanning. The shocker for me is the evidence supporting the claim that Kate Gosselin never had any fertility problems, in fact she purposely dosed herself extra shots of HCG to better her chances of extreme multiples. She lied to several fertility doctors about having PCOS. Fascinating read. It did get a bit repetitive. I am most haunted by her treatment of her two German Shepards, of course. There is also much speculation of her rumored affair with her bodyguard. Kate Gosselin goes through family members, nannies, and babysitters like its nothing. Also amusing is the fact that the author would be watching Kate as she tweeted about doing things with her kids while a nanny was actually the one doing the activity with the kids. Such as an elaborate Easter egg hunt she tweeted about for weeks. Robert watched as 1200 already filled Easter eggs were delivered to the home and distributed by paid workers while Kate drank wine. It is a rather long read, but definitely was interesting. It will definitely be interesting to find out what the Gosselin children have to say once they turn 18 and can speak out against Kate.
September 17, 2014
In the beginning of this book, the author states that his book had flaws. That being said, no one should have expected a great literary read.
That being said, I really liked the premise of this book. I have stated for a very long time that reality tv truly bothered me. Let's talk about Dance Mom's. Why can't someone become a Guardian ad Litem for those kids and take them away from the abusive half wit dance teacher and their equally half witted moms.
Why should irresponsible teen mom's get their own reality show and be made famous for being a dumb ass?
And why should a woman who plans to get pregnant with 6 babies be made famous. I know a lot of mom's who have one or two kids and have problems ...... why this dumb ass should be famous is beyond me.
I think Robert Hoffman did a wonderful job exposing Kate Gosselin and her evil wicked ways. Now if this book could be used for good and take her kids away from her.....that would make this book great.
Post Script - Goodreads offers book suggestions based on "Because You Read". Because I read this book - they suggested I read a book called "Love You - Mean It" Its about a group of 9/11 widows. Now those are moms who deserve help. Those are mom's who truly deserve the assistance this woman is getting and more. I can't even fathom how angry and insulted I am that this woman is worth 6 figures a year and is a celebrity.
That being said, I really liked the premise of this book. I have stated for a very long time that reality tv truly bothered me. Let's talk about Dance Mom's. Why can't someone become a Guardian ad Litem for those kids and take them away from the abusive half wit dance teacher and their equally half witted moms.
Why should irresponsible teen mom's get their own reality show and be made famous for being a dumb ass?
And why should a woman who plans to get pregnant with 6 babies be made famous. I know a lot of mom's who have one or two kids and have problems ...... why this dumb ass should be famous is beyond me.
I think Robert Hoffman did a wonderful job exposing Kate Gosselin and her evil wicked ways. Now if this book could be used for good and take her kids away from her.....that would make this book great.
Post Script - Goodreads offers book suggestions based on "Because You Read". Because I read this book - they suggested I read a book called "Love You - Mean It" Its about a group of 9/11 widows. Now those are moms who deserve help. Those are mom's who truly deserve the assistance this woman is getting and more. I can't even fathom how angry and insulted I am that this woman is worth 6 figures a year and is a celebrity.
February 1, 2015
The author admits within the first few pages, that this is not a literary masterpiece and that's most definitely true.
It's a very repetitive read; there are many sections within the books that are reprinted over and over and over (ok, that's an overstatement, but the most I've read the same paragraph within the book, was about 4 times). This is probably only noticable if you finish the book within a couple of days and don't stretch it out. Without all those repetitive sections, the book would probably be 100 pages shorter. Now if all the twitter "conversations" could have also been condensed to a bare minimum another 30 pages could have been spared.
It's also a very negative and disturbing read. I felt sorry for the kids quite a lot and many "stories" printed within this book... well, I just hope were over embellished.
So, why did I read this book? Because I picked it for my reading list of 2015.
Why did I pick it in the first place? Because I've watched the occasional episode of Kate Plus 8 and never quite warmed up to all that good, happy, family image on screen and figured let's see what the real story might be.
Would I pick it again? No, definitely not.
Why not? Two reasons: 1) it's a very depressing read. 2) it's way too long and needs a good editor to get the stories and probably the structur in order.
It's a very repetitive read; there are many sections within the books that are reprinted over and over and over (ok, that's an overstatement, but the most I've read the same paragraph within the book, was about 4 times). This is probably only noticable if you finish the book within a couple of days and don't stretch it out. Without all those repetitive sections, the book would probably be 100 pages shorter. Now if all the twitter "conversations" could have also been condensed to a bare minimum another 30 pages could have been spared.
It's also a very negative and disturbing read. I felt sorry for the kids quite a lot and many "stories" printed within this book... well, I just hope were over embellished.
So, why did I read this book? Because I picked it for my reading list of 2015.
Why did I pick it in the first place? Because I've watched the occasional episode of Kate Plus 8 and never quite warmed up to all that good, happy, family image on screen and figured let's see what the real story might be.
Would I pick it again? No, definitely not.
Why not? Two reasons: 1) it's a very depressing read. 2) it's way too long and needs a good editor to get the stories and probably the structur in order.
March 9, 2015
Who cares about Kate?
If the writer and all the literally hundreds of people are so sure there is child abuse going on, WHY HASN'T ANYONE CALLED CPS?
If this so-called abuse is truly harmful to the kids, then surely it's time to put in NUMEROUS REPORTS to Child Protective Services. Failing that, I have to think this is nothing more than a smear campaign.
I watched the show a few times, saw Kate but just wasn't my cuppa tea. I'm no big Kate fan but in this "expose" most of what I read are one person's interpretations of her conduct. Felt like he was nitpicking her to death!
IF THOSE CHILDREN ARE IN ANY DANGER AND NO ONE DOES ANYTHING TO HELP, knowing the abuse was there, then ALL are guilty for allowing it to occur while they did nothing but kept profiting off them. They are equally at fault for seeing the exploitation and doing nothing! All, including the author, are criminally negligent and ... just as cruel to those kids, if not MORE so than Kate. They KNOW but do nothing. Worst buncha hypocrites I've ever seen.
DO SOMETHING PROACTIVE FOR THOSE CHILDREN, IF THERE'S ANY ABUSE GOING ON. PERIOD!
If the writer and all the literally hundreds of people are so sure there is child abuse going on, WHY HASN'T ANYONE CALLED CPS?
If this so-called abuse is truly harmful to the kids, then surely it's time to put in NUMEROUS REPORTS to Child Protective Services. Failing that, I have to think this is nothing more than a smear campaign.
I watched the show a few times, saw Kate but just wasn't my cuppa tea. I'm no big Kate fan but in this "expose" most of what I read are one person's interpretations of her conduct. Felt like he was nitpicking her to death!
IF THOSE CHILDREN ARE IN ANY DANGER AND NO ONE DOES ANYTHING TO HELP, knowing the abuse was there, then ALL are guilty for allowing it to occur while they did nothing but kept profiting off them. They are equally at fault for seeing the exploitation and doing nothing! All, including the author, are criminally negligent and ... just as cruel to those kids, if not MORE so than Kate. They KNOW but do nothing. Worst buncha hypocrites I've ever seen.
DO SOMETHING PROACTIVE FOR THOSE CHILDREN, IF THERE'S ANY ABUSE GOING ON. PERIOD!
April 26, 2015
Although I do think the author backed up some of his claims (well if you buy his claim to journals and diaries, so I should rephrase to he claims he can back up) and admit to his enlightening me to many things on the Gosselin drama, I think the truth is probably more somewhere in the middle. The author had an obvious prejudice and dislike of Kate, made excuses for Jon (even when admitting Jon had done wrong as well) and kind of came across as condescending (Please let me have spelt that right, as the author is quick to point out misspellings, even if it was to pick at Kate) and as if he was the perfect parent. I am no Kate fan, especially after this reading, but cannot be a fan of this author either. The writing is terrible, some things repeated so often that I could probably say them verbatim now, and the tone is just snotty. I did not come away feeling that he wrote this for the kids. I came away feeling he was crazy judgemental and that hurt a bit of his credibility. This book feels like
"Papparazi" and all the negative stuff that goes along with that, even if you can totally buy the truth of the statements.
"Papparazi" and all the negative stuff that goes along with that, even if you can totally buy the truth of the statements.
May 25, 2015
The author and the publisher should be hung from their toes. If you enjoy lies, gossip, more lies, melodrama, more lies and poor writing, this might just be your book. I am certainly not a big fan of Kate Gosselin, but the lengths in which this writer went to get this POS book written and published astounds me. Don't waste your time reading this book. Seriously, who could condemn a single mother of eight for trying to plan and organize their life. That being said, I never enjoyed seeing her treat Jon the way she did on the TV show, and I actually felt sorry for him for having to put up with such a shrew. And I suspect that she has a controlling, nasty streak when dealing with assistants and filming crews etc...but anyone who believes the malicious gossip in this this book is grossly naïve. I also suspect that there isn't a parent on the face of this earth that wouldn't shrink away in horror to have a writer, gather enough gossip and blow everything way out of proportion for sensationalism to publish a book like this on them.
Read
August 18, 2014This book deserves no star. This mean-spirited diatribe against Kate Gosselin is a continuation of a vendetta against Gosselin that the author and his wife began shortly after the sextuplets were born. While stalking her in person and on the internet for years, his close proximity to his subject does not given him the ability to put words in her mouth and thoughts in her head. There is absolutely nothing truthful about this book. He even lift rumors from hate blogs and presents them as fact. Collecting all this info does not make it true, even if he does manage to interview anyone he can who hates Kate Gosselin. The author claims to be doing this for the Gosselin children. There is NOTHING in the trashcan of a book that will help anyone! Don't waste your time or money.
August 2, 2017
I guess I believe some of this, but certainly not all of it. Just because the author SAYS he has Kate's diaries doesn't mean he actually has them. Everyone can lie, not just Kate! Also, if the children were being abused and people knew about it, they could make an anonymous call to the authorities and not worry about contracts and such. So, I just don't know if I can believe that she is truly abusing them. Robert says she wrote that she wanted to hurt her children, but we don't know for sure she wrote that! However, I do believe she exploited her children. You don't need diaries to prove that. It went way too far and the producers of the show are to blame more than anyone or anything.
February 28, 2015
I'm really not sure if I am going to finish this book. First of all this book seems to be written all in the personal opinion of the author. The "information" he reveals in the book is all circumstantial and filtered to his opinion. Pretty much he observed the family and found some old computer stuff with some of Kate's diaries, emails, etc. Then because of "fear" of lawsuit he paraphrased tons of the book and gets information from mysterious "sources'. We all get that Kate can be harsh and that the show probably isn't all reality but really there is nothing shockingly bad that can be proved or isn't filtered through the authors view. I used to be a teacher and I can see both sides but really this is just a huge book on how Kate G is a bad person.
March 30, 2015
Anything that exposes Kate Gosselin as a shrew has done its job in my mind, so it's unclear to me why everyone is hung up on how this book was written. The author mentions early on that he did not have an editor because self-publishing is expensive. He wrote this book to expose someone who was very carefully guarded.
Anyone who has seen Kate Gosselin in action will know that she's a grifter and a sub-standard parent. The glaring lies, the truth spinning and the blatant contradictions are crystal clear. The author did a good job of exposing all of her ugliness.
I have no issues with reality TV, but Kate Gosselin treated everyone around her terribly, all while making money on the backs of her eight innocent children. It's a tragedy that we allow such things to happen.
Anyone who has seen Kate Gosselin in action will know that she's a grifter and a sub-standard parent. The glaring lies, the truth spinning and the blatant contradictions are crystal clear. The author did a good job of exposing all of her ugliness.
I have no issues with reality TV, but Kate Gosselin treated everyone around her terribly, all while making money on the backs of her eight innocent children. It's a tragedy that we allow such things to happen.
February 25, 2015
horrible book, paparazzi wrote it
This was written by paparazzi who even admits to going through Kate's trash. I wasn't a fan of hers to begin with but I am now. Poor woman has an overwhelming life and shouldn't be judged for every parenting flaw, spanking, and personality conflicts. Don't waste your time. He claims the kids suffer horrible abuse....yet not one of the 100s of camera crew, helpers, and hired staff have ever mentioned it or filed a complaint. Is Kate always pleasant? Nope! I have twins and they drive me nuts some days. I'm not always pleasant either! Claiming she planned her sextuplets and never had issues getting pregnant....just crazy. In the end I wasted time reading this. Don't waste yours too.
This was written by paparazzi who even admits to going through Kate's trash. I wasn't a fan of hers to begin with but I am now. Poor woman has an overwhelming life and shouldn't be judged for every parenting flaw, spanking, and personality conflicts. Don't waste your time. He claims the kids suffer horrible abuse....yet not one of the 100s of camera crew, helpers, and hired staff have ever mentioned it or filed a complaint. Is Kate always pleasant? Nope! I have twins and they drive me nuts some days. I'm not always pleasant either! Claiming she planned her sextuplets and never had issues getting pregnant....just crazy. In the end I wasted time reading this. Don't waste yours too.
July 2, 2020
I am honestly APPALLED at the amount of hate this book gets. Robert Hoffman literally took the time and did the research to expose Kate Gosselin, who we already know is a liar, manipulator, among other horrible things. So what if a lot of her tweets are in this book. He is showing PROOF of how she treated the kids, and hopefully her supporters who are so "Pro Kate" need to wake up and read this. I am also really glad that I read this before I read "What I want you to know" or whatever. Hoffman shows the hypocrisy and how she mentions one thing in her journal while leaving out major details in her letters.
I applaud Robert Hoffman for writing his truth about what he saw. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
I applaud Robert Hoffman for writing his truth about what he saw. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
August 24, 2014
I randomly found this book on Amazon as a "others who read this one book read this other book, too" suggestion. I firmly believe the content of this book is true. I used to be a big fan of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" but Kate Gosselin made me uncomfortable after a while. When I spotted this book, I was intrigued. I was also able to borrow it for free from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library on Amazon, so why not?
The content of the book rings true but the book itself is in need of an editor. The grammatical errors and repetitive nature of the content really detract from the book, which is too bad, since the message is one that should be taken seriously. Very seriously.
The content of the book rings true but the book itself is in need of an editor. The grammatical errors and repetitive nature of the content really detract from the book, which is too bad, since the message is one that should be taken seriously. Very seriously.
July 6, 2014
I give this book three stars. Had a lot of information it was hard to read..but not hard to believe. Kate didn't want this book published and went so far as to copy write her journal entires thus admitting them to be her true actual thoughts and actions. This book was self published and is obvious there isn't always a clear timeline and much information is repeated through out the book. However, it covers, links and refers to many things you can pull up and read/watch for yourself. Read it to form your own conclusions it's priced at 8.88 (no,seriously)
August 24, 2014
I dont normally write reviews for books but I had to write something for this book. It was painful to read. The topic is horrible, but it was the writing that made it painful. This is a very long book that did not need to be half the length it is. He repeats the same stories over and over. You can feel the writer's disdain for Kate Gosselin radiating off the 'page'. I finished the book because I hate to leave a book started but not finished. I am glad I read it via Kindle Unlimited though and did not pay for it directly. Very very disappointing.
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