Plagiarism, Apologies and Bullshit

31 August, 2015 Musing Musers 56 comments

ctrl-c-ctrl-v-plagiarism-fc1dd4I haven’t wrote an exposé in a long time, and to be honest, thought I’d never have to do something like this again because the backlash at outing someone is the fucking worst. But guys, I am going to take that risk. I’m going to put it all out there despite the fact some people are going to label me a hateful bully. But I do this not because I’m trying to harass someone. It’s because she has stolen from myself and other bloggers — over 15 others. And I can’t just take the shit lying down.

A blogger’s commodity is their voice, words, opinions and ideas. It’s what makes us stand apart and how we express ourselves. For some, it’s even a livelihood and a business. For others, it’s an outlet, a way of revealing your true self to others. And I don’t know about you, but I leave pieces of myself in my reviews (or anything I write for that matter). It’s personal, therapeutic, entertaining, enlightening, refreshing and everything in between. In many ways, we share this with the authors of our favorite books, just on a smaller scale.

So when someone steals this from you, your voice — YOU — it sparks justifiable rage. Journey with me down the rabbit hole.

**I want to give lots of cyber hugs to the person who tipped me off to this whole shebang. She doesn’t want to be named, but I want you all to know how much I, and many others, appreciate her speaking up about this issue. Thank you.**

Part 1: Plagiarism

Let me tell you guys a little story about a blogger named Samantha Reed, who blogs over at Reeds Reviews and Goodreads. Sometime last week, I caught wind that my review of Anne & Henry was copied word for word (I won’t post it in this post because it’s long and has images, but click the link if you must. The review is not yet live on CB.). And I’ll admit it, my first reaction was laughter. I’ll never understand the mindset of a plagiarist and it just baffles me that someone would do it like, “Yeah, this is cool. No one will ever know.” LOL. I mean, are you for real?

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Plagiarism isn’t new to the book blogging community. We’ve seen it rear its ugly head here and there and it’s never pleasant. But we all know what to do. We take screenshots and try to handle it privately before resorting to bigger measures. However, in this case, things went a little differently when Christina (Reader of Fictions) noticed another one of Samantha’s reviews… one that looked shockingly like Emily May‘s review of Vengeance Road.

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If you read through Samantha’s review, you’ll see pieces of Emily’s review. I’m also inclined to believe that other parts were taken from other reviewers, but I didn’t confirm this. Trust me, there’s more where this came from.

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And then Christina found Jess‘s review of Red Queen and it just made me slow blink.

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Notice huge chunks of copied text:

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At this point, I’m thinking to myself, WTF. So I started looking more closely at her other reviews and found LOADS more.

Larry‘s review of Another Day:

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Alyssa‘s (Eater of Books) review of The Accident Season:

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Larger images of these reviews can be found here.

Samantha also lifted:

EDIT: More review found after this post went live.

After seeing all this, my mind was blown. How anyone thought this was okay, was beyond me and I really wanted to warn others of this Review Thief pillaging our content. So I tweeted about it and publicly encouraged others to flag the reviews on Goodreads to try and get them removed.

This seemed to work great because Samantha herself removed some 40+ reviews and removed all reviews from her blog. Think about that. I have only talked about 15 reviewers affected in this post. Yet, she removed 40+, leaving herself with around 20 still remaining. In that time, she also deleted her twitter, re-instated it and tweeted that she was being harassed. (Screenshot unavailable because Meg dropped the ball.) Yeah, okay. But she then tried to continue on like nothing happened.

Part 2: Apologies

Rosy and Alyssa had contacted Samantha and had received apologies with the usual blanket statements. I personally had not contacted her because I was just so angry, I didn’t trust myself to send a coherent email. Plus, what is there really to say? So Rosy tells me that Samantha has no idea who all the people who she stole from are and that she’s trying to find them to personally apologize. Naturally, that sent me into another rage, and I decided it was time for me to take my angry self to bed before my head exploded.

The next day, I woke up to an email in my inbox from Samantha, apologizing for what she’d done. At least, that’s what she thought she was doing. I’ve not responded to the email because it’s so insulting and I’m at a loss for words. I wonder why? OH YEAH. THEY WERE STOLEN.

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EDIT: It appears that this is the exact same letter Rosy got from Samantha, minus the las paragraph about Australia. Guys, I don’t live in Australia.

Which leads us to…

Part 3: Bullshit

Maybe up until this point I would, some might say I’m being mean for not accepting her apology. After all she’d taken down all the reviews, right? I even started doubting myself, because even though I truly did not believe Samantha’s apology, at least she tried to apologize and make amends. But my gut just continued to disagree, and maybe this is the natural cynic in me. But I put those feelings in a little shoebox, on the top shelf of a closet in my mind. For peace, I would leave this alone and move on.

I was feeling grateful that the situation didn’t appear to get out of hand and was pleased that other bloggers assisted in getting the plagiarized content removed.

Or so I thought.

The next day, I found out about Bonnie and Giselle’s review of All the Rage was still up. Later, she took down it after this exchange:

A slight tremor went off in my mind, and my little shoebox of frustration and disgust rattled. But, again, I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she missed one of the reviews when taking the others down. It is says something when you have so many plagiarized reviews up, that you can’t even remember which ones are plagiarized, but I digress.

But guys, the worst happened. Yesterday night, I discovered she was re-uploading several of the reviews that she stole. Yes. I can’t believe it either. Any and all excuses I tired to make for Samantha immediately flew out the window. As I sat and re-read those remixed reviews, several things happened simultaneously: That little shoebox fell off its shelf. An earthquake suddenly rocked through me. I raged across my living room floor until lava oozed from my carpet and burned my house down. I was livid.

Essentially, these re-added reviews (around 20 something) were rephrased and reworded, but considering I had screenshots of the originals vs the first batch of plagiarized reviews vs these new plagiarized reviews… it was pretty obvious where she had gotten her “inspiration.” In some of the instances, she still used direct sentences. The audacity!

Re-mixed plagiarized reviews (click for screenshots):

Another Day
Everything, Everything 
The Accident Season
The Fixer
A Whole New World

This is also when I first discovered the reviews of The Foxglove Killings and Naked (perviously linked), so I don’t have screenshots of the first ones that were uploaded. BUT WHAT THE HELL? Why on earth would she upload them again? You can clearly tell they follow the same pattern and thought process of the original reviews.

But the thing that gets me was the fact that she “learned her lesson,” “is prepared for the consequences,” “is truly sorry.” And yet, she went right back and did it again a day later. I honestly wouldn’t put it past her to steal other content.

And that brings us to the reason for this post. At the writing of this post, Samantha Reed has set her Goodreads to private, removed some reviews (but I am unsure which), and changed her twitter to @BookReeds (EDIT: She has either changed her twitter handle or deleted it entirely). The purpose of me sharing all this info is spread awareness to the reviewing community. This is an individual that will continue to steal any review she wants. She has proven that she has a blatant disregard for the intellectual property of her peers and does not deserve my respect or forgiveness whatsoever. She sure as hell doesn’t deserve our community. 

56 Responses to “Plagiarism, Apologies and Bullshit”

  2. Emily May

    Wow… just wow 🙁
    Thank you for spreading awareness about this, Steph. I initially thought she was borrowing text to pad out her reviews, but I just noticed that her first A Whole New World review, plagiarized from Alyssa, contains a paragraph from my review too. I doubt she’s produced a single word of her own!
    I received an apology and wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt… *sigh*

  4. Briana @ Pages Unbound

    I haven’t been on Twitter for several days, so I missed all this when it was first happening. I just emailed Samantha about my plagiarized review which is still on Goodreads and I am waiting for a response.

    The author thanked her for the review on August 5, so it was at least on her blog then. I don’t know when she added it to Goodreads, but the time stamp says Aug. 30 so she either uploaded it after already being accused of plagiarism or edited it then, knowing it was plagiarized, even though I had not yet confronted her about it.

  5. Evelyn @ Books With Chemistry

    A very mean part of me hope that every single book bloggers know of her reputation and not welcome her into the book world. She shouldn’t even continue to be a blogger tbh. I hope her blog never has audiences because she sure as hell do not deserve them. I know I’m being mean but fuck it. She’s pathetic for stealing other people’s works which they worked hard for!

    I get that she apologized. Knowing me, I’d probably forgive her and move on. But if she steals again the next day then wow… she better be prepared to face a lot of wraths.

    Ugh I’m so pissed on behalf of all of you.. is this even normal hahaha

  6. BRITTANY T

    This is so so sad. Clearly this doesn’t know up from down or right from wrong. I personally loved the part where she invited you to “beat her ass”. It is such a disgrace to try to pass someone else’s words as your own. Have some damn integrity and respect for others. You should be proud of what you write. I so sorry for you guys and my living would have went to freaky lava and brimstone as well. This turns my tummy. It reminds me of a saying my grandfather drilled into our heads, “when you take short cuts, you get cut short” hope her short cuts were worth losing the respect of the ENTIRE bookish community. You are the weakest link girl…goodbye!
    Huggles to you for attempting to let it go. Sad she didn’t take that chance when she had it.
    ❤️Britt @ please feed the bookworm

  7. Joséphine Simone

    I was so shocked when I first saw your tweets, Steph! Like, what does a person gain from plagiarising all these book reviews? Popularity? Recognition? ARCs? She should’ve known that someone in the community would notice and that would be the end of it. And to send out an apology email only to turn 180º on that is just sad.

    Hopefully this one will truly be the last exposé you have to write and it’ll serve as a lesson to anyone who has ever so much as considered plagiarising.

  8. Lisa (Fic Talk)

    Wow. I missed all the drama. Apparently this chick is seriously bold-faced enough to lie to you all via email that she’s sorry but in reality is not.

    I’m still baffled as to why anyone would even plagiarise reviews – and it was because she noticed hers were too short in comparison. *head tilt* Huh?

    SMH.

  9. Karina @ A Reader Under The Sea

    I swear why would she even waste her time taking several paragraphs from different blogger’s reviews. She’s just wasting her time and it’s not going to get her anywhere. Why even start a book blog if that’s all she’s going to do? She probably thought she was being smart by combining several reviews from different bloggers. And her apology just sounds like bullshit. I doubt any of her reviews she ever “wrote” are hers.

  10. Fangs for the Fantasy

    ZOMG YOU HATEFUL BULLY

    More sensibly – of course this needs calling out. Reviewing is work – it’s something a reviewer has created, often worked very hard on and put in a lot of time to create out spaces and our body of work. Yes it matters when someone steals that, it matters when someone turns out thoughts, our efforts, our works and, yes, our voice and takes it as their own. That is not ok – just because someone is plagiarising reviews and not books does not make it any less egregious an act

    And, to be honest, I don’t particularly rate apologies in these instances, sure it’s nice she admitted fault – but it’s not like this is an “honest mistake” or anything other than a pre-meditated, malicious act on their part. How does a word make that… ok? How can you steal from someone, pass their work off as your own and then make it all go away by copy & pasting an apology? This is certainly not a mistake or honest error or similar even where an apology would address matters. And I call bullshit on the idea that this makes amends – ceasing your blatantly wrong activity does not make AMENDS for said activity.

  11. Jaime

    I was appalled at this when I was tagged in it last week- she had taken word for word our review of Legacy of Kings and a portion of our review for Naked and used them – I never (nor did my sister) see any such apology.
    She’s back on Twitter saying she was being harassed on the other account with no remorse at all. She’s actually asking people to help get her name back out there AND she has now made her goodreads profile private. Which makes me wonder what else she’s stealing and from where.
    It’s so disappointing when someone does something like this… We joked about it this past week but it just makes me cranky.

  13. Kristin @ Simply Bookish Things

    THIS IS DISGUSTING! I had heard about this but I did not realize how many reviews she stole!!! I am at a loss for words! I can never understand people who do this? is it because they’re to lazy? or becuase they don’t think they can write? EVEN IT IS FOR THOSE REASONS THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE! I a feeling your rage right now and I really hope that blogger (not that we can at all call her that, doesn’t deserve that title! *glares*) ASDFGHJKL. I really hope she is somehow taken down PERMANENTLY.
    *gives you a triple chocolate cake*

  14. Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic

    You know, it makes me so freaking angry when people plagiarize. I would be devastated if my reviews were copied. Some reviews take me hours to write and I pour my heart and soul into it, it’s so true what you said that it’s our voices that are basically being stolen from us and people have NO RIGHT to reproduce someone else’s thoughts and feelings as their own. It’s also so sad that people would have been willing to forgive her had she not gone and posted them all again the next day. How can someone do something like that?!

    Thank you so much for notifying us of this! <3

  15. Libertad

    Wow this is insane! Why in the hell would anyone do this? If you’re no longer plagiarizing why set your profile to private??? Thanks for keeping everyone informed!

  16. Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit

    Holy eff. I’m terrified. The fact that she made her GR profile private means she could be stealing from anyone, anywhere at this time. I’m horrified that she apologized then re-uploaded her so called “reviews” – look, lady, if you don’t have time to review, then take a break. Is it THAT important that she gets things up on time? Is she just trying to get free books from the publisher without doing any work? I’m mystified as to the reason for this.

    Do you guys know what name she’s tweeting under now? I really want to warn people – I’m appalled for all of my friends who got their words and opinions stolen, and worried for everyone else.

    • Briana @ Pages Unbound

      As angry as I am about the whole thing, I don’t want to be *directly* responsible for sending people to her Twitter account. But I will say she keeps using clearly identifiable usernames, instead of trying to start over with something from scratch.

  17. Hannah @ The Irish Banana Review

    Having been there when you first found out about this and seeing how it just totally devolved, I can’t even deal with this girl. Like, come on. COME ON. The book community is not the community to plagiarize. This post was awesome and she needed to be called out.

  18. Beth W

    The only logical reason I can come up with for plagiarizing reviews is that she’s trying to bulk her blog and GR in order to appeal as a reviewer to publishers (to get free books). Because, really….nothing else makes sense. So that’s actually theft AND misrepresentation. A thief and a liar who is deliberately manipulating others….this is clearly a stellar person. Why do we even believe this account/blog is owned by someone of that gender, name, age, appearance, etc.? I disbelieve there’s anything genuine at all happening there, and although I know in my heart that they’ll continue to get away with this bullshit (cynical victim of piracy, here), I appreciate you calling attention to it.

  19. Mel@thedailyprophecy

    She took my review from A court of thorns and roses and added other parts to it, probably from another blogger. I approached her on Goodreads and she immediately took the review down saying ‘she was sorry for the hassle.’ I was honestly so mad I never responded back, because damn, that is no apology for stealing someone’s thoughts.

  20. Tricia

    At this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if she googled “apologies for acts of plagiarism” and copied and pasted someone else’s apology. What a joke!

  21. Cristina @ As Dreams Are Made

    I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand I’m incredibly angry and on the other I just feel sorry for her. I started blogging (as I’m sure many of us did) to have our OWN voices heard; to create an outlet where our PERSONAL thoughts, opinions, and ideas can be shared with whoever wanted to read them. If she feels that her own voice is not worth hearing than what is the point of doing it? It takes a lot of time, energy and WORK to do what we do. We all know that. We do it because we love it. We love the community and the friendships we’ve built. If someone doesn’t have the self confidence to do this themselves then I can’t imagine what other areas of her life are suffering for it.

  22. Rachel

    I would be so pissed at her! It takes me forever to come up with reviews sometimes, especially if it was particularly long or the subject matter is difficult to describe, and to have someone blatantly steal it and then try to cover it up is just insane!

  23. Cassie

    Wow! I hope she stops that! It makes me mad to think about her.

  24. Lea @ YA Book Queen

    Well, this is a frustrating situation for everyone involved. I’ll never understand why some people feel as though it is okay to plagiarize (and to take them down / put them back up – why go through all that effort? Just read the book, and write a review or not).

    Hope this post & awareness will put an end to it.

  25. Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight

    First, thank you SO MUCH for alerting the community to this. This should never, ever be something you’d have to do.

    Because (which brings me to point two)… if you don’t like writing reviews, or don’t want to, or whatever, you know, don’t. Last I checked, book reviewing wasn’t some kind of mandatory requirement for citizenship so.. why bother? It’s infuriating that she’d take the words from someone who is so passionate about the books, and pours their time into reviews, just so she could maybe grab a few ARCs? Was that her endgame?

    I am so sorry to everyone who’ve had their words stolen. The only good news is, as I was reading “her” reviews, it was very clear that she’d copied and pasted others’ work, the writing styles were such a mishmash, so I am hoping that people will recognize her no matter how many times she changes her Twitter handle. This is just sad.

    • Krys

      I was actually wondering the same thing as well. Because typically equal professionalism, and this sure as hell doesn’t resemble anything professional.

  27. Grace Fonseca

    I certainly think this is just plain sad and disgusting. This girl thought that no one would notice, but she forgets that this community a lot of us know each other. I mean really don’t do this unless you truly love books… Book blogging can be fun. I mean, you can review other books that are not ARC’s…really shameful and disgusting behavior from Stephanie Reed

  28. Sydney

    I think what annoys me most about her “apology” is that she says she plagerized and stole from other reviewers because between work and school she didn’t have enough time to meet deadlines. REALLY??? That’s total bullshit. If you can’t make the “deadlines” then consider scheduling better, or maybe leaving reviewing behind until you can figure out better time management.

    Ugh. This whole thing just makes me sick to my stomach. I’m glad I wasn’t among those plagerized. I’m sorry you gals had to be one of them. 🙁 I don’t blame you for calling her out. When you’ve plagerized THAT many bloggers…you have it coming.

  29. Natalie Monroe

    What the hell. She deserves to called out. Her apology wasn’t so much an apology as a statement of her laziness. She wanted to cheat her way in the community.

  30. Vane J.

    I don’t even have words to say how truly disgusted I feel right now. I don’t blame you for not wanting to forgive her. Tbh, I don’t think I would forgive her just like that. Worse even, if her apologies were pure bullshit. There’s nothing worse than hypocrisy. I agree with the last thing you said – she doesn’t deserve our community.

  31. Georgette

    This is crap. I don’t understand people, and I don’t understand how someone can do something so morally wrong as take other people’s words and thoughts, and propagate them as their own. Just wrong. There are no apologies that would soothe that mistrust, at least to me. I have a blog. So help me Christ, if I find out this shrew is stealing any of my shit, something’s going to hit the fan. As for Goodreads, I honestly didn’t know it could be set to private, but I’m going to do that now.. if she’s on my friends list, she’s gone. Thank you for writing this and for making everyone aware. She really needs to find a better use of her time than to rip off stuff that takes our heart, soul, and time to bring about.

  32. Samantha

    Wow, that is seriously messed up! I have not heard about any of this on Twitter, and I honestly can’t believe someone would steal reviews like that. AND then put them back up?! What is the point in having a book blog if you are going to steal someone else’s work?

  33. Cassandra Loskot

    We have been talking about her for the past week on Booklikes too!!! If she is doing this to other bloggers, what is she doing with the poor authors’ works since she is obviously not reading them??

  34. Jaime Lester

    Hi Steph… I am the Jaime of The Best Books Ever Foxglove Killings review… I was sent a message through Goodreads that this had happened, but I honestly didn’t even know what to do or say. It hasn’t happened to me before, that I know of, and when I thought it was just myself it had happened to I was at a loss of what to do. I am not a confrontational person in the least, so I just haven’t said anything, and stewed about it inside. Seeing that she has done this to so many of us makes me sick to my stomach. I have a full time job, and a family that I have to take care of, and I still manage to write my reviews and get them up on time. I do it because I love it, and even when I am exhausted at night, I know I have a commitment, and I LOVE TALKING ABOUT BOOKS! This just sucks. And besides, my reviews aren’t beautifully worded or eloquent. Just random rambling and raving! Thank you for standing up for all of us that were crapped on by this. Maybe we could have a chat about what the heck to do in a situation like this, if it ever happens again. Cause I just don’t know! YOU ROCK! Sorry for the rambling.

  35. Alex Hurst

    That’s truly awful! Even the excuses are no excuse. If she can’t handle the load, she shouldn’t be book blogging on deadlines. But it does all sound like B.S. Thanks for the heads up.

  37. Sophia @ Bookwyrming Thoughts

    I don’t know whether to mean laugh her or not. If her reviews are “too short,” has she heard of MINI reviews? And does she REALLY have to meet a deadline between school and work? I imagine those deadlines is her trying to catch up on homework AND be a regular blogger.

    Well, here’s breaking news: Ask all the teen bloggers out there, especially the high school ones, because most of them have work, school, AND blogging. I’m pretty sure the majority don’t actually blog on deadlines – I sure don’t.

    Sorry this happened to you and everyone else. I don’t know if she stole one of my reviews or one of my cobloggers’ (if not now, she probably would have gotten to me eventually), but it wouldn’t be a very pretty sight.

  38. Kate

    I’m so sorry this has happened to everyone involved. So glad that someone tracked her shit down. Hopefully GR will remove her profile.

    All of it is just SO classic, but I don’t understand her apology. She stole reviews because she got busy? WOW. I’M BUSY TOO. EVERYONE IS BUSY. That doesn’t mean any of us steal reviews from each other! Does she think we all just sit on our couches reading and updating our blogs all day, every day?? NO. I have to MAKE TIME in my life to get things done. PRIORITIZATION. I have to work at cultivating my own blog content, so who is she to just come in and rip reviews from our hands?! Where is her sense of pride in something she created? Seriously, what the fuck?

    I kind of imagine she put up the reviews again because after she took them down, she realized all she had left were very few of her own “short” reviews. Then decided she would rather repost them to pad out her site/profile. Zero fucks given.

    Her review policy: “I will be extremely honest in my reviewing.”

    What a joke.

  40. Anne

    Woah. Personally, I think it’s okay to read others’ reviews to get ideas for your own reviews. I do this from time to time because as a non-native English speaker, I find it difficult to gather my thoughts in English and my vocab is very limited. It also serves as a refresher for me because I often forget the things that happened in the book even when I’ve just finished reading it. BUT, I have never in my whole life copied someone else’s review, even a single paragraph. I don’t know what people get from copying someone else’s work and posting them as their own. I mean, if you can’t do it then don’t do it at all like what’s the merit in that? But most of all, why do they think they can get away with it? It’s just plain humiliating. And lastly, why would you even commit yourself to something if you’re not sure you can accomplish it? Did she even read the books or did she just outright copied those reviews?

  41. Anette

    I have experienced this too and it’s the most frustrating and aggravating thing in the world. Not with reviews (knock on wood), but with fanfiction. And like what this Samantha person is doing, they keep reuploading after it’s been removed and I just want to tear my hair out. Now they’ve started changing the title in the hopes that I won’t find it.

    The worst part is that these people genuinely don’t see what they’re doing wrong, they think when something is on the internet they can do what they want with it, that’s what I was told my one of the girls that plagiarized me. “Well you posted it on the internet so what did you think was gonna happen…” What the hell.

    I’m so sorry this happened to all of you!

  42. Lisa @ Lost in Literature

    I’m in complete shock over this. Like it wasn’t bad enough that she copied and pasted your exact words into a “review” to call her own… but she also pretended to apologize, only to repost them changing the words ever so slightly? What a slap in the face! Thank you for bringing this to your attention. i understand we’re all reading the same books and sometimes we can have similar thoughts to each other… but this is just WRONG!

  43. Carina Olsen

    You are amazing Steph. <3 And I love this post of yours. Though it breaks my heart that people do this 🙁 I don't think my reviews have ever been plagarised, which is good. But yeah. It must be so awful to have that happen 🙁 It is so mean of people to do it. I would not be happy if someone stole my reviews. Hmph. Thank you for sharing about it. <3 Just hoping this person has stopped. And not just made new profiles..

  44. La Coccinelle @ The Ladybug Reads...

    Well, her original Goodreads page is gone. But I suspect plagiarists are like the Hydra…

    I just don’t understand the reasoning. “My reviews suck, so I’ll just steal yours!” If it were anything else (book, newspaper article, magazine feature), would she still be trying to get away with it? There’s a growing problem online with people who think that free=theirs. No. If a publisher sends you a free copy of a book, does that mean you can turn around and claim you wrote it? Honestly… Some people need to grow a few more brain cells before they’re allowed back on the Internet.

  47. Rachel

    I was just checking out her profile and her Frostfire by Amanda Hocking is *probably* stolen due to the fact that she says in the last paragraph that the book deserves no less than 5 stars, but she gave it a 4 star rating. I don’t know whose review it was originally, but I thought you all should know!

    Link to her review here:
    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1380192463

  49. Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat

    Oh my goodness, I missed this due to lack of internet. It always makes me lose a little faith in the human race when people do this. There is NO excuse…and also no apology. “Sorry” just doesn’t cover it. Plus, how stupid do you have to be, 1) to actually be so lazy that you have to steal other people’s hard work on a fucking REVIEW, that’s supposed to be your own personal opinion (like, does she not have an opinion? Can she not think for herself?!), and 2) to see the repercussions from other people that have plagiarized and STILL want to do it? I cannot fathom why anyone would want to do such an awful thing. It’s disgusting.
    I’m pissed and I wasn’t even involved. I feel absolutely terrible for all of the bloggers involved.

  50. Jaz

    Ugh I cannot believe this. Last I heard she was actually still doing the plagiarisim 🙁 it saddens me greatly and also angers me at how selfish some people can be. Her excuse “I needed to get something up for a deadline and still manage my schoolwork and job” is absolute bs. I’ve had to forego reading/reviewing heaps of review copies and haven’t met ‘deadlines’ in ages because I had to work full-time + maintain grades as part of my scholarship. Publishers understand that we can’t read everything. She could have just not requested the books which is what I did – I stopped requesting. Also, do the pubs know she’s plagiarising reviews?
    I’m so angry I reckon this comment doesn’t even make sense. I’m so sorry for the bloggers whose work got stolen. It’s a terrible feeling when people take your work and don’t credit you for it.