How to cope when you finish a book series?

How to Cope When You Finish a Book Series

Most of us readers tend to dive into a book series and once we reach the final book of that series we go through an endearing emotional process. Some of us procrastinate while others simply finish the book to get it over with and hide under the covers to cry our eyes out or eat our feelings with sweets to soothe the hurt that we had read the final book, that final sentence that breaks the tear ducts into a flowing river of tears. Sometimes we just decide to hide underneath the blanket for hours on end.

I personally have done both many times in my lifetime. So many feelings.

It is okay to cry it out.

It is okay to procrastinate finishing that series.

It is okay to be mad.

What isn’t okay is sending the author death tweets or any negative tweets to continue the series to the author that wrote the book series. They had spent a long time going through the process of making that world through so many processes. Sometimes an author wants to move onto another passion project or stop writing for a while.

For writers, producing one book is an extremely emotional and mental process and sometimes they can only write so much with their plot and its characters. Imagine how they feel when they finish writing the final book. They are emotional as well since they are the ones who wrote the work.

The several ways one can cope is:

1. Prepare to finish the book with a box of tissues and sweets on the side. The last book series I finished was The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. The way it ended felt perfect but I couldn’t get over my tears. I didn’t want to leave this fictional world at all.

2. Take your time to read the final book. Relish the final few pages. Procrastinate a little but not a lot where one is at the point it is getting petty.

3. Take part of the community of the book series. Talk with others about how you feel. Verbalize your feelings with others and hear others verbalize their feelings. When you are a part of the online community, please respect others opinions and do not partake in online bullying.

4. Reread the book series. DO NOT FEEL SHAMEFUL NOR SHAME OTHERS. It is valid to reread a book series. I have reread a many series and standalone novels due to my inability to leave the author’s world. Especially if the work is really beautiful and amazingly out of this world. I remember rereading The Hunger Games because that series was really good written but the movies could've done better.

5. Find out if the author has other series or standalone books. Always see if there is more work. I completed Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan and found out that the author has more works that are a part of the universe he had created. I found this out with a friend of mine who told me about it. I’m making it my prerogative to read more of the works especially if it is associated with greek mythology.

6. Investigate similar book series that might have similar genres of your favorite series. I recently got into more science fiction within the young adult genre. Also fairy tale retellings for all audiences or selective audiences. I am looking at the very popular A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I heard that was really spicy. As well as the author Katee Roberts so yeah.

Thank you for reading this.