For most, reading a book is quite ordinary—open, read, close. But for those of us who delve a little deeper into the plot of the book, who identify parts of ourselves in the characters, and feel attached to the plot line, reading a book becomes an emotional rollercoaster that often ends up in fall in love with a fictional character or two. Yes, it is possible to fall in love with fictional characters. That is the beauty of literature and fiction, it makes you feel things you didn’t think you could, it allows you to travel to distant or made up lands in the blink of an eye, it allows you to fall in love with words on paper. For those of you who don’t know what it’s like to fall in love with a fictional character, here it is.

You’re in a bookstore and you see a somewhat long novel that calls out to you so you pick it up and read the excerpt or synopsis. Your mind suddenly starts telling you that you need this book, and so you purchase it. Because it seemed so interesting, you start reading it the second you get home, but the book wasn't what you expect. It’s a bit slow…until you get to chapter 8—that’s when it gets interesting. Things start to happen, adventures are on the horizon, and you can feel the love starting to grow between two characters. At first, you feel completely fine with the pairing; after all, the author must know what they’re doing, and the characters seem happy. As the story goes on, problems begin to occur between the lovers, and you find yourself thinking that he/she deserves better, that he/she needs to find someone who doesn’t come with so much baggage, or whatever else. Nonetheless, you continue to read the book, as the plot is enthralling and the characters invigorating.

Something happens, and boom! You are not only wary about where the plot is going, but you also feel like crying your eyes out because of the pain the character is feeling. All you can think is that you want their pain to stop, and that you might scream your fucking lungs out in frustration. Words written by an author are reaching into you in a way that even some humans can’t. Slowly, whatever dilemma had been going on begins working itself out; the character starts to get better, and in your heart you sense a weird feeling that you later realize is relief. Because of simple words put together into phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs. By the end of the novel, even if the character ends up with this person or another, you feel glad and relieved to know that they are happy and safe. This precise moment is when you realize you have just fallen in love with a fictional character. All the caring, worrying, resenting, and finally, feeling relieved was because you fell in love with a character from a book.

And so, falling in love with a character is like discovering you had feelings for something you know can’t exist, for something that is simply unimaginable. It is completely fathomable to love a fictional character, all you need is a book and a thoughtful mind that yearns to feel through the bitter sweet pages of a book.