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J.K. Rowling's New Book Features Fictional YouTuber Being Murdered After Trolls Declare the Character 'Transphobic'

Published: August 31, 2022
  |   By Cassandra MacDonald
J.K. Rowling's New Book Features Fictional YouTuber Being Murdered After Trolls Declare the Character 'Transphobic'

A new book by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling features a fictional character being murdered after online trolls declare her to be "transphobic."


Rowling herself has been subject to high profile death threats and branded "transphobic" over her belief that sex is determined by biology.

The book, The Ink Black Heart, was written under Rowling's pen name Robert Galbraith. It is the sixth book in her “Cormoran Strike” series.

In the crime novel, a YouTube creator named Edie Ledwell is violently murdered after being "canceled" by "social justice warriors," the New York Post reports.

Accused of being racist, ableist, and transphobic, Ledwell is doxed and subjected to rape and death threats before being stabbed to death in a graveyard.

Despite the parallels to what the author has been dealing with herself, Rowling maintains that the similarities are merely a coincidence.

"I should make it really clear after some of the things that have happened the last year that this is not depicting [that]," Rowling told Graham Norton on Virgin Radio UK. "I had written the book before certain things happened to me online. 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."

As Timcast has previously reported, the famed author was first branded as a “TERF” — “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist,” in June, 2020, when she took issue with an article referring to "people who menstruate" instead of using the word "woman."





"If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives," she wrote in a follow-up tweet.


Rowling recently involved law enforcement after receiving death threats on Twitter in response to a tweet she wrote about the attack on Salman Rushdie.

"Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok," Rowling had tweeted.

Someone using the name Meer Asif Aziz replied saying, "don't worry, you are next."


In a follow up tweet, Rowling said that the police are involved — and already had been with other threats made against her.


Rushdie was stabbed ten times in the neck, face, and abdomen while speaking at an event in New York.

In April, a transgender novelist released a book that they described as a "depraved psychosexual horrorshow" in which the characters burn Rowling alive.

Gretchen Felker-Martin’s debut novel, “Manhunt” is about two transgender people going to war with feminists, including a group they called the “Knights of J.K. Rowling.”

The “Harry Potter lady … ended up being a crazy TERF, like, super intense,” Felker-Martin’s character says in the book. Later, it would be revealed that one of the trans activist characters knocked over a lamp and burned Rowling to death.


Despite the backlash, Rowling has spent the last two years refusing to change or apologize for her opinion.

In 2020, Rowling wrote a lengthy blog post addressing her concerns with trans-activism.

"So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside," she wrote. "That is the simple truth."


Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne have all either denounced Rowling's comments or expressed support for trans activism.

Actors Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort, and Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid, have both defended Rowling.

Warner  Bros, who released the Harry Potter films, has also stood behind Rowling's right to free expression.

“Warner Bros. Discovery strongly condemns the threats made against J.K. Rowling,” the company said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “We stand with her and all the authors, storytellers and creators who bravely express their creativity and opinions. WBD believes in freedom of expression, peaceful discourse and supporting those who offer their views in the public arena. Our thoughts are with Sir Salman Rushdie and his family following the senseless act of violence in New York. The company strongly condemns any form of threat, violence or intimidation when opinions, beliefs and thoughts might differ.”

In July, three major quidditch organizations announced that they are changing the name of the sport to distance it from the author whose stories inspired its creation.


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