Denial. An interesting concept. A workable theme, allowing a writer to work through, or not, a character's issues. It goes hand in hand with acceptance in many cases, be it about identity, death, etc. Not uncommon to GLBT fiction, either. But how much is too much? Where do you draw the line? At what point does a character's denial become farcical? Does it depend solely on what is being denied? Or to what extent someone has their head buried in the sand? Do readers find it tiresome? I know I have, in the past. But in real life, the desire to continuously not "see" something, some hard and difficult things, is common in the human condition, wide and varied as it is. At least, in my opinion. In real life, we aren't fortunate enough to have a wise and clever person behind a computer screen pulling the strings and developing a story arc in a logical and emotionally fulfilling way.  But then, fiction is supposed to be better than real life, right? But still maintain it's believability, right?