"Her work is just plagiarism": Gabrielle Zevin Zionist controversy explained as FairyLoot faces backlash over collab

Author Gabrielle Zevin and publication FairyLoot are being heavily discussed on X (formerly known as Twitter) after the latter announced the special edition release of the former’s novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Bookworms have opined that copies of the novel must not be released due to the writer’s alleged Zionist leanings. Meanwhile, netizens have also accused the writer of plagiarism.

Trigger Warning: The following article discusses the Israel-Palestine conflict with antisemitic and Zionist undertones. Reader’s discretion is advised.

On December 8, FairyLoot took to social media to announce the release of the Exclusive Mortal Edition of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. In light of the ongoing Middle East conflict, netizens took to the internet to discuss the author’s alleged Zionist writing in the novel.

As the discussion progressed, netizens also accused Gabrielle Zevin of plagiarism, leading to many questioning FairyLoot and their collaboration with the author.

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Why has Gabrielle Zevin been accused of being a Zionist? Reason revealed

X user @ALATLTG was one among the many who took to the social networking site to share her opinions on the author. She encouraged her followers not to buy the aforementioned book, alleging that Zevin is a Zionist. While sharing proof of the same, she shared a screenshot of an excerpt from the book, which read:

“He once said, in passing, that it was amazing how little American Jews knew about Israel, and she read a book about the founding of Israel, so she’d be conversant.”

Meanwhile, Reddit user u/Camilla_reads took to the r/fairyloot subreddit to claim that Gabrielle Zevin was a Zionist. The netizen stated that Zevin spoke at Hadassah, which has been dubbed as a Zionist women’s organization based in the U.S.

Speaking about the aforementioned excerpt, the netizen noted

“The book apparently includes a lot of references to israel and paints it in a very positive light, including referencing a book one character reads about the “creation of Israel” which is also known as the Nakba (catastrophe) to Palestinians.”

Comment byu/Ill-Possession1614 from discussion infairyloot

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“My work is not credited in her book”: Gabrielle Zevin accused of plagiarism as Brenda L Romero’s tweets resurface

Creator of board game, Train, Brenda L Romero took to X on March 22, months after the book’s release to accuse Gabrielle Zevin of not crediting her for taking inspiration from her board game for her book.

For those uninitiated, 19-year-old Jewish MIT student Sadie creates a video game, named Solution, in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. In the same, players assemble “widgets” in a factory, but they can forfeit points to get clues for their tasks.

Although players lose points, they quickly learn the intention of the game, which is that the factory produces machine parts for the Nazi to carry out their genocide/

In the book, a character mentions that “the game’s about being complicit.”

Romero also revealed that she created Train in 2009, where players roll a dice, leading to trains advancing down tracks that carry yellow pawns. Players initially do not know where the trains go, but they learn that they are on their way to concentration camps. Similar to how the character in the novel claimed that the game was about being complicit, Romero opined the same as well.

Speaking about the lack of credit in Zevin’s novel, Romero said on X:

“It may seem like a small thing to be bothered about, but to me, it’s not… I spent a lot of time researching it, talking with the community it represents and making something I felt was worthy. Nothing was taken for granted. To have a game lifted without attribution—a game about the Holocaust, for goodness sakes—is just unacceptable.”

Zevin also admitted in the past that she was inspired by Train. In an interview with Wired, she noted that it stood as an “inspiration among many” but that Solution had different mechanics that were found in video games.

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FairyLoot releases statement in light of controversy

As Gabrielle Zevin faced accusations of plagiarism and Zionism, FairyLoot took to Twitter to address the claims. They said in a tweet that after conducting an investigation into the allegations, they found that they were “completely unfounded.” They also expressed that they were regretful to see the author being exposed to “attacks on her character and integrity.”

The publication also announced that the special edition will continue to go on sale next year and that they do not “tolerate hate speech.”

Gabrielle Zevin had not released a statement of her own at the time of writing this article.