otherworldly tales of courage and hope
You settle into a cozy nook, excited to explore a new world after a long day. The characters intrigue you — especially the one who reflects your own struggles — the setting awes you, and you’re fully invested. But as you turn page after page, hope drains away from the story, and by the end, the characters you love so dearly are only a shattered husk of themselves, with no hope for healing or redemption in the wake of all their trials. You grab another book, but this one shies away from your mental struggles altogether, showing only a picture-perfect world where no one is forced to grapple with their own mind. You toss the story aside in frustration. But what if those tales are right, and you’re all alone with no one who understands and no hope of healing?
Dear friend, you’re not alone. Hope and realism don’t have to be at odds.
As a teen struggling with anxiety, depression, and relational trauma, I dove into books and films in search of characters who could help me feel understood and give me hope for the future. I grew up on books like The Ashtown Burials and The Lord of the Rings — stories that are heartrendingly honest about both our broken world and the struggles we face within it, but always point to the hope that good will prevail and our wounds can heal — and always wished there were more books like them. But too many of the stories I found put either the “realism” of my struggles ahead of the hope I craved, leaving me more depressed than when I’d started, or else shied away from mental darkness and difficult questions, leaving me wondering if I really was alone.
