If you’re a reader of any sort, and especially if you’re a fan of the fantasy genre, there is a strong probability that you have heard of a book titled Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. To be honest, there is a good chance you have caught wind of it even if you don’t consider yourself a reader, because the book has been incredibly successful, as have the other installments in the series.
I positively love the Fourth Wing series, and recently, Yarros released an additional text in the series called Threshing Day. I have it, but have yet to read it. I am looking forward to doing so once I finish the current texts I am reading.
A few weeks ago, Yarros posted online via her social media accounts that her father suddenly passed away. My heart breaks for her in this tragic time, and when she posted about her father’s passing to notify the public, her message broke my heart a little bit. She had to quite literally ask her fans and the public to respect her and her family’s grieving, and I couldn’t help but question how far gone we are as a society that authors must post public messages requesting privacy during a positively gruelling time.
Despite Yarros making this request, from what I have seen and observed online, her wishes are not being granted, nor are fans allowing her any grace during this period in her life, demanding status updates on the release of her next book.
What the hell is wrong with us? Is it now beyond our basic capabilities as human beings that we cannot even permit someone to properly grieve an astounding loss? Yarros, in the past, has even discussed how she and her family had to rehome themselves because of fans making death threats as a result of disagreeing with her content in her own damn books.
We really have fallen so, so far.
Photo by Elin Melaas on Unsplash
