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A review by lauracooleyjohnson
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
4.0
I have two topics to cover in this review: 1) my evaluation of the book itself and 2) a bit of a commentary for those who allege plagiarism with the Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
1) I liked this book. At times it dragged and at times it was a five-star page turner. So the draggy parts pulled it off of the 5-stars for me. But it was good historical fiction, had interesting bits about the life and times in small mining towns in Kentucky. Like many novels it wrapped up nicely in the end with a happy ending that I admit I’m a sucker for. So overall I recommend it.
2) This plagiarism business. Plagiarism is taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. As far as I can tell, this didn’t happen. Both books are historical fiction. So Yes: both books deal with the packhorse libraries of the time that existed in an era of racism and terrible working conditions. The libraries were run by women and were considered a bit radical at the time. So yes, both books have strong women as leads and have similar settings. But they have very different stories. We don’t complain that WWII historical fiction is copycat, do we? No, because we know some of the basics of history that become the backdrop for every story set in that timeframe. Same here. Also Book Woman of Troublesome Creek spent a good deal of time exploring and explaining the blue people of KY... these weren’t even mentioned in Giver of Stars. So let it rest. It is historical fiction, people. The history is going to naturally bring out similarities.
1) I liked this book. At times it dragged and at times it was a five-star page turner. So the draggy parts pulled it off of the 5-stars for me. But it was good historical fiction, had interesting bits about the life and times in small mining towns in Kentucky. Like many novels it wrapped up nicely in the end with a happy ending that I admit I’m a sucker for. So overall I recommend it.
2) This plagiarism business. Plagiarism is taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. As far as I can tell, this didn’t happen. Both books are historical fiction. So Yes: both books deal with the packhorse libraries of the time that existed in an era of racism and terrible working conditions. The libraries were run by women and were considered a bit radical at the time. So yes, both books have strong women as leads and have similar settings. But they have very different stories. We don’t complain that WWII historical fiction is copycat, do we? No, because we know some of the basics of history that become the backdrop for every story set in that timeframe. Same here. Also Book Woman of Troublesome Creek spent a good deal of time exploring and explaining the blue people of KY... these weren’t even mentioned in Giver of Stars. So let it rest. It is historical fiction, people. The history is going to naturally bring out similarities.