Hachette Book Group has withdrawn the horror novel Shy Girl by Mia Ballard after allegations that it was heavily reliant on artificial intelligence. The publisher has cancelled the US release and discontinued the UK edition, which was published in November 2025.
The book, scheduled for US publication under Hachette's Orbit imprint, has been removed from online retailers including Amazon. The decision follows weeks of online speculation on platforms such as Goodreads and Reddit, where readers questioned whether sections of the text bore hallmarks of AI-generated prose.
According to NielsenIQ BookData, approximately 1,800 print copies were sold in the UK. In a statement to the New York Times, Hachette said: 'Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling.'
Ballard denied personally using AI to write the novel, stating that an acquaintance she hired to work on an earlier self-published version incorporated AI tools. 'This controversy has changed my life in many ways and my mental health is at an all time low and my name is ruined for something I didn't even personally do,' she wrote in an email.
Originally self-published in February 2025, Shy Girl has nearly 5,000 ratings on Goodreads with an average of 3.51 stars. Questions arose in early 2026 as social media users dissected passages, with one Goodreads review stating: 'I am quite certain that this was written by ChatGPT.' A YouTube video titled 'I'm pretty sure this book is ai slop' garnered over 1.2 million views.
The episode highlights the growing challenge publishers face with AI. Last week, the Society of Authors introduced a logo to distinguish human-authored books from AI-generated content, following a similar initiative by the US Authors Guild in early 2025.
