At some point in your life as a reader, most of you—if not all of you—have probably already experience a book hangover. For non-readers, or new readers, you might be wondering:
What is a book hangover?
A book hangover is when you’ve finished this wonderful book and you feel like:
The book you just finished was too wonderful, you love it so much and now it has ended or the next book is not published yet, and whenever you try to read a new book, you just can’t focus or get invested in it emotionally.
What are the symptoms of a book hangover:
∗ Crying
Some people will full-out cry, and some people will cry on the inside, but what’s for sure is that YOU. WILL. CRY. You will mourn for the book that just ended, you will mourn for the end of your adventure, you will mourn for the characters knowing you might not see them again.
∗ Staying in a fetal position
Staying in bed, in a fetal position because a piece of you had just died, and now you feel lifeless because… “That was so beautiful/awful/etc. What did I just read?”
∗ Fangirling
Fangirling. Fangirling every minute you can. You will fangirl on your social medias, to your family and friends and even when you’re alone in your room, at every hour, every minute, and every second that you can. You will scream and you will squeal.
∗ Shock
Shock, and possibly in denial a bit. This can’t possibly be the final book in your favourite book series, or the book can’t be a standalone, can it?
Steps to Get Rid of Book Hangover:
But first of all, never EVER do this step
There is no sure fix-it for a book hangover, but this is what works for me. However, because I am a fangirl and a fanfiction reader, this mostly caters for people like me (a fangirl who loves reading fanfictions).
∗ Step 1: Rant (1st part)
I’ll search for my sister or friends, regardless whether they are interested in hearing me rant and just start ranting. I don’t care if they are actually paying attention (but it is better if they did), I just need someone to listen. It can be face-to-face or if you’re desperate, it can also be through text messages. The most important thing is you get it out of your system, all the anger, sadness, love and heartache.
∗ Step 2: Read fanfictions and look at fan arts and other stuff related to the book you just read on your favourite sites
For fanfictions, I mostly read at http://www.archiveofourown.org and http://www.fanfiction.net
For fanarts and other fandom-related stuff, I go to Tumblr and DeviantArt.
Just read and scroll through the arts until your heart’s content.
∗ Rant (2nd part)
Rant again. Seriously, ranting is good for the soul. But now, instead of ranting about what you’ve read in the book, you rant about the things you’ve read in fanfictions or some posts on Tumblr (or any other sites you use). Again, rant until it is out of your system.
∗ Read your favourite fandom fanfictions
This is the point where you slowly transition from the book to other things. I find that when I have a book hangover, even though I can’t read other books, I could still read fanfictions. Always choose your favourite fandom because you know that’s something you can read no matter what. For example, I always love Tony Stark-centric The Avengers fanfictions. Of course, this method can backfire on you because you’ll be so obsessed with reading fanfictions, you’ll ignore real books. But if it goes the way you want it to, it will make you stop thinking about the book that caused your book hangover.
∗ Step 5: Choose your next book
After about a week or so reading nothing but fanfictions, you’ll probably be ready to read a real book again. Choose what you want to read, and if you can’t concentrate on that one, then don’t worry, and choose another book. Be careful not to get a book slump.
∗ Step 5 (alternate): Choose your favourite light-read book before diving into a more serious book
This can be an old favourite (ie. in my case, Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys series) or any other books on your shelf that’s not too complicated to read: A light-read. After you get bored with those, then go and dive in your TBR list and read the books you want to read next.
Erucchii's Books and Recs 
That was a good post! I had a book hangover over TMI series by Cassandra Clare a few weeks back and it was so hard to get over the hangover. I don’t know how, but I finally got over it and moved on. I still sometimes clutch the last book of the series in my hand close to my heart and cry because I NEED TO READ ABOUT THE CHARACTERS AND FANGIRL OVER THEM SOME MOREE
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Oh! I absolutely know how you feel. I felt the same way after I finished CoHF T^T and because the Bane Chronicles, Shadowhunter Academy, and Lady Midnight were not yet available, I had to make do with fanfictions. And the excerpts on Cassandra Clare’s website.
I still do the same with CoHF too! That book is so precious AND THE FEELS T^T
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Shadow hunter Academy comes out in a book form on the fifteenth of November, I think. Can’t wait to read it!
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Yeah. I have the ebook version of them though, I think it’s in PDF format, if you want to read them early 😀
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Ohh I didn’t know about that. But I prefer to read in a physical book version (or whatever it’s called). I’m not really that fond of ebooks and PDFs.
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And ikr, THE FEEELSS. HOW DARE CASSIE DO THAT TO SIMON?
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Yes! Poor Simon. I love Simon-Clary friendship, so I was so sad when Simon didn’t really remember her ;w;
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It made me cry so bad. I wanted to kill Cassie when I first finished reading the last book.
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Wonderful post and I love all the GIFs.The last book that gave me a serious hangover was The Book Thief. I was in shock after the last.Watched the movie but the ending was still the same.I wish I had these tips back then 🙂
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Thank you haha It took me a long time to decide on which GIFs to use. All of them are so funny, I wished I could use all lol
Oooh I haven’t read that yet, or watch the movie. I should soon if it managed to give you a serious hangover.
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