you've gotta be JK-ing

JK Rowling’s new book is about a transphobic author who gets canceled and Twitter’s not having it

Photo Credit: Getty Images

When she’s not busy attacking the trans community online, Harry Potter author JK Rowling somehow finds time to write more novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Her latest, The Ink Black Heart, is yet another addition to her crime fiction series about private investigator Cormoran Strike, and the plot particulars are pretty rich coming from Rowling. Here, we’ll let you read the opening of the synopsis for yourselves:

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.

Well, they do say write what you know!

Apparently, Edie’s cartoon is a beloved children’s fantasy series that, despite its success, has brought the celebrity creator under fire for claims of plagiarism, racism, transphobia, ableism—you name it. Hm, sound familiar?

Related: Love the art, hate the artist? LGBTQ+ fans sound off on J.K. Rowling

In the years since the unprecedented success of the Harry Potter series, Rowling herself has received backlash for her unapologetic hate speech and anti-transgender “activism.”

She’s criticized gender-neutral rhetoric, argued against the inclusion of transgender women in women’s restrooms, and endured accusations of reinforcing transgender stereotypes after including a cross-dressing killer in her previous Cormoran Stike novel, Troubled Blood. The list goes on.

It’s no spoiler to mention that, early in the new novel, this Edie Ledwell winds up dead, kicking The Ink Black Heart‘s primary mystery into motion and showing us, once again, that Rowling is always going to find a way to make herself the victim.

Somewhat hilariously, Rowling has claimed that any similarities between her and the fictional Edie are just a coincidence. On a recent episode of The Graham Norton Radio Show, the author stated: “I should make it really clear after some of the things that have happened the last year that this [novel] is not depicting [my experience.]” Sure, JanK.

“I had written the book before certain things happened to me online,” she added. “I said to my husband, ‘I think everyone is going to see this as a response to what happened to me,’ but it genuinely wasn’t. The first draft of the book was finished at the point certain things happened.”

Related: ‘Harry Potter’ stars are coming out of the woodwork to blast JK Rowling’s transphobia

Regardless, the similarities between Rowling and her character have been all anyone can talk about.

Reviews of The Ink Black Heart in major U.K. publications like The Telegraph and The Times have both remarked on the author’s obvious intent (for what it’s worth, they also weren’t enamored with the novel).

And, over on Twitter, folks are having a field day with the realization that Rowling has basically written herself into her book. Here are just a few of our favorite reactions:

As per usual, ClickHole was ahead of the curve with this one:

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