The Process of Reading the Last Book in Your Favorite Series (The pain. The feels. THE TORTURE.)


We've all been there. We finally have all the books in a series, we're in the mood to read it and we begin The Marathon. We read and read and read and it's just SO GOOD and this series, this series right here is YOUR LIFE at the moment, you live and breathe it. You are constantly spewing your feelings to everyone and their mother about how much pain and torture you're enduring and how you're freaking LOVING IT.


And then one day, a tragic, tragic thing happens.


You see you only have one book left.


You ferociously glance around your room, around your house, around the garden, take a peak in the dog's basket (books have a mind of their own, I tell you) and you come to the conclusion that you have nearly finished the series. You have one book left. And you just can't even deal right now.

And so it begins.

1) Firstly, you're excited.
Another adventure with your favorite character.
Another opportunity to see the cruelty talent the author possesses.

2) Secondly, you're nervous.
Will there be death?! (Probably.) Will your babies be treated like royalty (Hahaha you wish.)
Will the author be considerate of your fragile mental well-being? (Nope, I can hear them cackling in the distance.)

Literally Derek Landy.

3) You put off reading it. You're not ready for this to end. 
I'm totally not doing this right now with the last Alex Rider book. And I totally didn't get inspiration for this post because I'm already crying that it's over and I haven't even finished it yet. Spoiler: Those were lies.

4) The denial phase.
You refuse, refuse to acknowledge that the series will soon be over. In fact, what am I talking about? It's completely, wholly far from over.


HAHAHA NO.

5) The Inner Struggle, 
to notify social media that you're about to finish the last book and update them on ALL THE FEELS and simultaneously wanting not to BECAUSE SPOILERS. Spoilers are the spawn of Satan.

6) Preparation.
After notifying everyone that your heart is about to be crushed, you begin to prepare yourself .
A tub of ice-cream and a jumbo box of tissues? YASSS.

7) After the preparation, you begin reading.
Yes, it's flawless as you knew it was going to be and yes, it's just as heartbreaking.

8) You realise you're already halfway through,
WHAT?! NO. Stop reading so fast, dammit. 

9)  You try to pace yourself.
I'll only read a couple of chapters a day. That'll help me prepare for the farewell. Yes, I SHALL DO THAT.


10) HAHAHA, good one.
Nope, you pick up that book and you devour it.

11) You only have a couple of pages left.
Read slower, read slower, read slower.

12) OHMYGOSH IT'S SO GOOD BUT ASDFGHJKL I ONLY HAVE A COUPLE OF PAGES LEFT WHAT NO.
I TOLD YOU TO READ SLOWER, YOU STUBBORN CHICKEN NUGGET.

13) Annnd, you're on the last page.


Now your brain listens to you and you savor every. single. word. 

14) You finished it. You close the book and hug it.
You let the magic linger with you a moment longer.

15) You close the book.
Ahh, look how pretty it is. Ahh, the memories. Ahh, the pain.

16) Denial happens yet again.
Pfft, I'm sure there'll be more books. Spoiler: There won't.

17) Realisation rears its ugly head.
I FINISHED THE SERIES. NONONONONO this can't be happening. (The mental preparation never really helps, does it?)

18) Cue the tears.
By now the tears are flowing and you're water-logging your precious and ah, eat all  the ice cream and you can't even see the book anymore through your tear-filled eyes and all the tissues littering your bed.


19) Once you've *slightly* recovered (haha who are you kidding?!),
You rush to Goodreads and Twitter and let everyone know that a part of you has just been completely annihilated due to this stupid book series that isn't stupid at all and you just love it so, so much and there are LITERAL TEARS and you just CAN'T EVEN. You're just so done.

20) You allow yourself to be comforted.
Ahh, thank you my equally emotionally damaged bookish friends.

21) Acceptance (Caution: This phase might take awhile to be activated)
Eventually (I stress eventually, being emotionally attached to books ain't no walk in the park) you will accept this. You will think fondly of all your wonderful experiences with said series and just be thankful you could experience the laughter, the sadness, the joy and the pain. (You know you secretly love it ;)) 

Happiness then sadness, I did warn you it would take awhile.


22) Scroll through Goodreads for another series to become obsessed with.
You little masochist, you.

23) Two Nightmarish words: Book. Hangover.
It's inevitable. This series has been your LIFE the past few days/weeks/months/years. What are you supposed to do with your life now? NO BOOK WILL EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH.

Looking at your TBR pile like:


I feel you bruh, I feel you.

24) Then true acceptance will kick in and you shall commence to read ALL THE BOOKS. Until the last one of your new favorite series, then the process repeats itself. But you know you love it.
#bookwormprobs