In a landmark move for the UK publishing industry, a ‘femgore’ horror novel has become the first title to be pulled from British bookshops following allegations that over 75% of its content was generated by artificial intelligence.
One of the world’s biggest publishing houses, Hachette, originally acquired the rights to Shy Girl after the title rose up on Amazon’s sales chart following its self-published debut in February last year.
Upon acquisition, the publisher praised the work as a ‘gory horror and razor-sharp revenge thriller,’ noting they had collaborated closely with Mia Ballard to ‘refine’ what they then considered a brilliant debut.
The withdrawal of Shy Girl from stores has been triggered by allegations that the revenge thriller was largely the product of AI rather than a human author.
The book, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, had been scheduled for release in the US this spring under Hachette’s Orbit imprint.
However, the publisher confirmed it had halted publication after an internal review.
The title had sold just under 1,900 copies in the UK before the scandal broke, and it remained widely available across major retail platforms yesterday.
Hachette, one of the industry’s ‘Big Five’ global publishers, is believed to be the first major house to ever withdraw a novel post-publication due to allegations of AI authorship.
Hachette Book Group withdrew Mia Ballard’s horror book ‘Shy Girl’ after allegations circulated online that Ms Ballard relied heavily on artificial intelligence
Mia Ballard seen talking about her self-published debut book, Sugar
Whispers of the scandal first surfaced in online forums early this year, shortly after Hachette’s November UK re-release of the novel.
A widely shared Reddit thread drew hundreds of comments, with many alleging that the prose resembled output from AI tools.
A YouTube video posted in January, titled ‘I’m pretty sure this book is ai slop’, drew more than 1.2 million views.
The founder of an AI detection program called Pangram, Max Spero, tested the full text and announced on social media that the results showed that Shy Girl was 78 per cent AI-generated.
Speaking to The New York Times, he stated he was ‘very confident’ that the book is ‘largely AI-generated, or very heavily AI-assisted.’
The New York Times reports that Ms Ballard said she had hired an acquaintance to edit her original, self-published version, who had used the technology.
It reported Ballard saying: ‘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 told the newspaper that she was pursuing legal action.
Hachette originally described Ballard as a Northern California-based poet and fiction writer who lives with her partner and dog.
Originally self-published in February 2025, Shy Girl has almost 5,000 ratings on Goodreads with an average score of 3.51 stars.
The publisher describes her as ‘passionate about writing stories focused on feminine rage’ and has a deep-seated love for the horror genre.
At the time of the acquisition, Hachette spoke warmly of the collaboration, stating it had been ‘such a pleasure to work with Mia on refining her brilliant novel.’
The industry is currently navigating a sharp double standard. While literary agents have begun flatly rejecting ‘non-original’ AI submissions to protect human authorship, publishing houses are simultaneously embracing the technology to streamline back-end operations like audio narration and translations.
Hachette has been contacted for a statement.
