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Rachel Reid discusses Shane Hollander’s autism in “Heated Rivalry”, and Hudson Williams’s strong understanding of this trait (via @PinkNews) “When I wrote the first book, it was more about his overall personality. But I’ve talked about before, how in the time between Heated Rivalry and The Long Game, my own child was getting assessed for things like ADHD and autism. I learned a lot over those few years, and then I was like, ‘Oh yeah, Shane is autistic.’ By the time I wrote The Long Game, I was like, yeah, that’s what it is.” “Jacob knew right away. Jacob told me I think in the very first Zoom call, he was like, ‘Well, Shane’s autistic.’ He’s definitely approached the character that way. And when I talked to Hudson about it, he said the same thing. He was like, ‘Well, Shane is very autistic.’ We’d have a discussion about something where Connor might say something about Shane and I heard Hudson be like, ‘No, no, [he’s] doing that because he’s autistic.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, yes.’” “I think because of that, which unfortunately is also common of people with autism, the things that Shane does and says get misunderstood, sometimes by characters in the book and sometimes by readers who are like, ‘Well, that was a terrible thing to say or do.’ And it’s like, well, he’s not great at reading social cues. He’s got a lot of internalised anxiety. He’s very particular about certain things. Things bother him that don’t bother other people. I’m glad that everybody involved with the character understands that and I didn’t even have to explain it. Jacob got it. Hudson got it. I think most readers get it too. Lately I’ve been trying to just make it clear that, yes, he’s an autistic character.” 🔗 thepinknews.com/2026/03/23/hea…