Shonushka Sawant | Web Editor

J.K. Rowling, best known as the author of the legendary Harry Potter series, has set her sights on a different path after the conclusion of “Harry Potter”. Though she has been expected to continue on a similar vibe in the past, she surprised the public by publishing “The Casual Vacancy” in 2012, a novel about a town’s dark history uncovered by the death of a councilman and the resulting vacancy in the town’s politics. She then turned to writing crime fiction with the publication of “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” in which an eccentric detective called Cormoran Strike investigates the suspicious death of a famous supermodel. There were several stylistic elements in common with “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and the Harry Potter series, and even some names which were quite similar. Though the plots of the books are widely different, J.K. Rowling reused several character patterns and diction in her dialogue that she had previously utilized in “Harry Potter.”

Over the summer, Rowling published the second novel of the Cormoran Strike series, “The Silkworm,” in which Strike investigates the gruesome murder of an author who was killed in exactly the same manner as the main character in his new novel. During the writing of this book, however, Rowling’s “flair” seems to have deserted her. Her previous works were all noteworthy, but the first thing that stands out about “The Silkworm” is its disgusting, sordid descriptions–most of which are more unlikely and bizarre than the strangest spell that Harry ever cast. The dialogue, which had been fairly peppered by swear words in “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” now simply leaves the reader with a sense of disquiet at what he or she has just read. Although a great deal of the change is related to the plot, there is a great deal of unrelated vitriol present in the novel, presumably directed at various people by the murdered man, through the book he had just been about to publish. Rowling seems to have decided that vulgarity is the best way to tempt a wide crowd of readers, but she has definitely taken it too far.