Mollyflowers's Reviews > Zac and Mia

A.J. Betts has worked as a teacher in hospital for 8 years. I heard her talk about this book in 2011 before the publication of The Fault in our stars so I'm sure it is not plagarised.

Thanks for the comment. If you choose to give this book 5 stars because the author is your friend, then you have to respect my rating based on my personal opinions thank you very much.

The commenter didn't challenge your rating. S/he was speaking to your accusations of plagiarism, which are damaging and unfounded, something you could have determined for yourself if you'd taken the time to look a little further (or perhaps at all). You're accusing an author and a publisher of plagiarism and telling people to avoid the book on the basis of what is nothing more than lazy, reactive assumption on your part. Your assumption that the commenter and the author are friends is also a little odd - I heard Barack Obama on the radio the other day; it doesn't mean we're buddies.

Thanks for your comment Isabeau. My comment is based on my personal opinion after reading the book. Do you see me suing anyone LOL.

PS - please stop harrrassing me on my review. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, positive or negative. I don't go on other people's reviews and hassle them if their opinion contrasts with mine. I suggest you take it up with Goodreads if you don't like my opinion and if my review is taken down, then obviously I have breached my freedom of speech.

Thanks for your comment. Forming conclusions is what a reader does when they read a book. I read a book at face value and enjoy it or not and I state my opinion. I don't know many people who go around doing research on books they've read, especially when they didn't enjoy it. I'm going to keep my original review unless it is flagged and Goodreads takes it down. I think people have a right to know my initial gut reaction. I don't write my reviews to cater to the author or their friends, sorry. Thanks for being nice in your message though :)

Again, this is not about 'opinion', and it doesn't make it so because you keep repeating that word. You can't have an 'opinion' on whether or not a book is plagiarised. It's a question of fact - it either is or it isn't. You're on the wrong side of that question and what you're saying is actually libellous. I'm talking in the real world, in a formal legal sense; what you're saying could actually get you sued if either the publisher or author had any interest in pursuing it. There's obviously no question of *you* suing anyone; I'm not sure why you even said that. That said, I have no interest at all in reporting your review to Goodreads; regardless of what their guidelines might say, relying on them to be an ethical compass of any kind would be beyond ridiculous.

This is the last time I am going to say this. If you don't like my review click the 'flag' button and report it to Goodreads. Don't tell me you are not going to because of some other excuse. Threatening/complaining or trying to talk out of my opinion is not going to change anything. If Goodreads thinks my comments are fine and you don't like it, don't come on Goodreads and don't comment on my review.

All future comments will be deleted and not entertained.

Again again again, this has nothing to do with your 'opinion'. You're just not very bright, are you? Delete away, but please do leave your review up. The more people see your baseless reactionary accusations, the more foolish you look. Everybody wins!

Oooohhhh... that is kinda of... mean :/

It just reminds me of my school days when I was suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia and my teachers would call me "not very bright" :( But I triumphed over it and am now a reader and work in a bookstore! :)

Even if 'plagiarism' is the wrong word to use here, you guys are being incredible jerks about the whole thing. Back off. If she thinks that the storyline is derivative and attempting to capitalize on the fame of another, similar book, and if she thinks that the book is derivative and, who knows, even a rip-off of another work, THAT IS HER OPINION.

Saying "NO THE AUTHOR HAD THE IDEA FIRST YOU'RE WRONG" is just ridiculous. How do you know what the author was thinking? Isn't that what you were accusing Molly of? Author mind-reading?

I think shameless bullying and name-calling is far worse than a negative review. But that's just me. Maybe your priorities in life are different.

Isabeau wrote: "Again again again, this has nothing to do with your 'opinion'. You're just not very bright, are you? Delete away, but please do leave your review up. The more people see your baseless reactionary a..."

What's your point in calling Molly not bright? To be hurtful and mean? Stick to your issue with the review and not bashing the person writing it.

Molly, block and delete anyone who is attacking you because it's not worth arguing with them.

Oh, for heaven's sake. The update below your review is just silly. Aren't you anonymous on here? How would someone get your email address, much less your phone number? You're clearly trying to deflect attention from the issue and that's of course your right. But your accusations are completely irrational. Given the path you've chosen to go down, in what began as a perfectly reasonable conversation in an open comment space, I will be glad to withdraw. I thought you were going to delete and 'not entertain' all further comments anyway...?

I realise my third comment was mean and inflammatory and I do regret it. I just find discussing apples with someone who insists on calling them oranges a little frustrating.

I feel sick :_(

When I said "email" I meant messages sent here on Goodreads, sorry if nothing I say can be interpereted right by you :-(

Thanks Nenia and Katie for being so kind to me. If you have any advice on what I should do now that would be appreciated.

You should be able to express your views about books without feeling threatened.

Molly, let's be really clear. Your opinion is that you didn't like the book. You are entirely entitled to that view.

You are also entitled to be of the view, at least initially, that the book was plagiarised, and that by publishing it, Text is supporting plagiarism.

But in my opinion, you should also be gracious enough to accept the proffered evidence pointing to the fact that this book was written at around the same time as TFiOS, so therefore was NOT - could not have been - plagiarised. Your refusal to acknowledge that fact is now coming across as belligerent and combative.

You speak of emotional and threatening responses to your review, but to quote your own words: "I am so angry. Shame on Text books for supporting plagiarism!!! Copy someone else's story and win a national contest? Um, but NO. Don't support this. Avoid like the plague." So you didn't like it - fine. To not like it because it's plagiarised is also fine. But when that claim is disproved, you need something more to say about the book than how angry it made you.

I'd also encourage you to put yourself in the author's shoes. Imagine what it feels like to write a novel, work on it endlessly, edit it, rewrite it, perfect it, only to have someone falsely accuse you of stealing the whole thing. To an author, that is probably the most personally hurtful thing you can say. Authors deal constantly with negative reviews of their work, and while it stings to read those reviews, they also accept that not everyone will love their work, and that they willingly subject themselves to this simply by sending a manuscript to a publisher. It's part of the deal. After all, as JB Thomas says above, readers should be able to express views without being threatened. I entirely agree. But accusations of plagiarism proven to be false don't count as "views" - they count as defamation. Defamation of a real person who will almost certainly read your review and feel deeply hurt by it.

So, to sum up, I feel that the proper thing to do would be to amend your review. Don't take it down - your dislike of the book is entirely appropriate while ever it is based on the content, the characters, the structure, the plot. By all means explain what you didn't like about the book, but do it respectfully and please, stop with the bogus and emotionally charged plagiarism claim. It's not true, it's malicious and hurtful. There should be no need for threats, and there should be no need to report the review to GoodReads. You should simply do the decent thing and fix it.

Hear hear.

The author was actually working on this book for years. She really didn't copy TFIOS in fact I'm pretty sure she hasn't even read it. As for you not liking it well that's entirely up to you and you're entitled to that opinion but maybe before bashing it and hating it just because it's TFIOS you should open your eyes and give it a fair go.

I feel sorry for anyone looking for recommendations from you in your bookstore.

I am anxious to read this because when I saw what it was about, I also thought TFIOS. I have no idea when either was written or published, but I also felt the premise had been heavily borrowed by one of the two authors. James Frey got kudos for an autobiographical book that was almost entirely fiction, and he is back writing books again. Maybe the author who lifted this story line will come clean and years from now write again. Who knows?

Oh my god. If anyone knew anything about how Zac & Mia came about and actually read the book for what it is and without comparing it to TFIOS you would realise they are not even close to being the same story. And you would not be blatantly accusing this author of plagiarism. I've met her and heard her explanation and views of the whole situation and people who post uninformed opinions like you Maureen and this review itself and just being unintelligent readers and frankly downright offensive human beings.

And also, for your information, AJ Betts has at least three other books published before Zac & Mia.

You'll notice Samantha that I did not say they were the same story, nor did I say who could have lifted the idea from another author. I'm willing to bet I am much more educated than you and that I have read and reviewed many more books than you have. I was simply stating these two seem very similar looking at the premise and that I am anxious to read this one. You got your panties ruffled dear. Settle down honey and wait for my actual review, then you can jump on your band wagon.

Much more educated? Go for it. Compare away.
Maybe I did go off a little but I will tell you this. She did not lift this premise from John Green nor did he lift it from her.
Maybe you should have wait until you had reviewed the book first before commenting on this review with what is clearly a preformed opinion.

For the record, it was stated in Zac & Mia that it was written in 2011. TFIOS was published in late 2012, so I do tend to think that it was accidental, rather than a direct ripoff. Lets be fair to everyone. I mean, we could say that John Green "ripped off" Esther Earl's story (if you research her and bother to spend any time on her website, you'll figure out that a lot more of TFIOS was borrowed from her life than anyone likes to let on).