This Fantasy Novel is for Everyone Who Feels Betrayed by JK Rowling

Lately, I’ve felt haunted by Harry Potter. Once an obsession of mine, JK Rowling’s hatred of trans people—including using her resources to strip trans people of rights—has poisoned the series for me. That’s been true for years, but in recent months, the franchise keeps popping up unpleasantly in my life.

Months after writing it, I found out John Lithgow has not only seen my open letter (An Open Letter to John Lithgow: Please Walk Away From Harry Potter), but had talked about it in an interview. It was sent to him by a close friend who is the mother of a trans child, but Lithgow responded by completely missing the point and saying it didn’t affect his opinion about the role at all. (I have to wonder if that person still considers him a close friend.)

It was a surreal experience to know that my words had actually make their way to him and to see that letter mentioned in places like Rolling Stone. It may not have had the ideal effect, but it felt like I had done something, at least.

The next day, I was trying to decide what to read next and sampled the first pages of a few books. One was How to Read Like an Anti-Fascist by Annette Wannamaker, where I was greeted with the preface “Fascism, Resistance, and the Confounding Case of Harry Potter.”

Putting that down, I picked up an ARC of one of my most-anticipated fantasy releases of the year, only to see this dedication:

Now that I’ve finished it, I can say this was a five star read that absolutely holds its own regardless of being a response to the Harry Potter series and JK Rowling’s transphobia—but it succeeds on that level, too. Where that series is about children, this book is about adults discovering their magic. Instead of Hogwarts, the setting is New York City. And, of course, this stars trans main characters.

If you want to read a fantasy novel about a coven of trans witches taking on an evil AI, this one is for you.

Pay attention. Something amazing is about to happen.

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