JK Rowling's 'transphobic' new book is about a man who dresses as a woman to kill people

Social media has been sent into meltdown after the subject matter of J.K. Rowling's upcoming crime novel was revealed online.

As per a now-viral tweet from Pink News, the new novel, titled Troubled Blood and written under Rowling's pseudonym 'Robert Galbraith', is about "a murderous cis man who dresses as a woman to kill his victims".

This comes after Rowling penned an essay earlier this summer, outlining her views about transgender people, including her belief that trans activism is "pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender", something that is "offering cover to predators like few before it".

Following the revelation of the author's new book's subject matter, #RIPJKRowling began to trend, prompting people to recommend books by trans authors instead.

Some Twitter users then began to credit the Harry Potter series to other celebrities, including the star of its big-screen incarnation, Daniel Radcliffe.

One Twitter user wrote: "it has been recently revealed that daniel radcliffe, actor and star of the harry potter films, was in fact the real author of the harry potter novels but jk rowling, who was apparently jealous of radcliffe’s remarkable genius and prodigy, had stolen all the credit. #RIPJKRowling [sic]"

Another joked: "Good thing we don't have to pay attention to JK Rowling because Britney Spears wrote Harry Potter #RIPJKRowling"

However, the majority of reactions to the new book were outlining which its plot is potentially harmful to the transgender community.

Imara Jones wrote: "Does JK Rowling realize that she's literally putting trans people's lives at risk? We are regularly killed based on the idea that 1) we're predators and 2) we aren't real. Transphobic culture=death. #TransLivesMatter @translashmedia"

Christine Burns MBE, a trans woman, was one of the countless people who slammed the premise of Rowling's new book, which has been deemed transphobic because of the views she has previously expressed about trans people.

Burns wrote: "The production cycle for writing and publishing a novel is such that it would be wrong to see this as spite for the world being cross at her. I would wager it's the reverse... that the summer-long transphobia fest should be understood as a pre-publicity campaign for this book."

Meanwhile, Jen Richards compared Rowling to one of the most notorious villains of the Harry Potter universe, Dolores Umbridge.

Richards wrote: "JK Rowling has basically become Dolores Umbridge, so obsessed with her deeply prejudiced perspective that she'll go to any length to remain convinced of her own righteousness, no matter what harm it causes."

True Blood is being released today.