Dear author

Dear author,

This is for all the authors out there who are decorating our worlds with beautiful books. I would say I’m writing this letter on behalf of all readers but that isn’t true.  I’m writing this for me and my well-being and also for my heart that has been crushed, shattered, ripped out, healed and then broken again.

I can’t say it’s your fault. Because partly it’s mine and also society’s. I read your book even though I knew it would break my heart. You wrote it that way because you knew what you wanted from it and to tell through it. But it’s the society that knows that we have lived in the lie of happy endings for too long. We need to see the truth.

Where things aren’t always perfect, people aren’t always happy, we don’t live forever and love isn’t easily found (and  when it is found, it’s hard to maintain a relationship). Nobody knows how we readers suffer apart from ourselves.

People have this idea in mind that in books, things are always happy and good. Well that’s an utter load of crap. Shit happens in books. They do make you laugh sometimes and make you feel good but they can also make you feel insignificant, sad, heartbroken and leave you a big sobbing mess.

Every book means something different to every reader. The Harry Potter I read isn’t the same as yours because I understood it differently. For me it’s meaning changes everytime. But still we all cried when Dumbeldore died. We still appreciate the awesome Professor McGonagalls. We couldn’t believe (and still don’t believe)  what they say about Fred Weasley. He’s completely happy and with his family making jokes. And don’t you dare say he isn’t. Thank you very much.

And then there are books like The Fault in our stars,  Looking for Alaska,  Thirteen reasons why, The Perks of being a wallflower that just change your thinking and mindset. But they also hurt you. Nothing to teach you something like a little pain.

I can’t, won’t tell you how to write books, to not kill the characters because it hurts, to let us have the little amount of happiness we get by diving into a book and living someone else’s life but I will ask you to understand what we suffer. That when we accuse of being heartless because you killed someone we cared about, we are hurting and when we tell you that we can’t wait for the next book, it means that we are counting every second till the book comes out and every second is filled with impatience and excitement.

You have been a reader once  and maybe you are still so you can understand. Please don’t feel bad when people are hating you, or dislike your book because somewhere there is someone who is happy that you wrote the book and loves you. There might be just one person who is happy with you and millions who are against you but that one  person is still worth it.

We have laughed because of you, cried because of you,  we love you and we hate you but you still have had an impact on us. You have marked us with your writing and you need to  feel good about that. And if you don’t,  you should.

In the last, I’ll just say if you ever read this, I’m glad you are here, I’m glad you wrote a book and I’m glad you gave your readers a chance to live a different life.

Thank you.

Alex.

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