And if you suspected this might be generated, if you were looking for that, would you have any doubts about whether this book had been written by a real person?

This is one of Rhamey’s “Would You Turn the Page” posts at Writer Unboxed, so this is a bestseller. Do you assume bestsellers can’t be generated, or do you think a bestselling author might be more rather than less inclined to cheat if they thought they could get away with it? I personally think that a whole lot of bestsellers are pretty badly written — all these “Would you turn the page?” posts have truly lowered my opinion of bestsellers in general. I’m inclined to think that some bestselling authors might be kinda dialing it in — their books are going to see even if the books are pretty bad, so only artistic integrity and pride support the effort it takes to do a good job, and if they’re not doing a good job, then how much artistic integrity and pride can they have?

This is probably pretty unfair! I know! But even so, when I see a genuinely boring opening page and the book is a bestseller by a famous author whose books are always bestsellers, I can’t help but think they ought to do better! And if they don’t want to bother, then why not generate their next book?

Now, with these comments sitting there, which I realize is liable to bias your opinions, what do you think of this first page?

In the next twenty-four hours, I will be arrested for first-degree murder.

I don’t know how this could be happening. I’m not the kind of person who goes to jail for murder. I’m not. I’ve never even gotten a speeding ticket. Hell, I’ve never even jaywalked before. I’m the most law-abiding citizen who ever was.

“They have a pretty solid case against you, Abby.”

My lawyer, Robert Frisch, does not sugar coat things. I’ve only known him a short time, but I already know he’s not about handholding and gumdrops and lollipops. He has spent the last twenty minutes enumerating all the police department’s evidence against me. And when I hear it all laid out for me like that, it sounds bad. If I were some neutral third party listening to everything Frisch was saying, I’d be thinking to myself, That woman is definitely guilty. Lock her up—throw away the key.

The whole time I was listening to Frisch, my heart was thumping wildly in my chest. It actually made it a bit hard to hear him for stretches of time. To my right, my husband Sam is slumped in his chair, a glassy look in his eyes. Sam was the one who hired Frisch. He’s your best chance, Abby, he told me.

So if Frisch can’t help me, that means I have no chance.

“It’s all circumstantial evidence,” I say.

Here are the bits that make me think it’s not generated: He’s not about handholding and gumdrops and lollipops. –> Sounds like the kind of fun phrasing that is not typical of generated text.

Here are the bits that make me think it might be: My heart was thumping wildly in my chest. Sam is slumped in his chair, a glassy look in his eye. –> Sounds like the kind of cliched and overdone details that are typical of generated text.

So, Rhamey’s post doesn’t ask: Do you think this is generated in whole or in part? But TO ME, this sort of has the feeling of generated text. Whether or not it’s generated, “My heart was thumping wildly in my chest” seems both cliched and overwrought.

What do various free AI detectors say?

ZeroGPT says 23% generated. “The whole time I was listening to Frisch, my heart was thumping wildly in my chest.” is one of the lines flagged as possibly generated. The others are just really generic, obvious cliches such as “lock her up and throw away the key.”

GPTZero says human with high confidence. Scribbr says human. Quillbot says human.

This is YET ANOTHER Freida McFadden novel, The Surrogate Mother, and at this point I think I can recognize her style a mile away. I think it’s breezy, casual, and cliched. I can see why it’s easy to read. Here’s the description. What do you think?

Abby wants a baby more than anything.

But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future. That is, until her personal assistant Monica makes a generous offer that will make all of Abby’s dreams come true.

But it turns out Monica isn’t who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby’s child has an unspeakable secret.

And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

I think the bold is overdone, random, and distracting. Interestingly, the phrases that are bolded are often unspeakably cliched, as though the author will stop at nothing to force cliches down the reader’s throat. [I probably tried too hard to get those phrases into the prior sentence.]

Here is the first bit of the #8 Fantasy novel right now:

Fayette Wynne unpacked deuced Mother. Mother was not to be confused with Ma, who had now been dead about a week and rested in a grave alongside two of her children. No, much to Fayette’s intense vexation, Mother was alive and bubbling. Ripe for use.

She vigorously shook the tall, wide glass free from its swaddling, a pilling green cardigan. The clear curves showed the jar to be about a third ful of viscous sourdough starter. Setting it on the battered kitchen table, she popped open the lid. She grimaced, and not because it stank — no, the contents had the distinct moist, clean smell of rye and other flours.

“There. Your home is open again, Mother,” growed Fayette. “I figure I should thank you for not exploding through the lid and overflowing into my belongings. That’s the least you could do.”

This is The House Between Sea and Sky by Beth Cato. There is zero possibility this is generated, and I think that’s true whether you actually find these paragraphs appealing or otherwise. To me, it seems as though there should be a “but” in front of “That’s the least you could do.” However, regardless, this is a lot less generic-seeming than McFadden’s book — and much less boring than the first pages of various other SFF bestsellers I’ve looked at here.

Here’s the description of Beth Cato’s book:

In 1920s California, two people in need of healing find strange refuge in a house with a mind of its own in an enthralling fantasy by the author of  A Thousand Recipes for Revenge .

Grieving Hollywood writer Fayette Wynne arrives in Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1926 to finish her latest project in peace. All alone, save for the preternatural sourdough starter her family has nurtured for years, Fayette is also resentful. The proven healing powers of the bread made with her starter were insufficient to save her beloved mother. For Fayette, it’s time to try and push past the pain and anger and move on.

Then, during a violent storm, Fayette saves rising star Rex Hallstrom during a moment of crisis. Their shelter: a peculiar cliffside house, its door flung open as if beckoning them. Sentient, curious, and lonely, it recognizes in Fayette a unique magic even older than its own.

In the days that follow, as a friendship grows between Fayette and Rex, they discover local legends surrounding the isolated house: It appeared in the span of a single night, its cursed origins said to be Hell itself. But for two souls who need to move forward, it provides unexpected comfort and hope. In fact, Fayette and Rex have never felt more alive. Neither has the house, whose mysteries are unending and whose wicked history may be too powerful to ignore.

This is much more appealing than the description of the McFadden book, BUT, “during a violent storm” AND “during a moment of crisis,” really? Whoever wrote this description should have caught that.

Why does Beth Cato sound so familiar to me? Because of this book:

I’ve had this book on my physical TBR shelves for a long time. I think the cover is strikingly attractive, but I have not read it, nor (yet) anything else by Cato. I have A Thousand Recipes for Revenge on my virtual TBR shelves as well. If you’ve read any of her books, what did you think?

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