I saw that twitter thread too. Maybe someone will sacrifice the time and energy to read the book and tell us just what's going on. I don't want to judge an author on the basis of a few tweets and screenshots taken out of context.
Indeed. Especially as I saw somewhere that it's about 1000 pages, a lot of them filled with pretend tweets. I'm still a fan of the Harry Potter books, but I've attempted to read 2 of JKR's books for adults and found them unreadably badly written.But who wants to pay money for a book that is likely problematic?
...She appears to want to go after ME/CFS in particular which she calls CF probably to troll the community. I saw another user saying this means she knows enough about ME politics to do this, and I believe this is probably the case otherwise she would have used CFS. (CF is cystic fibrosis which she clearly did not mean). ME and ME/CFS are very common in so-called-"spoonie" bios, accounts which have been fairly critical of her.
*Maybe she's been talking to a sir or professor somewhere to share stories?
Hobnobbing got them this far...To me this all comes across as her being in a similar social circle to such people, and having likely heard those kinds of stories and background information from such sirs and professors. They all seem to want to paint themselves as victims of people on twitter/patients/etc in a similar self-serving and false way.
The author gives an even-handed portrayal of how superfans can pile onto a creator, in a storyline that bears unmistakable echoes of the backlash against Rowling in real life. She doesn’t imply that the critical fans are right, but she demonstrates their thinking well.
...
And there is a problem with Cormoran Strike himself. He’s rude, violent and doesn’t understand women. Robin is entirely reliant on Strike for praise and affirmation – we might as well be back in a 50s film. There is a sneaking suspicion that (of all unexpected things) this book would not pass the Bechdel Test – in other words, women characters do not have serious conversations with each other about anything except men.
And the author sees no connection between the misogyny of the online trolls, and Strike’s own misogyny, which she attempts to show as understandable and almost endearing: “‘I was just about to [call you]’ said Strike, wondering how many more women he was going to have lied to before the day was through.”
And yet the book is undoubtedly entertaining and often funny: “Well he’s Dutch,’ said Katya, as though this explained everything”. There’s a strange charm in the way just about every character behaves badly or stupidly, and Rowling keeps the story rattling along. The reader needs only to bury a few doubts and questions regarding the plot and the world it plays out in, in order to enjoy another ripping yarn from the queen of stylish fantasy.
In the novel, a popular YouTube content creator named Edie Ledwell is met with a wave of backlash online after her work is deemed racist, ableist, and transphobic. As a result, the character was "doxxed with photos of her home plastered on the internet, subjected to death and rape threats for having an opinion, and was ultimately found stabbed to death in a cemetery," reports Rolling Stone.
Throughout the novel, Rowling "takes a clear aim at 'social justice warriors' and suggests that Ledwell was a victim of a masterfully plotted, politically fueled hate campaign against her," the outlet also notes.
J.K. Rowling’s New Novel Shows Why Having an Editor is Important
When you are a famous author, you can release a thousand-page novel filled with vicious parodies of your Twitter enemies. But should you?
The Ink Black Heart is not bad because it is long... It’s bad because it’s what happens when an author spends too much time on social media and tries to spin their anger at Twitter trolls into a mystery story. It’s bad because it’s a sad demonstration that J.K. Rowling has had her brain destroyed by spending too much time online and letting criticism get to her.
In The Ink Black Heart (spoilers), the murder victim is a young woman, Edie, who has become successful and wealthy by creating a popular fantasy series ... The Ink Black Heart spawns a toxic fan community who deluge Edie with misogynistic abuse and threats and complain that she has sold out since becoming successful. It gets so bad that we are told “in terms of the overall brand, The Ink Black Heart is starting to be almost as well known for the aggression of the fandom as for the cartoon itself.” Some of the bad reactions are from fascists, some are from those who criticize Edie “for being racist and ableist and… well, pretty much every ‘ist’ and ‘phobic’ you can think of.” The online abuser who ultimately turns out to have killed Edie is (spoiler) an incel, whose motive is that he despises women. ...