Reading any book by by Sarah J. Maas tends to wreck me.
I usually can’t stop thinking about the sizzling love story of Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar in House of Earth and Blood.
How their love grew during an investigation intended to solve the murder of Bryce’s best friend, Danika Fendyr. How they uncovered secrets capable of destroying the world but somehow managed to save it in the end.
I’m sad the story closes, that I have to wait and see how things continue for Bryce and Hunt. I could barely read another book until House of Sky and Breath came out, and now, I’m struggling to enjoy other books until House of Flame and Shadow releases.
While there are many benefits of reading a seriously good book (like these ones), there is one negative benefit many book lovers may struggle with at one time or another.
Book hangovers.
What is a Book Hangover?
A book hangover is the depressing after-effect a reader feels once they have finished reading a book. In some cases, a book hangover can keep you from reading other books for days or sometimes weeks.
The book hangover phenomenon can even be the result of staying up too late last night reading a really great book.
You can experience book hangovers from reading any kind of book, not just sad books, no matter the genre or fictional world. Some, in a way, can help but feel like things are unresolved.
So, maybe there wasn’t a sad ending, but a delightful one. So why would you be feeling so depressed?
Why Do We Get Book Hangovers?
You know how it is, the plot is amazing, you race to the final page to see what happens, not bothering to prepare for emotional turmoil once the story is over.
People usually get book hangovers when the book is insanely good. Typically book hangovers happen when you get heavily invested in the story and characters, almost as if you’re living in the world as a character.
You are so invested and the story comes to an end and you have to return to the real world, you feel devastated.
It feels like you’re losing a family member, or you are phasing out an old part of your life. Basically, you miss the story because it was a part of you.
A few stories with great plots and themes you may have gotten a book hangover from might be:
- The House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
- Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho
- Anythings by Brandon Sanderson
Insert your favorite book, calculate time spent binge-reading, and divide it by number of hours it has occupied your mind during a workday and you’ve got a a nice book hangover.
5 Symptoms of A Book Hangover
Think of your last book, or a book series you’ve read recently.
If you’ve finished a perfect book or book series after binge-reading it and didn’t know what to do with yourself, you’re in good company. After finishing a book, people often feel:
- Strong emotions likes sadness, anger, depression and even joy
- Longing for the story to continue
- Constant wonderment about how your favorite characters are doing
- Inability to start another book
- Checking in daily on what he author is creating next
So why do you feel so raw and so sad over a fictional book full of fictional characters? Why do you prefer the fictional world to real life? How do we break up with the beloved characters and reduce emotional impact?
Maybe biblialgos would be a good one. A smashing of the two words, biblio and algos, meaning “book pain.”
The Psychology Behind a Book Hangover
Mainly, the feeling you get from reading a great book and realizing it won’t go on is akin to the feeling we get when we lose something of value and know we may not ever see it again.
According to BookRiot, whose writer reached out to professionals to learn the psychology behind book hangovers,
It could be that sadness readers feel after the end of the book signals a loss of something valued – in this case it may be a loss of characters to whom we may have connected very strongly, or the loss of the whole world that is presented to us in the book.
There are people all over the world who feel the need to escape from the real world in some form and well, “Books are a uniquely portable magic,” as Stephen King would say.
And that magic is something we have a hard time letting go of, especially if we are reading an amazing book.
Books Allow Us To Be Someone Else
One of the many amazing things about books is they allow us to live a series of different lives we might otherwise not be able to.
With books, we can discover different universes, connect with different people, and feel things we can’t explain or verbalize on our own.
No matter if those stories are fictional, we live in them—for however short the time—as if there were real.
We learn how to empathize with complex characters and situations and we even learn how to love those characters—perfections, flaws, and all.
We are forever changed by knowing those very realistic characters, according to BookRiot,
“When a ‘hangover’ evolves into a more continued emotion of discomfort – that usually comes from still pondering and struggling with some personally relevant issues that were brought up in the book – it could lead to a personal transformation.”
How to Get Over Your Book Hangover
There is no one way to get over a book hangover, but as a frequent book-hangover-haver, here are some of the best ways.
1. Give Yourself Time to Grieve
Sometimes, leaving the story is just that difficult and we need to grieve for the story we’ll never get to read again for the first time.
Don’t be afraid to let yourself just cry it out so you can move on to the next greatest book. It may mean time between you and your next book, but if you’re still sore from the last one, it may be the best option right now.
2. Start Reading Another Book
So maybe crying it out isn’t the best idea. Perhaps you need something else that will feed your soul again or distract you from your current book hangover.
If that’s the case, getting back into reading by grabbing your next greatest piece of literary magic may be your solution. If you have a massive TBR stack somewhere close by or a surplus of fan-fiction, definitely start there!
Joining a book club, asking friends for new recommendations, Facebook group to get new book recommendations can help you branch out. A lot of times, online users will have book recommendations similiar to what you just finished reading.
Social media influencers on Twitter and Instagram may also have great recommendations. as well.
If you need a great palette cleanser, some of the best books for that are How to Kill Men and Get Away With It, Ice Planet Barbarians, or anything by Brandon Sanderson.
3. Read the Book Again!
Surprisingly, reading a book over again can provide you with a sense of comfort, or so I’ve found. As a person who loves this type of escapism, I find it hard to let go, so like a good movie *ahem* Avengers Endgame *ahem*. I’ll watch it over and over again until I tire of it.
Listening to the audiobook can also be another great reading experience and easy way to enjoy the book again.
You may not be able to read the book over and over and over again, but it might give you a little bit of comfort being part of the story again, even if for another moment.
Learn About My Next Book, The Lost Pleiad
Enjoy a new form of escapism in this new book—a modern-day twist on a greek myth retelling. Learn about The Lost Pleiad below!
