My friend was reading the book "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green and she found what seems to be a grammar mistake. The following sentence is found in the author's note:
Neither novels or their readers benefit from attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story.
Isn't it grammatically correct to say "nor" instead of "or"?
It is generally accepted (or at least suggested) that neither should be paired with nor and either with or.
A thorough discussion of this can be found here. After looking at various sources, the author of the post concludes with
So, is "neither…or" all right to use? No, not in modern usage.
People who have the leisure and inclination to argue about such things are free to do so. Those who just want to write inoffensive standard English are advised to go with the conventional rule that either is used with or and neither is used with nor.
Note well, however, that there seems to be a bit of disagreement on whether or not neither...or is acceptable in some cases. The above post quotes Merriam-Webster as stating:
Although use with or is neither archaic nor wrong, the conjunction neither is usually followed by nor.
Considering that "neither" is a conjunction of "not either," I think "neither...or" is the correct combination.
Would we comment "Not either James nor Bob will be attending?" I ask this rhetorically, of course.
"You will receive neither a signing bonus or six weeks' vacation in your offer package." The "or" preceded by the implied "not" in "neither" seem to combine to make it abundantly clear that not either of the subject matter will be present, etc. without creating double negatives.
