I’ve read JK Rowlings’ detective series since she began writing them. The latest one is 929 pages long. So, celebrities who were clamouring for the public to boycott her writing mere hours after its release, when it took me, an avid fan of these books, over a week to finish. I struggle to believe you read the whole thing before making an informed decision and telling your millions of followers to boycott her. Be warned, there are spoilers ahead.
Firstly, and I cannot stress this enough: THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT A TRANS SERIAL KILLER. Like, at all.
Let me explain where the media and celebrities who have taken it upon themselves to condemn this book have got this from. The book centres on Strike and Robin, the protagonists, re-investigating a disappearance that occurred in 1974 at the request of the missing doctor’s daughter.
Just one suspect (out of a list of about 10, this plot is hugely complex and involves a massive variety of characters), is a serial killer who once or twice used disguising himself as a woman as a tactic to pick up victims. The book even compares this killer, the fictitious Dennis Creed, to an actual serial killer in America who used this method, and presumably served as inspiration to Rowling.
The reader does meet the killer that the media has dubbed trans, towards the end of the book. The killer is plainly not trans, at all. The killer merely put on a wig and a long, body-concealing coat once or twice solely to entrap a female victim. There are perhaps two sentences on the killer doing this out of the whole nearly thousand page book and far more emphasis on his other methods of capturing victims than anything else. The man identifies as, and was born, a male.
So, you can see how the media have pulled this one small fact, which occurs early on in the book, to claim that this is a transphobic novel, and build this into the transphobic narrative which surrounds JK Rowling these past few years. This is not something I am aiming to deny, I am a lifelong fan of Rowling and always will be, but I’ll admit that that tweet was poorly phrased and sent out the wrong message, disappointing millions of fans.
Either way - as a straight woman, I don’t feel entitled to comment on the individual strands of the whole affair, I am simply commenting on the facts surrounding this book alone.
While I retain my admiration of JK Rowling, and will continue reading her books, I understand the pain some of her comments have caused and can realise why some people have become disillusioned with her. I am not aiming to justify any of her previous slights at one of the most marginalised communities in the world, I am simply expressing that this book is not one of them, and perhaps suggesting people should read the book in question before swearing off her for life. On the whole this book was just as genius and harrowing as the rest of the Strike series, and I can’t wait for the next one.
Firstly, and I cannot stress this enough: THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT A TRANS SERIAL KILLER. Like, at all.
Let me explain where the media and celebrities who have taken it upon themselves to condemn this book have got this from. The book centres on Strike and Robin, the protagonists, re-investigating a disappearance that occurred in 1974 at the request of the missing doctor’s daughter.
Just one suspect (out of a list of about 10, this plot is hugely complex and involves a massive variety of characters), is a serial killer who once or twice used disguising himself as a woman as a tactic to pick up victims. The book even compares this killer, the fictitious Dennis Creed, to an actual serial killer in America who used this method, and presumably served as inspiration to Rowling.
The reader does meet the killer that the media has dubbed trans, towards the end of the book. The killer is plainly not trans, at all. The killer merely put on a wig and a long, body-concealing coat once or twice solely to entrap a female victim. There are perhaps two sentences on the killer doing this out of the whole nearly thousand page book and far more emphasis on his other methods of capturing victims than anything else. The man identifies as, and was born, a male.
So, you can see how the media have pulled this one small fact, which occurs early on in the book, to claim that this is a transphobic novel, and build this into the transphobic narrative which surrounds JK Rowling these past few years. This is not something I am aiming to deny, I am a lifelong fan of Rowling and always will be, but I’ll admit that that tweet was poorly phrased and sent out the wrong message, disappointing millions of fans.
Either way - as a straight woman, I don’t feel entitled to comment on the individual strands of the whole affair, I am simply commenting on the facts surrounding this book alone.
While I retain my admiration of JK Rowling, and will continue reading her books, I understand the pain some of her comments have caused and can realise why some people have become disillusioned with her. I am not aiming to justify any of her previous slights at one of the most marginalised communities in the world, I am simply expressing that this book is not one of them, and perhaps suggesting people should read the book in question before swearing off her for life. On the whole this book was just as genius and harrowing as the rest of the Strike series, and I can’t wait for the next one.
RSS Feed
