Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophus
is a Fantasy Romance novel by two-time Hugo Award nominated author Chuck Tingle, published on June 12, 2020. The book is a Harry Potter Parody and a Take That! to J. K. Rowling's transphobic views.
Harriet Porber is a trans wizard and a spellsmith who is struggling to come up with a new spell after her previous spell went viral. Her agent Minerma convinces her to look for inspiration by traveling to an island off the coast of England. There she meets an edgy bad boy parasaurolophus named Snabe, a bard who uses metamagic and is part of a rock band. While Harriet finds Snabe rude at first, she eventually realizes that he is a sweet guy underneath his bad boy exterior and falls in love with him. However, things are complicated by two sentient motorcycles named Dellatrix and Braco who have it out for Harriet.
Being a parody, this book doesn’t take itself completely seriously, lampshading romance tropes and often Breaking the Fourth Wall. Snabe's metamagic causes the book to become Metafiction. Like Chuck Tingle's other works, it also contains plenty of sex. Despite being a Harry Potter parody, the book has little to do with the books other than the character names, the focus on wizards, and a few Take Thats to the series and J.K. Rowling.
It received a sequel called Trans Wizard Harriet Porber And The Theater Of Love, which focuses on Harriet forming a magic show in Las Vegas with Snabe after the powerful spell she created leads to chaos, causing her to be blacklisted from the magic community. Her comeback show, The Theater of Love, faces challenges and threats from an Evil, Inc. company called Just Kidding Corporation and a hypnotist wizard called the Great Magini. It was released on March 15, 2021.
Tropes:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Snabe's bad boy persona makes him very attractive to other characters. While Harriet is initially annoyed by him, she can't help but feel attracted.
- Animate Inanimate Object:
- Dellatrix and Brako are sentient motorcycles.
- The sequel introduces Cereal Black, a sentient box of cereal.
- The Bard: Snabe is a bard who plays in a rock band with his Magic Music.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: This story is filled with fourth ball breaks, mostly courtesy of Snabe.
- Interspecies Romance: Harriet is a human wizard in a relationship with a parasaurolophus.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The intercom on Snabe's boat that is mentioned early in the story is later used to distract Dellatrix during the final battle.
- The paddle Dellatrix uses to fake an injury is later used by Harriet to knock her off Snabe's boat during the fight.
- Jerkass Ball: Parodied. Snabe is an asshole at the start of the story for no reason despite being a nice guy. He breaks the fourth wall and admits that the author wrote him this way just to create more drama.
- Lampshade Hanging: Snabe often references and makes fun of romance tropes, such as the bad boy love interest acting like a jerk at the start of the story for no reason.
- Magic Music: Being a bard, Snabe's music has magical abilities, specifically related to Breaking the Fourth Wall.
- Medium Awareness: Due to using metamagic, Snabe is aware that he is in a Chuck Tingle novel and often references any bad or generic writing choices and overused tropes.
- Metafiction: The story is very self aware, as Snabe's metamagic allows him and later other characters to see that they are in a Chuck Tingle book.
- Parody: The book parodies the Harry Potter series, albeit loosely. It mainly is made to criticize J.K. Rowling's transphobia while telling a unique story that has characters with similar names to Harry Potter characters.
- Porn with Plot: While it contains explicit sex scenes, it has an actual story and is more than just smut.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Dellatrix and Brako are Snabe's ex girlfriends who hate Harriet and are obsessed with getting back together with Snabe.
- Shout-Out: Snabe's band Seven Inch Nails is a reference to Nine Inch Nails.
- Spell Crafting: Harriet is a spell crafter who creates new spells.
- Take That!: The entire story is a huge take that to J.K. Rowling due to her transphobic views, portraying a character based on Harry as trans. It also contains some jokes making fun of Rowling, such as having Bumbledorf mention he's gay during his first scene rather than being confirmed gay by Word of God. Also, the villainous company in the sequel is called the JK Corporation.
- Third-Act Misunderstanding: Harriet and Snabe briefly break up after Dellatrix faked an injury, leading to Snabe taking care of her and getting angry when Harriet claims she is faking it.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Harriet loves spaghetti and chocolate milk, which are the only food and drink she consumes in the book.
- Writer's Block: At the start of the story, Harriet struggles to come up with a new spell after her previous one went viral.
