Fiction is the perfect platform to talk about the things nobody wants to have conversations about in real life. When you’re reading about a character’s struggles, you find ways to relate from a distance. It doesn’t always hurt as much, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt at all. Chronic illness is real. Death is real. People don’t like to read about those things because they know it could happen to them. Distance or not, you put yourself in the shoes of every character you read. Denial doesn’t make the fear go away. It expands it. Feeds it. Makes it impossible to fight.
