Is Goodreads down? Outage reports for book review site continue

WASHINGTON — Goodreads appeared to be down for many users in an hours-long outage impacting the book-focused website on Monday and Tuesday.

The Amazon-owned site, which allows users to keep track of the books they're reading and post reviews, was down for users throughout the day Monday, according to outage tracker Downdetector. Outage reports appeared to begin around 4 p.m. ET and continued into late night hours, peaking at more than 1,800 shortly before 10 p.m. ET.

While some users said they were able to access Goodreads again early Tuesday, others reported spotty connections. Several hundred outage reports reemerged Tuesday morning, per Downdetector.

“Goodreads is down for maintenance. We expect to be back within minutes. Please try again soon!” a message on the site read Tuesday morning.

What prompted the site's maintenance remains unclear. Goodreads did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for statement Tuesday morning.

The outages impacted both the Goodreads website and app, according to Downdetector reports and posts on social media. In addition to the maintenance notice, others said they received error messages about Goodreads' servers possibly exceeding capacity.

Goodreads responded to a handful of frustrated users on Twitter Monday night and early Tuesday, noting that the site was “working to correct the issue as quickly as possible.”

Goodreads, which calls itself the “world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations,” has more than 120 million users worldwide, according to Time.

In recent years, the website has faced strong criticism over content moderation and the dangers of "review bombing." On Monday, for example, The New York Times published a story unpacking how Goodreads reviews can derail a book's success before it's published.