The Dark Side of Sudden Fame

HER FANTASY FOURTH WING BECAME A RUNAWAY BESTSELLER. THEN SHE FACED AN ONLINE FIRESTORM THAT EVEN FORCED HER FAMILY TO MOVE

- LIZZ SCHUMER

Rebecca Yarros has had a banner year-and it almost destroyed her. The Colorado-based author, 43, has written 25 books, but after her dragon-riding fantasy romance Fourth Wing rocketed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list in 2023, selling more than 2 million copies, and was shared via hashtags over a billion times on TikTok, Yarros's profile rose with it. Almost instantly she attracted a ravenous online community, which brought adoring fans and harsh critics-along with death threats after she espoused anti-war views-to her doorstep, sometimes literally. She and her husband, Jason, 44, were forced to move to protect their family's privacy and Yarros's health. The author, who has the connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (which can cause joint pain and fatigue) and ADHD, spent the next year throwing herself into her work and trying to figure out how to keep life "as normal as we could" for her two girls and four boys, aged 11 to 27, even as fans hotly debated