YouTube Star Zoella Takes A Break From The Internet Following Ghostwriting Row

Her boyfriend, Alfie Deyes, announced that he wouldn’t be posting online for a few days either.

Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella, has announced that she is taking a few days away from the internet following confirmation that her bestselling novel was ghostwritten.

Publishing house Penguin confirmed over the weekend that a team was used to help the British YouTube star write Girl Online.

“To be factually accurate, you would need to say Zoe Sugg did not write the book Girl Online on her own,” the publisher told the Sunday Times .

The revelation provoked a debate over the use of ghostwriters and to what degree celebrities should acknowledge any help they may have received.

Luke Macgregor / Reuters

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Zoella Used A Ghostwriter On Her Fast-Selling Debut Novel

The YouTube star authored the fastest-selling debut novel ever. “Zoe Sugg did not write the book Girl Online on her own,” says her publisher.

YouTube star Zoe Sugg didn't write all of her novel Girl Online on her own, according to her publisher.

Girl Online is a novel about a girl who blogs "her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her crazy family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life", before being whisked away to New York.

It sold 78,000 copies in its first week, while book signings around the UK have been total sell-outs.

Luke Macgregor / Reuters

"To be factually accurate, you would need to say Zoe Sugg did not write the book Girl Online on her own," Penguin told the Sunday Times .

The use of ghostwriters is relatively common in the world of young adult fiction and celebrity books, although Sugg and her team had not previously mentioned that she had assistance on the project.

But there are clues: in the acknowledgements of Girl Online Sugg thanks "everyone at Penguin for helping me put together my first novel, especially Amy Alward and Siobhan Curham, who were with me every step of the way".

Alward is Sugg's editor while Siobhan Curham is a prolific author of young adult fiction. It is not clear to what extent or in what role Curham was involved in the writing of the book.

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29 True Crime Books Every Armchair Detective Should Read

Real-life thrillers for Serial fans.

Daniel Dalton / BuzzFeed

Murder in Mississippi by John Safran

Published as God'll Cut You Down in the US, Murder in Mississippi is as much about race and sexuality in modern America as it is about murder.

We start the book knowing exactly who did the crime. But the questions of why the killer did it, confessed, changed his confession, and pleaded guilty take fish-out-of-water journalist John Safran on a madcap journey through the Deep South that's filled with eccentric characters, witty observations, and disturbing conclusions.

Little, Brown

Night Games by Anna Krien

While Australian Rules Football may be a foreign concept outside Australia, the rape culture that permeates the sport is all too familiar. Anna Krien focuses on an infamous case of sexual assault in which well-known players were let off the hook, and broadens out from there to give an unflinching, shocking account of the dark side of sport.

Black Inc.

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