Millie Bobby Brown did not write her first book, Nineteen Steps. Instead, author Kathleen McGurl wrote it for her.

Before her book came out, the 19-year-old Stranger Things star told her fans that it was based on a real story and that it “means so much” to her. The story of love, desire, and loss is told in Brown’s first book, which came out on September 12. It was inspired by what Brown’s own family went through during World War II.

Even though Brown has a personal link to the book that bears her name, she only made a small contribution to the plot. McGurl’s name also doesn’t show up on the first page.

McGurl wrote about the writing process in a blog post. He said, “Millie and her family had already done a lot of research and come up with a lot of ideas. We also had a couple of Zoom calls.”

She went on, “Then I got down to business and wrote the first draft, while Millie kept sending me more ideas through WhatsApp.” Since then, we’ve made several drafts of the book to improve the story.

Brown didn’t try to hide the fact that she used a ghostwriter, and she even took a picture with her at the book launch. But many people noticed that when Enola Holmes was on The One Show, she didn’t say anything about anyone else being involved.

People have spoken out against the book, partly because Brown used outside help and partly because of how good it is.

“No, I don’t need to relax. This book will outsell books by real authors because her name is on it; she will get acclaim she did not earn,” wrote writer Claire G. Coleman. “It’s not even an autobiography, I understand getting a ghostwriter to write your biography but this is a novel.”