Run Away asks a scary question right away. What if this could really happen? Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben thriller feels so close to real life that many of the audience members are wondering if the story could have been pulled from true real-life events. The answer is no. The story is, in fact, based on fiction, but it does stem from real-life fears and ideas of a father. The fear, panic, and spiral seen on the show all come from a very real place, and that is exactly why the Netflix show could feel like it has been based on real-life events.The eight-episode series, now streaming on Netflix, is adapted from Harlan Coben’s novel and follows a father whose life collapses when his daughter disappears. It is not a true story, but its roots are extremely human, which makes it feel painfully believable from the first episode.Why Run Away feels real even though it is not a true storyLet’s get this out clearly. Harlan Coben's Run Away is not based on a real crime, a real family, or an actual documented case. There is no headline or police file behind it. The story is fully imagined. Still, Coben has openly shared that the spark came from his own life as a parent, as a father. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostAhead of the show’s release, according to the Manchester Evening News, Coben explained how the idea first formed. Speaking about his daughter Charlotte, he said,“You may have noticed the associate producer Charlotte Coben on there and I think she wrote two of the episodes. I found some drug paraphernalia in her room when she was a teenager. It was a little bit of cannabis but she swears it was her friend’s pipe, not hers. And of course, my mind spiralled, that’s what it does.”This one moment in his life did not become the entire plot, but instead, it opened the floodgates of fear. What parents imagine in their worst quiet moments is what fuels the story. Coben also recalled struggling to even start the story.He said,“I remember I couldn’t think how to start the story. I was sitting in Central Park in Strawberry Fields and a busker was mangling a John Lennon tune and I thought, ‘What if that’s the missing daughter?’”That image stuck. Coben added,“I had actually forgotten that part but Charlie reminded me, ‘Do you remember how you came up with this?’ And that’s how it all started.”From there, the story expanded into something much darker and far bigger than that first thought.The personal fear that shaped Run Away on NetflixOnce the emotional seed was planted, Run Away grew into a layered thriller with many moving parts. Coben explained how the story took shape beyond the missing child angle.A still from the Run Away trailer. (Image Via: Netflix, YouTube)He said,“Then I went off on all those tangents and created Elena and Ash and Dee Dee, our psycho killers. But that was the seed that started this show so I thank my daughter for misbehaving a little bit.”That mix of ordinary family fear and extreme consequences is why the series feels grounded even when it turns violent.The show follows Simon Greene, played by James Nesbitt, whose search for his daughter pulls him into a world he never imagined touching. The locations feel lived in. The emotions feel raw. Nothing is exaggerated for style.Hence, even though Coben might not have actually lived through the aftermath, he sure did have a moment in time where he envisioned what would happen if he did. And that's how Run Away was eventually born.Run Away isn’t directly based on a true story, but it is rooted in something just as real: fear, doubt, and the kind of parental panic that can consume you in an instant. Those emotions came from a very real moment in Harlan Coben’s life, which is why the story feels so uncomfortably close to home.Coben took a fleeting personal experience and expanded it into a thriller that feels disturbingly plausible. The series doesn’t lean on documented events for its impact. Instead, it draws its power from emotions we all recognize, and that emotional authenticity is exactly what makes it resonate long after the final episode.Stay tuned to SoapCentral for more.