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This article explores why adults become intensely consumed by fan fiction, using the "Heated Rivalry" hockey romance series as a case study. It examines what makes certain fan fiction compulsively readable and how people's lives shift before and after discovering it.
- Fan fiction consumption can be all-consuming enough to cost people sleep and work hours, with fans describing a stark before-and-after in their lives once they discover a story that hooks them
- The "Heated Rivalry" fandom exploded after the HBO Max series premiere, with a scholar noting massive fan fiction output in the five months following the show's release
- Theories for why fan fiction is so addictive range from dopamine rushes and ADHD stimulation-seeking to burnout recovery, but the simplest explanation is that some stories are just "too much, too good"