Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots

by Roger Kreuz

Plagiarism and appropriation are hot topics when they appear in the news. A politician copies a section of a speech, a section of music sounds familiar, the plot of a novel follows the same pattern as an older story, a piece of scientific research is attributed to the wrong researcher… The list is endless. Allegations and convictions of such incidents can easily ruin a career and inspire gossip. People report worrying about unconsciously appropriating someone else's work. But why do people plagiarise? How many claims of unconscious plagiarism are truthful? How is plagiarism detected, and what are the outcomes for the perpetrators and victims? Strikingly Similar uncovers the deeper psychology behind this controversial human behavior, as well as a cultural history that is far wider and more interesting than sensationalised news stories.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 8, 2026

Reviews

[History Today]

During my first term teaching at a university, I was marking essays on Romeo and Juliet when I came across an unusually perceptive turn of phrase. The students were analysing the scene immediately after Juliet has been discovered ‘dead’ in which the Capulets’ servant asks musicians to play a happy song. A student had described it as a ‘caesura’ in the play, a metrical break, since it pauses the action just as the tragedy begins to unfold. This suggested an insight into rhetorical and dramatic structure, I wrote in my feedback, which could be built on in the future. Pleased, I moved on to the next essay – and was confronted with precisely the same phrasing. It didn’t take long to locate the source. It had come directly from the summary website SparkNotes.

Was this plagiarism? It was certainly a dereliction of academic integrity and a clear example of failing to cite one’s sources. Had the word been given in quotation marks and the website properly referenced, I would have spoken to the students about how to assess the reliability and value of their reading material, but they wouldn’t have done anything wrong. By some definitions, they didn’t: you can’t plagiarise a single word. The severity of the issue usually depends on intention. Plagiarism exists in a nebulous ethical space, covering both legal and emotional issues regarding originality, intellectual property, and the ownership of ideas. The general rule is that you should credit something if you couldn’t have done your own work without access to it. But while that’s fine in theory, it’s harder to prove in practice. After all, had I not come across that second essay immediately, I would have left the first student with some glowing praise they hadn’t earned. To be recognised, plagiarism requires someone to have knowledge of the plagiarised work – or for someone to be looking for it.

Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Alice Wickenden is a researcher at the University of Cambridge

[Eric Rovie]

Mostly a version of an oral history of plagiarism, it tends to stumble over examples without ever making any strong claims or offering an interesting philosophical take. There are moments where it hints at something meatier (the discussion of fuzzy concepts in the epilogue) and it only (forgivably) tackles AI in passing because of its recent publication, but it never seems to coalesce into an argument.

[Katie]

I liked this enough, but I was hoping for more in depth expose style chapters about famous plagiarism cases and the psychology behind it. A basic history.

[Katie]

You might not think a book about plagiarism would be unputdownable, but this one is. It’s so interesting! The format, often in bite-sized anecdotes, makes the book feel especially approachable. (Even if, in my opinion, the organization could have been tighter at times.)

As a teacher, I liked hearing about the consequences for plagiarism so I can share real-world examples with my students to encourage academic integrity. Kreuz also rightly acknowledges that proper citation is vital to prevent accidental plagiarism. Equally important for teachers, Kreuz acknowledges why plagiarism occurs; knowing these reasons can help us address these motives before academic dishonesty occurs.

Overall, I rate this book 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. I wish the book had addressed AI more at length, especially since that’s implied by the title, but what Kreuz wrote on the subject was good.

In addition to educators, I think any writer or artist will find this book as fascinating as I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Cambridge University Press for the free eARC. I post this review with my honest opinions.