Rebecca Yarros is opening up about the chronic illness representation in her books.
Appearing on Jenna Bush Hager’s Open Book with Jenna podcast on Thursday, March 13, the Onyx Storm author, 43, spoke about writing her blockbuster Empyrean fantasy series, which also includes the novels Fourth Wing and Iron Flame.
While full of high-fantasy thrills, Yarros, who has been open about her experience living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, also wanted to incorporate chronic illness into the series, particularly with her protagonist, dragon rider Violet Sorrengail.
“It was something I felt strongly about, and you don’t see a lot of heroines with chronic illness on the bestseller lists,” Yarros said. “I told my editor, ‘I think I can do it justice without being a monolith.’ ”
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, per the Mayo Clinic, is “a group of inherited disorders that affect your connective tissues,” with skin, blood vessel walls and joints being primarily affected. Yarros said that her four sons also have the condition.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“I’ve seen the way it’s represented,” she said. “We look like we’re perfectly healthy, but our joints, our bones, are not.” And though Violet’s condition is unnamed in the Empyrean novels, the character experiences symptoms like dizziness spells and fragile joints.
“When Fourth Wing first came out, I had to laugh because there are so many people who are like, ‘She’s so weak and she should die,’ ” Yarros said of her protagonist. “And I’m like, ‘What?’ Then people who had chronic illness spotted it immediately.”
“It mirrored real life, how the people with chronic illness see it in each other and see the accommodations someone needs and how to make them comfortable and help them,” Yarros added. “And sometimes people who don’t have it don’t see it… it’s been really comforting to see people feel represented.”
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Yarros, who is the author of multiple romance novels, also told Bush Hager about the support she’s received from her husband Jason, who Yarros met at a karaoke bar when she was a teenager. Their real-life romance inspired some of Yarros’ characters too.
“There’s always an element of my hero that comes from my husband, always,” the author said. “He just sneaks in there every single time.” Yarros also noted that her relationship mirrors her writing process in similar ways.
“I’ve loved the same man since I was 19, and so it’s a feeling of falling in love over and over and over again,” Yarros said. “But I love writing it because I get to have that feeling of falling in love over and over again.”
Read the full article here
