J.K. Rowling just released a new book and from the looks of it, she's clearly taking the old adage to "write about what you know" very seriously.
People of color called out Rowling's racism for decades—almost since the moment her first bestseller hit book shelves—but it wasn't until Rowling started putting her bigotry on public display that the wider world took notice.
Her latest book, The Ink Black Heart, is the latest addition to her crime fiction series about private investigator Cormoran Strike that Rowling writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It's about a beloved fantasy series creator whose fandom deems her transphobic.
The synopsis, included below, is very clear about this:
"When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott [Strike’s colleague] doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation."
"The co-creator of a popular cartoon, ‘The Ink Black Heart,’ Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity."
The Edie character—which Rowling insists bears no similarities to her own life—is deemed as racist, ableist and transphobic by her viewers and experiences the dark side of internet fame as she faces death threats before she is actually killed, which kicks off the novel's main mystery.
If any of this sounds familiar, it might be because Rowling—best known as the author of the beloved Harry Potter children's fantasy series—has repeatedly come under fire for her racism, homophobia, ableism and anti-transgender views and her responses to proposed changes to gender recognition laws in the United Kingdom as well as her views on sex and gender.
Rowling's statements have divided feminists and Harry Potter fans, fueled debates on freedom of speech, academic freedom and cancel culture, and prompted support for transgender people from the literary, arts and culture sectors including the stars of the films based on her books.
Over the last few years, Rowling has argued against the inclusion of transgender women in women's restrooms and promoted stereotypes about transgender people, as when she included a cross-dressing killer in her previous Galbraith novel Troubled Blood.
Rowling's "Robert Galbraith" pseudonym is also controversial because it is also the name of the long-discredited psychiatrist Robert Galbraith Heath, who is considered the father of LGBTQ+ conversion therapy after he claimed to have converted a homosexual man to heterosexuality by putting deep brain stimulation electrodes into his brain and stimulating them whenever the patient was shown heterosexual pornographic material.
Twitter users quickly called out Rowling, mocking her and her book.
\u201cjk rowling's book :\u201d— LEHA \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\u2728 tired and bored (@LEHA \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\u2728 tired and bored) 1661789245
\u201cJK Rowling released a new book today about a YouTube animator that gets stabbed to death for making racist and transphobic animations and it is 600 pages longer than Dune\u201d— kenzie (@kenzie) 1661871905
\u201cJK Rowling is like the bizarro stephen king, in that King wrote under a pseudonym to prove that his writing was good enough that the books would still sell without the King brand. Rowling tried the same and flopped so badly they had to immediately leak her real name\u201d— Lesbian Death Bed: The Bed that Eats Pussy (@Lesbian Death Bed: The Bed that Eats Pussy) 1661814106
\u201cjk rowling releasing a transphobic book under her transphobic pseudonym about being bullied online for being transphobic is beyond parody. youre a multi-millionaire. log off\u201d— zach silberberg (@zach silberberg) 1661879185
\u201cJK Rowling\u2019s new book, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, is so hilariously self-persecuting. Hard to believe it\u2019s not satire!\n\nWho doesn\u2019t want to read 1K+ pages by a transphobic woman, writing under the pen name of a man, about the hardships of being transphobic & racist?\u201d— Saffho \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udf39 (@Saffho \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udf39) 1661885664
\u201cIt is no longer ethical to consume or monetarily support any of JK Rowling\u2019s works. I don\u2019t care about \u201cdeath of the author.\u201d I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re purchasing used books. I don\u2019t care if your kid wants a Harry Potter birthday party. There is no more ~neutral territory~ here\u201d— Lindz \u201cPRE-ORDER RAINBOW PARENTING\u201d Amer (@Lindz \u201cPRE-ORDER RAINBOW PARENTING\u201d Amer) 1661881675
\u201cthere isn't a jk rowling redemption arc is there?\n\nshe's completely lost to the terfs and the 'gender critical' cult. this book she's written isn't normal. it show s how obsessed she's become with the cults imaginary 'terf wars'. she has no pr person to tell her how bad it is.\u201d— \u0586\u029f\u0585\u01df\u057c\u025b-\u029f\u028f\u0586\u026e\u025b\u0236\u0266 (@\u0586\u029f\u0585\u01df\u057c\u025b-\u029f\u028f\u0586\u026e\u025b\u0236\u0266) 1661771294
\u201cJK Rowling\u2019s new book about a transphobic YouTuber who gets hated online is 500 pages longer than Dune, 300 pages longer than Infinite Jest, and 100 pages longer than the Bible\u201d— cheer \ud83c\udf3b (@cheer \ud83c\udf3b) 1661879546
\u201cIf any person personifies how becoming very wealthy dulls you from the humanity that made you successful in the first place, it\u2019s JK Rowling. \n\nImagine writing a whole pity party of a book because trans twitter was mean to you after you were mean to them. \ud83d\ude02\u201d— Brianna Wu (@Brianna Wu) 1661878303
Rowling's views have proven so controversial that she declined to be part of HBO's Harry Potter reunion special that was broadcast in December 2021.
Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the series, condemned Rowling's many transphobic comments, saying transgender people "deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are."
Similarly, Daniel Radcliffe, who played the title character, responded to a lengthy essay Rowling published in defense of her anti-transgender views, stressing transgender women are women and statements to the contrary erase "the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter."
Rowling walked the red carpet for the release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore earlier this year, but the film had a disappointing opening, grossing less than any film in the Potter franchise to date.