The plot changes to turn the BR Program into a Reality Show sponsored by the Government held similarities to Suzanne Collins' 2008 novel "The Hunger Games". John Green pointed out that the premise of the novel is "nearly identical". Although Collins maintains that she "had never heard of that book until book was turned in," "The New York Times" reports that "the parallels are striking enough that Collins's work has been savaged on the blogosphere as a baldfaced ripoff," but that "there are enough possible sources for the plot line that the two authors might well have hit on the same basic setup independently."