It IS fiction. It contains true events, and way more real than "based on a true story" fiction. But we're reading the story this mother told herself about even

It IS fiction. It contains true events, and way more real than "based on a true story" fiction. But we're reading the story this mother told herself about events that transpired. The writer needs this to be a story about descent into a seedy underbelly, slowly becoming more and more unreachable by those around him, followed by a come to Jesus moment. Hell, it even has a clean three act structure and villain (a dangerous influence that Mom and Dad don't understand and are powerless to stop). It can't be a story about an isolated kid that memed too hard and needed to be see with his own eyes how retarded the people in the deep end are IRL.