We read somewhere the other day that finishing a series of books is like a break-up.
Now, if like us you’re a self-proclaimed bookworm then you’ll understand the sentiment. You meet a new book, whether through a friend, a work colleague, or just out and about. You’re either instantly drawn to it, or you have reservations but try to not judge from the cover when you’ve been surprised before.
Then, from page one you’re hooked, you can’t leave it alone, you begin to spend more and more time together, your friends or loved ones barely see you anymore, and you start to forget what life was like ‘Before’. All you can think about is this world you’re existing in – exquisite, magical, exciting, gripping; it often leaves you breathless. You fall head-over-heels for the characters, and you find yourself thinking about them whenever your mind wanders. When they cry you cry, when they laugh so do you, when they walk into danger your eyes look blurry with the speed they’re reading at.
And, like any addict, when a new instalment is released, you greedily read it, never savouring it, always devouring it despite people’s warnings that good things must come to an end.
And then the last one comes out. It’s like those last few months of a relationship, when you both know it will finish, but there are still those little moments of happiness, of understanding, of excitement, which make you drag it out until there’s nothing but an empty page with the devastating lament of “The End”.
Depending on the series, your recovery time varies.
– ‘Breaking Dawn’ in the Twilight series was full of promises, but never quite delivered so we moved on pretty quickly.
– We’d been with ‘Harry Potter’ for so many years that when we closed ‘The Deathly Hallows’ it felt like the end of an era.
– And when we finished reading ‘Lord of the Rings’, despite being relieved to see the light of day again, an empty chasm opened up, only helped by perusing the detailed maps of this fantasy world that Tolkien masterminded, and rereading our much-battered copy of ‘The Hobbit’.
Oh but you always move on, and so does the author, sheepishly creating a whole new work of fiction which you’ll always wonder if they’re happier and more satisfied with. But one things for certain, if it’s a good enough series to have made you leap onto this rollercoaster of interest in the first place, over all that time, then this will be one story you never forget.
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