Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid has shared a message she received on Instagram that wished she would be hit by a truck, prompting an outpouring of support on Reddit. Reid posted a screenshot of the comment to her Instagram Story with the caption, 'I just...I'd like to think I'd be more careful after being hit by the first truck, y'know?' The message went on to describe a graphic scenario of repeated harm.
A Reddit thread about the post on r/Fauxmoi collected around 1,000 upvotes and 101 comments, with commenters condemning the message and debating how some fans treat the people behind the stories they love. Reid wrote the Game Changers novels on which the TV series Heated Rivalry, starring Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov, is based. She has also spoken publicly about living with Parkinson's disease, a detail many commenters said made the message harder to read.
Fans Rally Around the Author
One of the most popular responses came from the original poster, whose comment drew 668 upvotes. They wrote that 'rachel reid is a very real person, and she doesn't deserve to be harassed just because some people in this fandom can't seem to grasp the fact that this is her story and these are her characters'.
Others questioned what could justify such a message. 'What about these books and particularly hockey books warrant death threats???' asked fawndoll3. 'Heated rivalry has spawned one of the most deranged fanbases, it's so weird,' wrote Top-Preparation1341. 'And this level of hate for the person that created it is wild too.'
Comment
by u/No-Hall-3485 from discussion
in Fauxmoi
RevolutionaryMove584 wrote, 'I thought you LIKED this show. why do you wish everyone involved in it to suffer??' Butchelves said the message was 'even more heinous' because Reid 'has Parkinson's Disease and she's been open about how it's impacted her motor skills'.
Why Some Fans Are Angry
The anger is not entirely new. Reid has faced online criticism this year over remarks about Shane and separately over the casting of season two, according to entertainment reports. In the thread, Kom0tan asked whether fans were upset about something specific, and the original poster replied that, 'from what i gather', some fans believe Reid 'favours' Ilya over Shane. 'apparently it's completely unheard of for an author to have favourites among their own characters,' they added. 'what a bizarre and unprecedented concept'.
Not everyone in the fandom was painted with the same brush. 'It's so disheartening because the show is really good and a lot the fandom is just enjoying themselves making art, edits, and fanfics,' wrote byeongok, though they added that there is 'a very unwell segment of the fandom'.
Fiction and Real People
Several commenters pointed to the distinction between fictional characters and the real people who create them. TayluxSwift shared a post by Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls, that read, '90% of the problem with twitter is treating fictional people like they're real and real people like they're fictional.'
Comment
by u/No-Hall-3485 from discussion
in Fauxmoi
Calls for Consequences
Some wanted to see accountability. 'People like this need to face consequences,' wrote staticdresssweet, whose comment drew 354 upvotes. 'Social media has made it far too easy to just say things like this.'
Even commenters who are not fans agreed. 'yeah, i don't like the show and im not a fan of the author; that said, it's a special kind of deranged to send this to another person,' wrote nevalja.
The thread's response was largely united, even among those who were split on the characters. Whatever fans think of where Reid takes Shane and Ilya, the commenters quoted here agreed that wishing harm on the author crossed a line. The discussion ultimately returned to a simple point raised by the original poster: Reid is a real person writing her own story.
