Bestselling author Jodi Picoult has criticised the New York Times for focusing on "white male literary darlings" in its book coverage, following Michiko Kakutani's rave review of Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom.

Earlier this week Kakutani's review of the novel – Franzen's first since his 2001 hit The Corrections – praised its "visceral and lapidary" prose, calling the author "as adept at adolescent comedy ... as he is at grown-up tragedy" and applauding "his ability to throw open a big, Updikean picture window on American middle-class life".

"[He's] completed his own transformation from a sharp-elbowed, apocalyptic satirist focused on sending up the socio-economic-political plight of this country into a kind of 19th-century realist concerned with the public and private lives of his characters," wrote the influential reviewer about the novel, in a huge change of heart from her dissection of Franzen's memoir The Discomfort Zone in 2006, which she called "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass: petulant, pompous, obsessive, selfish and overwhelmingly self-absorbed".

Picoult, whose popular novels of everyday people facing awful dilemmas have sold more than 12m copies worldwide but are largely overlooked by the literary establishment, was quick to respond. "NYT raved about Franzen's new book. Is anyone shocked?" she wrote on Twitter. "Would love to see the NYT rave about authors who aren't white male literary darlings." For every review of authors such as Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat or the Dominican-American Pulitzer winner Junot Díaz, "there are 10 Lethems and Franzens," she added later.

Picoult also criticised Kakutani's use of the word "lapidary". "Did you know what [it] meant when you read it in Kakutani's review? I think reviewers just like to look smart," she tweeted.

As well as Kakutani's Franzen piece, the most recent fiction reviews in the New York Times range from a piece on Gorky Park author Martin Cruz Smith's latest novel Three Stations to critiques of Norwegian novelist Per Petterson's I Curse the River of Time and Suzanne Rivecca's debut story collection Death Is Not an Option, along with shorter pieces on Ann Weisgarber's Orange-longlisted The Personal History of Rachel DuPree and Helen Grant's debut novel The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. Chick lit fails to make an appearance.

Contacted by blog the NYT Picker, Picoult reaffirmed her view that "the Times favours white male authors. That isn't to say someone else might get a good review – only that if you are white and male and living in Brooklyn you have better odds, or so it seems".

"The NYT has long made it clear that they value literary fiction and disdain commercial fiction – and they disparage it regardless of race or gender of the author," said the author. "I'm not commenting on one specific critic or even on my own reviews (which are few and far between because I write commercial fiction). How else can the Times explain the fact that white male authors are ROUTINELY assigned reviews in both the Sunday review section AND the daily book review section (often both raves) while so many other writers go unnoticed by their critics?"

But she rejected the blog's claim that her disgruntlement stemmed from poor reviews of her own work in the paper: in 2008 a reviewer said she had written her novel Change of Heart "on authorial autopilot". Posting her email response to the blog online "in the effort of truth in journalism", Picoult insisted that "nowhere in here do I criticise Ms Kakutani, rant, or suggest that my comment (which really was just that - a COMMENT) was precipitated by the fact that I don't get rave reviews from the NYT. Just stating an opinion, as I see it, about those to whom the NYT chooses to devote inches of print".

Her feelings were backed up by bestselling chick-lit writer Jennifer Weiner, author of In Her Shoes. "Carl Hiaasen doesn't have to chose between getting a Times review and being a bestseller. Why should I? Oh, right. #girlparts," she wrote on Twitter. "Books read by men – mysteries, thrillers, horror – at least maybe they'll be noticed, whether author male or female. Books read by women – romance, chick lit, commercial fic, whatever – rarely get noticed. When they do, reviews often ignorant."

Later, she added: "NYT loves its literary darlings, who tend to be dudes w/MFAs ... In summation: NYT sexist, unfair, loves Gary Shteyngart, hates chick lit, ignores romance. And now, to go weep into my royalty statement."

Over the last year Twitter has become a popular spot for authors to respond to critics. Last June, novelist Alice Hoffman tweeted that "Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron" following a poor review in the paper, going on to publish the reviewer's phone number and email address. "We writers don't have to say nothing when someone tries to destroy us," she added. "I love that writers have a way to talk back now."