these authors are problematic
a list of problematic authors that you should boycott
created by leena_reads
last updated April, 2026
Comments
Why are TJ Kune and Senlinyu here? What did they do? Also, should consider adding Neil Gaiman.
TJ Klune because for some reason he tried to claim that his found family book was inspired by the sixties scoop. And Senlinyu because of the HP connection (publishing fanfic—and promoting it as such—keeps JKR in the zeitgeist no matter what other intentions the author/readers might have)
I highly recommend looking up the 60’s scoop. It’s so crazy of TJ Klune, a white man, to use indigenous genocide as inspiration for his fantasy novel. I’ll also second @kishmish comment about Senlinyu; it’s spot on.
I just saw someone comment that TJ Klune's book wasn’t exploitative and was well written. I’m not sure if they deleted that comment or blocked me from seeing it, but I’m going to respond anyway because I’m sure some have felt or feel similarly.
So if someone is using a genocide as inspiration for their cozy fantasy novel without actually having any ties or an in depth conversation about how horrific of a time that was, I don’t think it really matters if it was well written or not. In this case, T.J. Klune has used a real life event that has taken indigenous peoples' lives for financial gain, which is the definition of exploitative.
I got into it with someone about this a while ago. I loved this book when I first read it, without knowing his “inspiration” for it. After I found out, I was horrified, and haven’t read any of his work since. He never apologized or took anything victims of the 60s scoop said about his work seriously. It’s so gross.
For lists like this it would be great to have some info on each author in the comments, with sources where possible. I know it would be a lot of work, but when encouraging boycotts it's always good to cite some credible sources and inform everybody of the facts! 📝♡
Ohhh good idea for a list. Many authors I don't know, some are on my TBR so now I know to look into them. Might I suggest adding Neil Gaiman fo the list?
Came here to upvote and support as my list is getting spam downvoted, thanks for making this list!
ugh some people are miserable
Followed and up voted + shared
Went and upvoted your list, sorry people suck sometimes.
For anyone avoiding Zionists, there is also this spreadsheet with some additional information 🫰🍉
🍉 ♥️
Curious about Brigitte Knightley and Julie Soto, why are they problematic? (genuinely asking, not questioning your decision to add them!) I would also say that Neil Gaiman is problematic as well. Thanks for making this list
Yes, I also have the same question. I would like to know the reason as well
It’s because Julie Soto made, I think, her Hermione and Draco retelling with Rose and Chains or something like that, and she was using Harry Potter as a promotion in one of her posters to promote her new book coming out.I’m not sure if it’s still up on her Instagram. I’m sure somebody has a screenshot on Threads or on TikTok, but her doing that brings more eyes back onto Harry Potter, which then new people who haven’t read Harry Potter can then go ahead and read and support J. K. Rowling, who is a very problematic author. Then the whole vicious cycle just continues of these books, getting out there and problematic authors, financially gaining. If that makes sense, there’s even been people on TikTok promoting Rose and Chains, and people in the comments saying that they want to read or re-read the Harry Potters books bc of her book. Hope that makes sense. If you look at some TikToks, I’m sure someone would explain it better.
I understand J.K. Rowling for sure, but it feels unfair to me to judge works inspired by the Harry Potter universe as a whole (Soto, Knightley, SenLinYu). Like is it fair to judge authors for being inspired by something? The story of HP isn’t the problematic part; the woman who wrote it is. And it feels unfair to hold these authors accountable for Rowling’s hate, if they haven’t expressed anything similar. Maybe I see the connection with the HP marketing plug, but to my knowledge SenLinYu’s Alchemised distanced itself from the HP universe with the publication of the book. (I picked it up without ever knowing it was originally fanfiction. It has nothing to do with HP at all anymore.)
I don’t think we can say fan fiction is inherently an endorsement of Rowling or promoting her work. Since those spaces do exist in part to alter the universe for various reasons. But I do understand this gets complicated and is a gray space.
I agree with this. Also when was the fan fic written? If it was before we all found out jkr was problematic then I think it’s unfair. In alchemised there’s zero reference to HP. I don’t think it’s their fault they were once a fan of HP and did fan fiction. It was a huge deal back in the day. JKR isn’t making any money off of it.
The explanation for why to avoid things like fanfiction I see the most is that they keep the primary work relevant. As long as folks are rewriting/reclaiming HP people will continue to seek out HP to see why it was important enough to rewrite/reclaim. Willingly or not, it keeps Rowling relevant, keeps attention focused on her, and thus will unfortunately continue to send money her way.
That makes sense. Thanks for that context. I just think this particular issue is not so black and white in terms of whether to read or not. So for me, I am okay supporting SenLinYu, for example, but I can respect anyone who feels differently. It's definitely complicated and unfortunate.
Also, I feel like the majority of people don’t even know that it was HP fanfiction. I only found out recently because of PB
alchemised was actively promoted using HP, all the marketing materials referenced it and the author themself regularly posts HP fanart on their insta page. it was only picked up because it was a popular fanfic in a huge fandom—debut authors generally don’t get deals for 1k+ page books. any work that draws on a problematic author’s work and could direct people back to the extremely problematic source material is an issue. i’ve personally seen a huge number of people on here + fable + booksta rereading hp because of alchemised—and unless they’re ALL reading thrifted or already owned copies, that means jkr is making money off of it.
This exactly👏
Also i haven’t seen any promotional media about alchemised being an HP fan fic so I didn’t know that was happening either! So yes i see your point
Ah thank you! Thanks for clearing that up. I didn’t know she was still posting HP fan art.
In that case I understand.
yea of course!! i’ve kept up with a lot of the discourse on it and glad to share my wisdom of it (lol) where i can :)
Also, for Alchemized, her cover art is made with AI you can check this out on Threads and also search the user shelfindulgence.tacoma on Threads has a Google Doc about it.
At the end of the day, personally, I’ve seen many from the queer community saying how harmful these works have been due to the fact that they do lead people to the original works; it’s nearly impossible to not know what these stories were inspired from. word of mouth alone, they would know. I’ve seen in many comment sections people saying that they are going to pick up HP because of these stories. I wholeheartedly believe we should listen to marginalized communities because they are the ones directly being affected in such a harmful, scary way. No fictional story is more important than people to me; it’s as simple as that. No one is saying you cannot pick up these authors; that’s entirely up to you, but I also think you should be aware how your actions can be harmful to marginalized communities.
Also, for Alchemized, her cover art is made with AI you can check this out on Threads and also search the user shelfindulgence.tacoma on Threads has a Google Doc about it. Which is gross to me personally.
At the end of the day, personally, I’ve seen many from the queer community saying how harmful these works have been due to the fact that they do lead people to the original works; it’s nearly impossible to not know what these stories were inspired from. word of mouth alone, they would know. I’ve seen in many comment sections people saying that they are going to pick up HP because of these stories. I wholeheartedly believe we should listen to marginalized communities because they are the ones directly being affected in such a harmful, scary way. No fictional story is more important than people to me; it’s as simple as that. No one is saying you cannot pick up these authors; that’s entirely up to you, but I also think you should be aware how your actions can be harmful to marginalized communities.
I agree that fanfiction is not an endorsement, however, using the original work explicitly to market your published work does potentially promote the original work to those who enjoy the published fanfiction. Also it indicates being okay giving lip service to jkr for profit. ALSO, it doesn't matter what the original work is, as promoting published fics using the original goods opens fanfic as a whole up to litigation and control due to copyright. Many authors have tried to make it illegal and moves like this open that can of worms again
What's wrong with Callie Hart? I'm seeing information about Zionism and maybe Palestine but I'm not clear what the actual issue is. I also don't know if using sweeping statements like "problematic" actually helps readers understand socially undesirable behavior and its nuances. Just my two cents.
Thank you for the list!!! If you’re interested to add more, there’s also Sophie Lark (racist & xenophobic) , Jessa Hastings (use AI to write), Freydis Moon (faked their identity as a queer poc and bullied other queer poc authors), LJ Shen (Zionist + many plagiarism accusations & stolen covers), Elle Kennedy (lesphobia + racism), Tille Cole (kkk « romance » book)
Yesss! Adding what I don't already have to my 🚩 shelf so I can easily see it if I'm about to accidentally add something to my tbr (Colleen Hoover, SJM, and others I know I'll remember, but some authors/books I don't hear about as often and I don't trust my memory 😩)
Same, my memory is horrible and I don’t keep up to date with authors and their social media platforms
Preach!!🙌 someone had to do it
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LIST THANK GOODNESS THERE IS ONE NOW
0% overlap IKTRRR 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
I have a Do Not Support shelf if you need want more entries.
Do they have explanations in the comments as to why not too?
Shelfs don't have comments, so no, but a lot of them are AI written, of pen names of people who are pretending to be a minority.
Would honestly love a list of AI authors, cover art, and audiobook!
Why Nic Stone? And Amy harmon?
I tried googling and I think I know but still not sure about Harmon but nothing came up on Stone.
She posted on her IG story pray for israel also this Reddit post talks about her as well
Thank you! I will check the reddit out.
I also want to know why Nic Stone?? I haven't seen or heard anything about her being bad. Also Neil Gaiman 100% deserves a spot on here.
Like what I could find was dear Martin being banned because people didn't like her talking about police violence, racism, you know the typical bullshit reasons.
I read the book and I didn't see anything wrong with it, tbh. Like the only reason people want it banned is because they're racist and it's anti-copaganda.
This is actually incorrect pls do research
I mean, that is the only reason why people want the book banned. I didn't know Nic Stone was a zionist which is why we were asking. When pulling up "nic stone controversy" it only shows her books being banned due to her conversations about racism and cops.
Ohhhh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, it's worth checking that Insta page.
Unfortunately I do not have Instagram but I do appreciate you letting us know that she's a zionist. I've removed her from my recommendations.
Zionestauthors insta page will have what your looking for on Nic stone
why sanderson?
Zionestauthors on instagram shows why it’s a great page
i’m not on insta
comment has been deleted.
you list an author and refuse to explain why? I personally was curious why Sanderson was on here, too, but clearly I am not getting an answer here for that. I am not on instagram either and refuse to be persuaded to go on a platform that heavily influenced my addiction to technology, just cause you don't want to atleast give a general idea... in the time you've written this comment you could've explained why he's problematic.
He is Mormon and uses his money for anti LGBTQ+ organizations and I believe he is pro Israel
fwiw he has an entire section on his website FAQ about LGBTQ+ support and states:
My current stance is one of unequivocable support for LGBTQ+ rights. I support gay marriage. I support trans rights, the rights of non-binary people, and I support the rights of trans people to affirm their own identity with love and support. I support anti-discrimination legislation, and have voted consistently along these lines for the last fifteen years. I am marking the posting of this FAQ item, at the encouragement of several of my LGBTQ+ fans, with a sizable donation to the Utah Pride Center and another to The OUT Foundation.
(The whole section is much longer about how he reconciles that with his faith)
But he is a practicing Mormon and I believe as part of that probably does give money to the Mormon church itself.
He may put money into LGBTQ+ supporting organizations but that doesn't change him being an active Mormon (a racist homophobic organization) where he is also putting money into. Like one doesn't cancel the other out. He is actively supporting and a part of the Mormon organization. That makes what money he puts into LGBTQ+ supporting organizations seem like a pittance. He is also a zionist so either way🖕🏽 him
I mean... if we really go that route we should cancel most authors who are part of any church or mosque since they're all, or most of them, inherently very much homophobic.... So that doesn't make much sense to me. I do think him being zionist is a valid point tho, but yeah...
I am getting downvoted and I just wanna say i couldn't give less f's about religion, as I dislike all of them for this exact reason, as a bisexual woman... And I myself am an atheist. I just don't see the logic in that. Instead of downvoting away maybe tell me the difference that the mormon church has compared to my orthodox churches for example which also condemn me to eternal fire? lol
I think the down voting comes because the LDS is not equal to other churches, it's a damn cult. They are literally a business and take 10% of income from all their members and use that in very harmful ways. I'm also an atheist and you will catch me dead before defending any religious institution but it is inaccurate to say that the Mormons are like every other religion, because they are simply not.
Oh, yikes... I did not know that. Although, in Romania the church also asks people for money and that's why many hate churches even if they are religious. Anyways, I was referring more to the broad fact that from my point of view, anyone who's part of any church is either willingly or unwillingly participating in organizations that ARE homophobic, unless they're one of the very few and rare pro lgbt churches lol which I am pretty sure do not exist in orthodox countries lmao
I had NO IDEA that happened in Romania. The more you know... I would be fuming (and moving) if my government made me pay any amount of money to a religious institution. And I do agree with you that solely religious association wouldn't be enough for me to stop reading an author. But I do have personal beef with the LDS and JW and the more fringe/extremist christian churches so any association with those more extreme institutions is going to be a hard pass for me.
Extremist branches are so alive in romania too, they are called Pocaiti lol I had a friend that was sadly part of a family like that and another one that was from a Jehova's Witness family... Also, I don't live in Romania so I don't know for sure if any of their money goes to churches, but I do know that priests or whatever they're called do go from door to door to "bless" their houses and then demand money for doing it lol And that they just built the biggest Orthodox church in the world despite people's protest against building more churches LOL
I’m not advocating to take him off or anything, just was looking into it on my own and found that information relevant to the conversation
I personally don’t take his apology too seriously; he stood ten toes down for a while. I believe he only apologized so it wouldn’t negatively affect his income. If he is turning over a new leaf, fine, but idk if I trust it. Plus, he’s still a Zionist.
“In 2019, Brandon Sanderson travelled to Israel to attend ICon as the "guest of honor." In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, he said he was "very honored" to be there. He explained that, although he got many emails asking him not to attend, he doesn't believe boycotting is "an effective way to cause social change." Many of his books have been translated into Hebrew for sale in Israel, and his Legion series is partially set in Jerusalem. His editor, Moshe Feder, is a Zionist who has lived in Israel at some point.”
There’s more about this and artical clippings on Zionistauthors insta page
This list is so useful now that we can mute books 🎉 thank you!
Thank you thank you thank you for this! I can reference this to update my DNR list!
Why Taylor Jenkins Reid? I have to know since I’ve read a few of hers😭 thankfully that’s the only ones I’ve read from this whole list
“Since last October, Taylor Jenkins Reid has not publicly acknowledged the genocide in Palestine in any way. The only thing she posted was a video of an Israeli father crying in an interview. This is harmful in the way it frames the situation: settlers are perpetual victims. There is no room in that narrative for Palestinian rights or resistance. It is propaganda meant to build sympathy for the oppressor, and that is how TJR used her platform. She has not spoken up for Palestinians in any way.” Zionestauthors on instagram has the screenshot of this
Another personal reason for me is that in a majority of her books she has centered around BIPOC characters. I personally don’t like how she had so many Hispanic main characters for her being Caucasian. And is the representation good not really.
@ jhdysprosium on threds explained this aspect perfectly as well in my opinion
“I think the main issue is that publishers will uplift white authors who wrote bipoc characters over bipoc authors. Bipoc authors get less marketing and placement compared to white authors even if they are from the same publisher.”
zibby owens my most beloathed
When I saw 1% overlap I just knew it was J K Rowling
What did Pierce Brown do ??
“Pierce Brown has reposted at least three different pieces of Zionist propaganda to his Instagram story. One of these posts depicts a candle burning with the quote "more Jews were murdered on October 7th, 2023 than on any other single day since the holocaust." This frames Israeli settlers as victims of religious persecution and makes it seem as if what is happening is a religious conflict rather than a genocide. It invokes the holocaust to justify a new one, and weaponizes Judaism. Additionally, Brown included war criminal Henry Kissinger's "On China" as part of his reading list. When he received backlash, his response was "stay in an echo chamber you will only ever know your own opinion." You can look at the screenshots on the Zionestauthors Instagram page, not to mention searching on Google and TikTok; there’s Reddit. Also threads probably.
Thank youu,I am not really active on any other socials so I didn't know anything about this
Np!
Bill Willingham?? What did I miss
Wait, what did Nicholas Sparks do? What did I miss?? 😭
this is def not why he made this list but all the career booksellers i know who have met him says he’s extremely unpleasant lol
Wait, what did the author of Quicksilver do? I was so close to buying the book...
Callie Hart is considered problematic by some readers due to passages in her books, particularly Riot House, which include potentially problematic content related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Oh, so basically another Zionist-leaning author? Why are there so many of them lol
Yes and who knows
What did M.A. Wardell do? I've had his books recommended to me a lot.
I’m wondering this as well.
So it was very hard to find, but I saw screenshots of him liking zionist posts and heard that he's friends with zionists. I've also seen people accuse him of being aphobic and transphobic, but I haven't seen any proof for that as of now (if someone else knows something about this, please let us know!). Just people referencing a meme (?) he posted about not liking closed door romance... bisforbooksandbisexuals has posted stories about him on instagram.
Thank you, I will do some digging.
So kids of today shouldn't read Harry Potter?
Its a great story but strongly reccommend trifting the series and not give jkr anything, second hand everything
That depends. How willing are you to talk to your kids about JKR's power as a public figure and her ability to influence an entire country to actively harm an at-risk minority group (trans people)? Will those kids still want to read HP after they know that JKR is more like Voldemort than Harry? The main appeal about the books is that they present a somewhat uncomplicated moral fairy tale, are those kids ready for the fact that this is an illusion that has been used to further a hateful agenda? Will you fall in the kid's esteem if you say you treasure the words of a bigot?
exactly, this is really well-said
Idk man, i grew up in a family the word gay was forbiden to besaid so my brother grows up in ignorance there are gay people. My country isnt popular with lgbt or trans right, every year we get a trans person famous via internet/tv and they end up being the worst person you can imagine, but i am from a very small soviet influenced country and JKR has no reputation here, only the small lgbt circles and fans concider that a topic compared to everybody else. We too poor and busy to pay that much attention.
Ah, we have something in common, I'm too poor and busy to argue with bigots on the internet.
i agree with you about harry potter and jkr completely (and am trans myself) but i wonder if Dragonsnob's comment deserves some more nuance. as someone who also grew up in a post ussr country and is familiar with the culture, it is hard to care about things like the politics of some western author when there are much worse things happening in your own country that are much more immediate. it's simply not a part of the public discourse, but i do agree that people who are into reading and are part of the small lgbtq community there should care and perhaps should not recommend jkr works to anyone.
i don't think Dragonsnob is being a bigot, they are simply explaining why jkr's bigotry is not a priority in their country's public discourse, which is a completely different thing. also, frankly, the world is much bigger than the public discourse of a colonizer country like the uk. trans rights issues are much bigger than all the uk and us discourse and can look very different from the western conversation.
Just dropping here a second to comment on the fact that I don't think the public discourse about trans rights of the us and uk is so disconnected from anywhere around the world, just for something that yes affects very few people but the ban on trans athletes in the Olympics came from this discourse. I'm Italian and every day I have to see my politician copy the bigoted laws the USA pass etc etc. Unfortunately these things have a global impact, I even remember Putin speaking in favor of jk Rowling some time ago. As much as I wish we didn't have to care about stuff going on in these countries they have too much influence to ignore them anywhere.
i don't disagree with this, it's all connected of course, and there is a global impact. but sometimes those conversations do look different, especially in places that are not the us and western europe. when being a part of the lgbtq community is considered an actual legal crime you can go to jail for, the priorities change.
I do understand that but I still struggle to mh, "Trust" is too harsh but I can't think of a more appropriate term, accept someone that fully knows the horrible things this woman does and ignores them to read a book that came out 30 years ago just because it doesn't affect them. I'm not gonna do a witch hunt but I block on sight any person I see online that still give that book attention, I'm not gonna worry to check if they have it worse than trans women in the USA or Europe
that's completely understandable and i agree jkr should not get any money or attention because she has done actual real harm on a global level. but i think this is getting away from the point i was trying to make, which is that i don't think Dragonsnob was being a bigot when they just described the attitude of their country's culture toward jkr. in another comment they also said something along the lines to not give jkr any money by purchasing her books. i just feel like farron's response was a little unwarranted
Oh I'm not participating in that discussion! I just wanted to point out how fucking dangerous this woman is for everyone!
okay so fair. and i do agree! she is a blight on this earth and should've been taken from this life by the black mould a long time ago
Man I feel like that would have been unfair even for the mold 💀
Exactly, when the major world powers do something, it empowers other countries to follow suit! It’s unfortunately EVERYONE’s concern
And jk Rowling is the single writer that has actual power to change the world for the worst in a legal way! She directly uses her hp money on pushing for anti trans laws in England (that then forces other countries in the UK to follow). I genuinely don't care about any other writer this way, I think people can read someone equally transphobic as her as long as that person uses their money just to live and not to haunt trans people for sport. Rowling is just too dangerous.
I think even just the fact that there are so many people in so many countries that are fans of her and her books shows how much of a global issue she is. Her money may only go towards UK efforts, but there are people all around the world that see her as an inspiration and look up to her. They will take her hate to heart, her word means something to them. Even if she didn’t put any money into these efforts, her pushing these ideals does REAL damage globally.
It's incredible how damaging she is just because of a book she wrote 30 years ago I refuse to believe people really care that much about the book, a lot of them must be like cishet white people when you tell them they shouldn't say a slur and then insist on saying them like little children, there are so. Many. Books. I grew up with hp and used to love it so much and I still moved the fuck on BECAUSE IT'S JUST A BOOK I CAN READ OTHER THINGS
It depends on a family. There're families (like mine) who teach kids that literature and art can be considered both, in connection with author's personality and separately. Teaching critical thinking and trusting my child to make his own mind (which will also likely change as time goes by and as he learns to seek and sort information) is more important for me than banning books.
I did not say that Harry Potter, or any books, should be banned. I'm saying they shouldn't be approached without discussion.
The concerns about JKR as an author, as I've laid them out, are so much more than her "personality." Silence on bigotry is in itself a lesson children take to heart. Some families have more privilege to avoid these conversations than others, but the ones I know who've had to face them, even with children, have always managed them alright.
That is all well and good but separating the art from the artist when said artist is still alive and profiting off the attention and using that profit to directly negatively impact a vulnerable minority group is not a case where that applies. Separating the art from the artist is an analytical theory for interpretation of texts, not a get out of jail free-card from social responsibility.
Furthermore, nobody is banning Harry Potter. People are just arguing against giving JKR money. Reading the books and discussing them with regards to the author and separately from the author is surely a beneficial exercise if a child wants to read HP. But giving JKR money is just not right when you know where the money goes.
that is my opinion, yes! 😌 continuing to let jkr be in the cultural zeitgeist, which happens even if you buy secondhand or pirate, signals to publishers and film/tv production companies that she can continue to be transphobic and racist and people will still be invested in her works (which are riddled with stereotypes and bad writing). there's much better diverse fantasy for kids that doesn't keep a woman who is dedicating her life and wealth to making the lives of trans people hell in the public eye.
Separating the art from the artist i guess. On this level of logic we witness a lot of lgbt+haters buying brand clothes and items created by gars, for companies owned by gays. Just an example pla dont come for me
this is great actually. i dont know a lot of the authors at all but i feel so vindicated rn for avoiding Kristin Hannah over just a gut feeling and nothing else. i know nothing of her. i think im assuming she is on here for being an islamophobic zionist bc of a tumblr post that i can only read in the google search result (i think the post was deleted) but also some reddit posts seem to indicate her books are also not great. i kinda assumed as much but never looked into it til now 😂 anyway saving this list bc i def wanna avoid these. some of them were books i recognized and may have considered reading but now i def wont be
and also now i feel less bad for accidentally dropping out of my library's book club. at least one of the old ladies in there is pretty great in my book but its only older ladies i was the youngest by prob at least 25 years most likely more. they read kristin hannah a few times and were going to again 😭 i stopped going bc i kept missing meetings bc of migraines and then just gave up and never went again lmao
