Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - The Silkworm

It's so, so hard to review this book honestly at the moment! The truth is, I absolutely love the Cormoran Strike novels, and it's going to be really difficult to not buy the sixth one when it's finally released - but I can't in all good conscience recommend that anyone do anything to financially support someone as bigoted and unpleasant as JK Rowling has unfortunately revealed herself to be.

I would say that The Silkworm, the second in Robert Galbraith's series about a pair of detectives solving crimes together, is probably the most problematic one out of the five that have been released thus far. There was a lot of criticism surrounding Troubled Blood because of its depiction of a serial killer as a crossdresser, but I thought The Silkworm's depiction of a trans character was far, far worse. She's shown as being somewhat seedy and pathetic, and Strike is intentionally cruel towards her and uses her trans identity to torment her. It's a brief scene - and Robin does tell him off, so there is at least an attempt to critique this approach - but it leaves a sour taste in the mouth that makes it difficult for me to go on and say anything positive about the book.

Which is a shame! Rowling's writing continues to be intelligent and extremely well-crafted; it's just her attitude that leaves so much to be desired. This shows itself in other moments in the Strike novels, particularly her #notlikeothergirls way of presenting the character of Robin. Other women annoy Strike, other women demand things of him, other women are bad drivers - but not Robin! He likes her because she's so different, the one person in his life that doesn't expect him to behave nicely or function like a conventional, polite member of society. He's contemptuous of his family, outraged that his sister asks him to do things like 'attending his nephew's birthday party' or 'not insulting her children', and overall his sneering removal of himself from society on the grounds that none of them are worth his time - punctuated by his surprise that Robin is proving to be the exception to this rule - is exhausting and unpleasant.

The story, of course, is excellent. Even with all the mire described above, it's difficult not to be captivated by the murder mystery element of The Silkworm, particularly given that I first read it many years ago when it was first released and had a much less nuanced opinion of its author at the time. If I didn't dislike her current attitude towards already-marginalised communities so much, I would find it easier to recommend the Strike series as a whole. But right now, that feels impossible.

Content Warnings