Does anyone else get to the end of a book/tv series and feel really sad that their journey with those people is over? I feel a bit pathetic typing it but I’ve been miserable at the end of a great book
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I Sort of love that feeling, it means I haven't run out of great books and stories and that there must be another one out there. There are worse drugs. What book has done this to you?
Yup! I am rewatching Desperate Housewives. I wasn’t able to continue to the next season for a few days and I felt so sad. I felt like, I was missing out on my friends lol
Yes, it's a common occurance at the end of a great book, or series. A sort of longing even if the ending was perfect. A really great series, often leaves it's mark. Like you almost wish you could linger there, in such a compelling world, with characters you love. I've felt that many times.
I get so sad that sometimes I won’t finish the last chapter or episode because then it’s not really over and I can always go back to it later, though I never do, because then it will end. I have too many books and shows like that to count and I avoid spoilers at all costs.
I’m currently in the final 40 pages of a book written by the son of an author to fill a timeline gap between other books I’ve loved. It’s been well received so I hope more books might follow. That comes after thinking the death of the author was “the end”. It’s been a pleasant surprise.
Yeah, it is like leaving good friends. Some authors are so good at world building and character development that you really feel as if you are there in the story.
100%! That's why people love to find a good series. My latest favorite series - more like interrelated novels rather than a chronological series - is Elizabeth Strout's whole catalog. You can start with any one and then read the rest or read them in the order published.
There’s so many amazing ones to choose from, in tv maybe Tyrion from Game of Thrones, or Glen from The Walking Dead. I haven’t read that many books yet but I’m currently reading Handmaids Tale and I really like Offred.
Who’s your favourite?
No no! Don't feel pathetic! It's an established phenomenon. Usually called "Book Hangover" and there are plenty of articles online about it. It's a very common thing for people all over. And yep: I'm one of them 😉
Many times. I actually rate a book partially by that. If it gives you that feeling, that means the author managed to immerse you, make you a part of the story. The book where I had the strongest case of this: the last part of the Inkheart trilogy. I put that book away and had to go for a walk.
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Worse when you know there’s another book in the series as yet unwritten. The dream doesn’t have to be over, but who knows when it continues..
Damnit, Patrick Rothfuss.
Every time I re-read my own story. It’s a bit harsh and the criticism is pointed in the wrong direction. 🤷♂️ I’m not the one who continually kills people.
I rewatch Avatar: The Last Airbender every year, and I cry every time it ends. I can't think of many books series that made me feel the same way though.
I never told anyone this, but while reading Isaacson's excellent page-turner biography of Franklin, I stopped reading at the penultimate chapter and waited a week before finishing the book.
I knew it would end with his death, and I wasn't ready to say goodbye.
Yes and no, what an adventure the author put me on just want to continue but especially if it’s a recurring series there’s the next book to read afterwards. Also you can always re-read the book again.
Absolutely. I still miss Q from The Magicians and The Magicians as a whole. That's how you know the creators did an amazing job with character development.
I've gone back and immediately reread books/rewatched shows because I just couldn't let that world go. So don't feel pathetic because then I have to. 😂
Our daughter’s teacher phoned at lunch time one day to say that “everything is fine … but, we’ve just finished our reading time, and the girl got to the end of The Book Thief - and she’s utterly distraught … so she’ll probably still be quite sad when she comes home today”. #FinalPages 😭
like a character who never reads the last chapter of their favorite books in order to “save them for later” and thus never gets that sense of closure is such a wonderful gem of a personality quirk lol i’m stealing that
You know a book (or comic) is veeery good when, after you finish it, you are so sad and feel so abandoned you are unable to read anything else for AT LEAST a few days. That's my rule for a 5 stars review, usually
I start to feel sad when I see the remaining part of the book getting thin. Sometimes I slow down my reading rate just to make the story last that wee bit longer.
LOL yes and I sometimes slow down reading the end of the book to stretch out the impending end. But the beautiful part is we can read our favorite books all over again.
I had that feeling after finishing the Chronicles of Barsetshire by Trollope. Fortunately for me, I found the Palliser series not long afterwards (same author, and some of the same characters turn up again, but the stories and settings are rather different).
I think for me it is a normal reaction, especially when the book is a tome, such as Lord of the rings, shorter books don’t become a part of my environment.
Is kinda like a loss in a way. If I read a really good book, it takes me a while to start another one as I don’t want to leave the world that first one gave me.
Absolutely, the best fiction moves us and draws us into the lives of the characters, it's working as intended 💖 I'm always sad if the book doesn't do that!
A friend of mine recently told me she hardly ever finishes a book, she can’t bear it, so she gets to the last 20 pages or so and just quits, even her favorite book that she’s read 10 times and never gotten to the last page
Always! It's why I always wait until I have two books from an author to read the first. That way, if I'm feeling down, I can reach for that second book and start all over again. #xolisaxo
Totally, and it's often a reaction to the books/TV that I didn't think I'd be that into, or which I knew in my heart of hearts wasn't that good. I sobbed for hours when I finished the Lord of the Rings for the first time(age 14) and then when 'Lost' ended, and Modern Family, Ghosts...welling up now!
I have grieved the loss of fictional characters for days on multiple occasions, not really the loss of them but MY loss of them. I’ve also grieved the loss of my first reading of a book- finishing it and know I’ll never be able to read it for the first time again.
I love reading because when I read, I feel like I'm there- wherever there happens to be.And I feel like I'm watching everything take place,in my head, like a movie except I'm in the middle of it all and I get the inner thoughts and descriptions and oh my gosh I sound delusional but it's such a gift.
Yes, and I love revisiting the adventures after a decent period of mourning the goodbyes (or having to accept that not all series get to die of natural causes … thank you Netflix)
I felt this way after finishing "Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell". It has been such a longtime since I enjoyed a book so much, which is a huge rarity for me, especially as of late.
I've been feeling this more and more after getting into Warhammer 40k books. And even though a lot of characters were monsters/daemons in human skinsuits I still miss them 😅
Yes 100%. Near the end of a book I’m fully emotionally immersed in I sometimes feel myself pulled in two opposing directions. One to finish the book as quickly as possible as the story has me hooked, and the other to slow down and savor every moment as I know I’ll miss the characters.
Sometimes I literally don’t finish a book because I don’t want to end the connection with the characters. It’s as if, by leaving some pages unread, we are still connected. Odd, I know!
Not alone. I have series that I haven't finished the final book of yet because I know I can only read a book for the first time once and once that book is finished, it's finished. I'll read like 10 other books first before picking up that last-in-the-series one.
Usually. But therein lies the rub. The alternative is endless sequel upon sequel, the never-changing circumstances of Gilligan and his shipmates, or Mrs. Marple. In life people live and die. In mythology they are living and dying and being reborn, and are transformed. You possibly prefer mythology?
One of the saddest days in my life was shortly after my marriage ended, binging ‘Cheers’, watching the last episode as all the characters leave the scene one by one. “Sorry. Bar’s closed” still gets me.
sometimes but more often it's the opposite -- a series gets worse & worse until I hope everyone just dies. I recently (re)read Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. Book 8 got bad. I hung on to ~ book 15 and quit. No autopsy should be done.
I felt like this after I completed my circumnavigation of Patrick O'Brians 20 completed Aubrey / Maturin novels; I was bereft until I realised I had the solution at my fingertips and so I simply started on my 2nd circumnavigation - problem solved.
Absolutely! And sometimes I even find myself wondering what happened to them afterwards, how would they feel months, years afterwards…like, did Ulysses and Penelope’s second chance really worked out, or did they realise they had nothing to say to each other after all those years apart…crazy, I know!
It took me months after I finished The Green Bone Saga to write my review of the last book because it felt like it would be a final goodbye to the characters and I just couldn't do it 😭 I know I will reread that series some day but there's nothing like the first read for a story like that.
Yep. I've read the first 4 books of an 8-book series, and I almost hesitate to read more, ha ha - but maybe the author will add to the series. (And of course I want to read the rest of them).
I've found myself getting close to the end of series lately and having the HARDEST TIME bringing myself to finish. I have to remind myself that I have literal stacks of well-reviewed books waiting for me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love fiction. But this is one of the things that non-fiction gets right. Literally millions of books written in the same universe.
Every time I finish one of @mhairim.bsky.social ‘s books I always feel sad to say goodbye 😭 I’m planning to read them all again though so problem solved 😅
And that's why I got a03 lol. It's not the same, but it can definitely ease the pain. (Unless no one has written anything yet, which always hurts more somehow)
Yes! But I am also sorely tired of forced sequels. If the destruction of the big baddie is the end the story, then once the big baddie is destroyed wrap up the novel. It’s why I feel the MCU should have ended with Endgame.
I was working in construction and I’d be listening to audiobooks while I worked and there were so many times I wanted bereavement leave because a character died lol
Absolutely! Sometimes I'll go looking for some fanfics to kind of stay in their world a little more. They're not as good as the book but it's another little taste that makes me happy.
Been waiting 10+ years for the end of a trilogy and the author has released 2 novellas but no word on book 3. Maybe more sad that I don’t have closure.
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Who’s your favourite?
"You murdered my friends and left them in purgatory !"
Damnit, Patrick Rothfuss.
I knew it would end with his death, and I wasn't ready to say goodbye.
With a TV series, usually the last season or two are so disappointing, I'm not that sad when they end.
I'll blast through all of it so quickly, but those last few chapter/episodes take me 3 months to finish because I'M NOT READY FOR IT TO BE OVER
😂😂😂
like a character who never reads the last chapter of their favorite books in order to “save them for later” and thus never gets that sense of closure is such a wonderful gem of a personality quirk lol i’m stealing that
😉
Btw... the movies ending was just as Sad and Happy...
I start the show or book all over again. At least for a while.
It's lovely to see the stark contrast from end to beginning, and it's comfortingly cyclical.
(List includes: Grace and Frankie, Parks and Rec, and recently Arcane)
The end of books, shows, and even some longer movies or franchises feel like saying goodbye to friends that you’ve been on a journey with
Secret history, Tender is the Night and Farewell to Arms all left me bereft.
After about 3000+ pages, it was kinda that exhaustive awe.
And then you rewatch/reread and get ready for the sadness all over again
Not all tears are an evil.
It takes me a length of time to detach from the reality of any book.