The Book Hangover

The Book Hangover

I've heard the term, "book hangover" before, but I didn't realize just how much a good book is like alcohol until after I turned 21.

Think about it:

• Drinking puts your mind all out of whack, just like when you're in the middle of a good book, and nothing you say makes sense because all you can talk about is the story.

• At a family party, if you're drinking, you're probably doing it to isolate yourself from all of your relatives. I did the same thing with my books, when I would read at family gatherings.

• When you're reading too many books at once, you get easily lost and confused about who is who, which character belongs with which backstory, and where-the-heck-are-we-going?

• When you wake up the next day after finishing a particularly thrilling and involved novel, the wake of that story leaves you dazed and probably more than a little sad. And you probably have a headache from staying up so late to finish, and you don't really want to do much of anything but eat your feelings for that character you liked that died at the end.

• You tell yourself "I'm never doing that again" when you wake up this way, but in no time at all, you're back on that wagon.

I have found that there are really only two ways to combat and prevent a book hangover:

1. To not read.
2. To start about fifteen-thirty pages of a new book just before you finish the last one.

For me, option 1 is not a possibility, and it probably won't ever be. I don't want to be book sober, and I hope I never will be. 

Option two is one of my own making. I have determined that, by just-barely starting a new book in the last fifty pages of the one I'm about to finish, I can "keep the buzz" going when that first book ends in a blaze of glory. Instead of moping around and getting "hung-up" on that last book, I've already got something to look forward to, because I've read just enough of the new book to know who the protagonist is and what kind of trouble he/she is facing.

It's not a perfect strategy, but it works for me. If I wasn't constantly reading two or three books, I'd probably never have gotten over [SPOILER] Dumbledore's death [SPOILER] or, more recently, the end to the Divergent trilogy.

It's hard, ending something you've spent 150-700 pages working on. It's hard to let those characters go, but we have to accept that story has to come to an end. In some series, we learn the hard way that they maybe should have ended sooner than they did, but whatever. I've come to realize that overly empathetic readers like myself need to have multiple things to focus our thoughts and emotions on, or else we'll put our whole beings into the stories we have in front of us, and a part of us dies with the end of the book.

I'm not saying feeling strong emotions for books is wrong, but it isn't right to let it control you. It is fiction, it is not real, and we must learn to let go. I personally move on faster when I have something new to hang onto, like a new project, craft, or book.

This is not a step-by-step program to rehabilitate your addiction. It is to nourish it, and help you get addicted to great books, so when you do consume your "poison," it's not crap.

I am NOT by any means saying that alcohol and reading are the same thing, or that they are the same kind of addictions.

In fact, I encourage you to nurture your addiction to books. 

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

      Insurgent takes place immediately after the conclusion to Divergent, leaving the narrator, Tris, feeling hopeless and lost in the remains of the world she's always known. 

      This installation of the series is just as dynamic and excited as the first, though in very different ways. The first focuses on the drama and danger of making it through initiation, while the danger is much more prevalent in this book as Tris, Tobias, and the other left-over Dauntless struggle just to find a place to collect their thoughts. They are constantly being followed and attacked by Jeanine Matthews and the other sadists at Erudite, and it's difficult to determine who they can trust and who they can't.

     The inclusion of the factionless as high contenders in the "new world order" creates a really cool and dramatic dynamic between the other factions, Tris, and especially Tobias, and the tension is constantly running very high. Couple that with the various reactions of this "war" by the factions Amity and Candor, both of which Tris spends time in under "sanctuary," there's a lot of political tension running through this book. 

     Another thing that was VERY prevalent in this novel was Tris's inner drama and conflict with her emotions. Insurgent was a lot darker than the first book because Tris was constantly battling with her guilt over killing her good friend, as well as the guilt of doubting Tobias and being unsure if her feelings for him are as strong as his for her. The pressure of keeping her guilt secret from those around her threatens to crush her more often than not, and especially later in the book, she has a lot of self-sacrificing, almost suicidal thoughts. This was not what I was expecting from Tris, especially when her guilt refuses to let her hold a gun to protect herself and those around her.

Things That I Liked:

1. I loved the inner conflict with Tris and her darker emotions. While I don't think every YA reader is in the right place to read this sort of conflict from a "children's" book, I think that kind of conflict is very real and intense, and gives the story a whole new level of depth.
2.  The Tobias-Marcus-Evelyn drama saga is pretty interesting, and instead of frustrating, it's actually enjoyable to see Tris kind of immediately hate Evelyn for Tobias, and just always hate Marcus but know that he's got something she wants. This aspect of the story also allows the reader to know that Tris is a reliable narrator because she is not just following around her boyfriend, she is thinking for herself and trusting her instincts, which are always attractive traits in a main character.
3. emotions.
4. THE SECRET.

Things That I Did Not Like:

1. THE SECRET ENDING
2. Tris's utter lack of concern for her life/clearly not thinking about the consequences her actions could make on those around her. We learned in the last book and relearn a few times in Insurgent that Tris is not dumb, that she usually thinks through her decisions. But she rushes into a lot of stupid things in this book and it's very frustrating to see her self-destructive behavior and have the only person pointing it out be Tobias. The second frustrating part of this is that Tobias is only pointing out her flaw and not TRYING TO HELP HER because giving her ultimatums is NOT HELPING.
3. The faction jumping. By going around to all of the different factions for help, the reader is submitted to lots of new surroundings and lots of new characters to remember, and it gets very confusing who we like and don't like by the end of the book.
4. emotions.

Overall Impression:

      I seriously enjoyed this book, possibly more so than its predecessor (large gap time in reading notwithstanding). It was dynamic, dramatic, and intense, and yet the storyline wasn't complicated, despite all those D's. It is an engrossing read, one of those "you are no longer my friend-this book is all the social nourishment i need" kind of books. I got to the end, turned the page and made this kind of face:

because I couldn't believe it ended where it did.

Not happy.

The Blonde's Rating: 4.5 of 5

Goodreads Rating: 4.3 of 5

Amazon.com Buyers Rating: 4.6 of 5

Go read this book. Also, Divergent was pretty cool, too.

Thanks!

The Blonde