Despite what the trending Twitter hashtag may imply, J. K. Rowling is not dead — she’s just releasing a new book.
On September 15th, Rowling will release her latest book, Troubled Blood, under pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. The fifth instalment of Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series.
An early review of the novel via The Telegraph has revealed that the novel centres around a male serial killer who dresses like a woman.
“The meat of the book is the investigation into a cold case: the disappearance of GP Margot Bamborough in 1974, thought to have been a victim of Dennis Creed, a transvestite serial killer,” the review reads. “One wonders what critics of Rowling’s stance on trans issues will make of a book whose moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress.”
“J.K. Rowling is single-mindedly obsessed with trans people and actively frames them as predators in her novels,” tweeted culture critic Elle Dawson, in reference to the second Cormoran Strike book, The Silkworm, that previously copped criticism for portraying a transgender character as aggressive.
Rowling has frequently found herself in hot water over a series of controversial comments about the trans community.
Back in June, Rowling took to Twitter retweeted an article titled: “Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate.”
She captioned her retweet: “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Naturally, the anti-trans rhetoric did not fair well with fans and critics. Rowling’s tweets saw several prominent artists, writers and even stars of the Harry Potter film franchise publically denouncing the author’s comments.
Rowling responded to the universal backlas not by apologising but by… penning a 3,600-word essay defending her view on the transgender community, and “explain [herself] on an issue surrounded by toxicity.”
“I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility,” she wrote.
