Usually when I finish a good book, it whets the appetite for another. Yet, on rare occasions, I am so intoxicated that I cannot read another one. These are just a few books that *ruined* me for others:
Wuthering Heights– heady and romantic and doomed… the kind of story that you can’t easily shake. It’s one of the first books I can remember giving me a hangover (when I was, I’ll admit, underage 😉).
Jude the Obscure– after I finished this, I was so dumbstruck, all I could do was stare at the walls. I was completely unable to do anything, let alone read. It’s the kind of book that made me think “damn, never gonna do that again…” Needless to say, I don’t picture myself rereading it!
Sadie– there is no recovering from this any time soon- it delivers an absolute gut-punch of an ending.
High Lord– what started out much like any fantasy ended up breaking me. And I didn’t see it coming.
Dreams of Gods and Monsters– indeed there’s nothing quite like the perfect end to a series- and this dreamy Romeo and Juliet story of Angels and Demons was nothing short of *perfection*.
Winter of the Witch– I looked at my stats and didn’t remember any of the books I read after- they were all in its shadow. An enchanting end to an enchanting series.
Circe– I was so under this Odyssey retelling’s spell, that nothing measured up after. Circe completely captured my soul with its beauty and ingenuity.
Six of Crows– can you imagine what it was like not to have the next one when I finished this?? Such a brilliant series- but I recommend having both on hand at the same time (oh and maybe some tissues).
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue– I couldn’t stop thinking about this after I finished. And now you’re going to have to deal with me talking about this over and over 😉 Not one I’ll be forgetting in a hurry!
Carry On– a Harry Potter parody is not the kind of thing I would’ve expected to give me a terrible book hangover- and yet I loved this so much, after I was done, nothing else would satisfy me than picking it up and starting all over again!
With the Fire on High– there was something so simply satisfying about this that I just didn’t find anything else as appetising after. Nothing was quite the same. It’s the kind of contemporary YA that just hits the spot.
So have you read any of these? Do you feel the same way? And what books gave you a book hangover? Let me know in the comments!
It’s been how long since Sadie came out… still hungover here too!
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Ah yes, not one you get over in a hurry!
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Yessss! Wuthering Heights was brutal – serious book hangover. And The High Lord… Circe was wonderful and thought provoking and totally also ruined me 😂😂
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Ah yes!! Haha same!!
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Ermahgawd yes, the book hangover is real! I’ve just read Daughter of Smoke and Bone and feel just like that now!
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Ahh yes!! Really relate to that!!
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See… I remember how I was so happy to have Crooked Kingdom available after SoC. I suspect I won’t be touching my copy of King if Scars until the second book is also on its way! 🤣
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haha that’s a good call!! I still feel the book hangover after king of scars- I needed the second one… yesterday! 😉
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Ah! Good to know! Definitely waiting then 🤣😂
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All of Elizabeth Acevedo’s books gave me a hangover! Good post!
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Ah fair enough! Thank you!
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I felt that way after Cloud Atlas, which is weird because it is absolutely not the sort of book I usually read and I was prepared to dislike it! I spent weeks looking for another book that gave me the same rush, but eventually had to admit that there’s no book like Cloud Atlas but Cloud Atlas.
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After I finished NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, I just wandered around my house wondering what to do with my life.
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hehe!! I’m planning on reading that this year- I can’t wait! I think it’ll send me into a book hangover too!!
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‘Circe’, ‘Carry On’ and ‘Six of Crows’ definitely gave me book hangovers too! I cannot even contemplate not having ‘Crooked Kingdom’ to hand after the ‘Six of Crows’ ending, hahaha
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Loved Wuthering Heights, Jude the Obscure and everything by Hardy, The Kite Runner, and Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield – all outstanding books that left me unable to open another book for several days. Along with another absolute favorite 100 or so books! The one I can’t get into is Circe – don’t know why.
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I felt this way about The Song of Achilles. Now I’m about to start Circe, and I can’t wait! I love Madeline Miller’s writing style – so beautiful! Happy reading! 🙂
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Oh yes I completely agree about her writing style!! Hope you love Circe!! 😀
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Thanks! 🙂
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I have that exact edition of Wuthering Heights! I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list of classic books I want to read this year.
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Oh cool!! I hope you like it!
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I’m most likely to get a hangover from a particularly dense book. The longer something takes me to digest, the better chance I’m going to get stuck on it.
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Oh that’s fair!
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Excellent list. Wuthering Heights was the first time I tried to write my way out of a book hangover. I wrote my senior project in college as a way of writing into the book. It followed Isobella Linton (who finds herself married to Heathcliff after a titular “transient fit of passion”) as she comes to realize that Heathcliff is not the romantic hero she built him up as. Rather he is a “wolfish raving man”. I think that in retrospect my writing was very immature in this project, but it gave me a change to interact with the book and the characters. which I felt like I needed. I would also agree that Thomas Harvey’s work- particularly in Tess and Jude, is hangover inducing. I’ll also agree with Circe and Winter of the Witch.
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I am planning to read almost all of these this yr!!
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Ahh that’s great!! I hope you love them all!!
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I haven’t read the rest…yet…but I 100% agree with Circe!
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Oh glad you agree!!
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Six of Crows ans Sadie did give me book hangover too. I just began the Daughter of Smoke and Bones but am smitten already. Now this year, my biggest hangover came from The Nightingale. God! That book destroyed me!
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Ah I’m so happy to hear that!! Oh I’m so looking forward to it! I hope to read it this year!
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so bittersweet when you get a book hangover – I found when I read The Hunger Games series last year I didn’t want to read anything else for ages and wanted to reread them immediately!
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Ahh yes!! Oh that’s a good one! I completely get that! Definitely gave me a hangover as well.
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Yes to Wuthering Heights – that one had far more of an effect than I thought it would. My most recent book hangover was probably Rebecca which I read for the first time early last year and absolutely loved!
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Animal Farm, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Childrens Hour….
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Ooh very interesting list!
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😉
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Circe definitely gave me a book hangover and the problem I now have is I’ve just finished The Song of Achilles and loved it even more than Circe! What’s worse than a book hangover?!
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Ahh I totally get that!! haha!
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Try The Comet Seekers! I just finished and can’t stop thinking about it! I am considering an immediate reread.
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Oh cool!!
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I think I read The Black Magician a few times but… The High Lord hasn’t left much of an impression, though I am pretty sure I read it. Time for a reread, maybe?
I’ve not yet completed reading Wuthering Heights – I attempted it once when I was in school (probably too young), got confused and never picked it up again.
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Great post, I felt the exact same way about Circe 💜
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Thank you! Ah that was such a good book!!
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Amazing list! I love when a book is so good it gives me a hangover, but it feels like so long since I read a book like that!
Wuthering Heights was definitely one of those books for me too though, and the same with Six of Crows and Circe.
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Both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom gave me such a book hangover honestly!! Didn’t think any other books would measure up haha
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For once I’ve actually got a couple of the books you’ve mentioned already on my shelves! Haven’t read either Circe or any of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy. I’ll have to move them closer to the top of the list now. Lol!
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Oh brilliant! I love both of those so much!! Haha! Good!
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Can’t believe I haven’t read Sadie yet!! I’ve seen praise for it everywhere I look and yet.. still haven’t 😅 woops!
Ah let me think- I actually don’t remember which book gave me a hangover last 🤔.. which is honestly kinda sad ahaha
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I haven’t read any of the books you mentioned, but I do want to read a few of them. A book that gave me a hangover was November 9 by Colleen Hoover!
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I agree about Sadie! And I would add another Rainbow Rowell book- Eleanor & Park, that gave me a reading hangover.
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Oh fair!
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