Help! I'm in love with a fictional character!
You know the feeling: smitten, confused, and kind of embarrassed. But there’s no need to be embarrassed. We’ve all been there. We’ve all been in love with a fictional character.
Think back to your first fictional love. We all have one; you probably found them in Young Adult. Popular book crushes include Peeta and Gale from The Hunger Games, Edward and Jacob from Twilight, Sabina in the Alex Rider series, Peter in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Nathan Allen in I Wish You All the Best, not to mention the titular Hani and Ishu in Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating.
But they don’t stop in adulthood, no no! Readers are falling at the fictional feet of Joshua Templeman in The Hating Game and Connell Waldron in Normal People (at least Paul Mescal is real). Character crushes are a phenomena that is set to plague readers throughout our lives. But why do we fall for characters that don’t exist in three dimensions?
Why we fall in love with fictional characters
Admittedly, it could just be that fictional characters are… better. Actress and YouTuber Carrie Hope Fletcher puts it plainly in her song Boys in Books are Better:
Boys in books are better,
Cause they'll be here forever,
And we'll always be together
And I know it's an addiction
That I'm in love with fiction
But as long as I'm still breathing
I just have to keep on reading.
Another thing these nonexistent knockouts have going for them is that sometimes stuff is attractive in books that isn’t attractive in real life. When we’re dating, most of us don’t list “grumpy, cold, and uncommunicative” at the top of our list of dealbreakers, yet when Joshua Templeman does it, we’re not complaining! Books are all about the chase, the journey, and anything that will amp that up is going to benefit the plot and the way we feel about the characters. But real life continues after the chase, and sometimes those are the best bits about existing off the page.
Maybe the thing we love about fictional characters is the fact they’re fictional. We all know the feeling of opening up a book and wanting to climb inside it. We don’t just want the character, we want all their friends, and their whole world, too. When we think we want a fictional character, what we really want is to ride the broomstick, save the princess, and go to the prom with the quarterback.
The best thing about fictional characters? They’re always into you. The you that’s putting yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, but also you just being… you. They love you exactly as you are, they think you’re perfect. It’s even better when there’s two characters fighting over you! But I hate to break it to you: these characters are absolute players, because they’re making all the other readers feel that way as well. Maybe that’s the advantage actual human beings have over these fictional characters. That, and the whole being real part.
How to get over it!
Ah, dear reader, here is where my wisdom dries up. If you’re really stuck, list off the things you hate about that character. Nothing? What about everything you would hate about that character if you took off the book-tinted glasses and met someone like that in real life? Still nothing? Good luck to you.
Maybe opening your heart to a real human being would be the best solution, but let’s face it - you’re going to open your heart to a new fictional character. And I can’t blame you. As Carrie Hope Fletcher says, boys in books are better.