How has a work of fiction seriously affected your life?

I first listened to the audiobook of The Long Walk a little over a year ago. I then subsequently bought my best friend an 8$ copy for Christmas, and one for myself too. I picked it up in February, and it's hardly left my arms reach since.

I've never had a book affect my life in such a way, up until early October of this year I was in what I can only describe as a trance. Maybe I was having some sort of depression and using the long walk as a sort of escape or coping mechanism, I stopped doing everything I loved, and even a lot of the things I needed to do. I stopped listening to or creating music, drawing, writing, watching tv or movies, or really consuming or reading ANYTHING besides The Long Walk. I neglected a lot of my own responsibilities, and relationships. I've been through both the audiobook and the physical copy probably two dozen times total, engaged in hours of discussion, fantasizing, and just mulling over every single word and character in my head, all day every day. It's fundamentally impacted me in a way I can't even put into words.

I genuinely fell in love with a character from this book, something I never thought could actually happen. I became completely enamored, I saw his face when I closed my eyes and heard his voice in my dreams. I planned a week long trip to somewhere I've never been, and I'd be lying if I said he had nothing to do with my desire to travel there. I listened to certain parts of the book over and over just to hear him.

I think I'm out of my trance now, but even still, I keep my copy next to my bed at all times, I flip through the pages every day and read snippets like my own fucked up little bible. I still regard it as the greatest thing I've ever read and I imagine it will stay that way for years. I lost the good majority of my 2025 to this book. I don't regret it, but looking back I've never had a time like this before in my whole life.