When the Mourning Comes

[Prof. Astrid Black]

This is something I feel a lot of people who aren't avid readers don't get. For those of us that are, we know how easy it is to get sucked into a story. How easy it is to fall in love with a book or book series and become attached to it and its characters.

It is a safe place for us, a world that we can imagine so clearly that it's almost real (though we know it's not). So when the series ends or a character we've become very attached to dies we genuinely feel that pang of loss, and mourn them.

Harry Potter is a great example of this. We are all very attached to this series and I for one truly cried when my favorite characters died. I had to set the book down and sit with my sorrow at the loss. I know I am not alone in this.

How do you guys deal with the loss of a fictional character that you have become attached to or how do you cope with the ending of a series you truly love? This is something I've found only other bibliophiles understand. Or what other characters or book series have you guys felt this mourning with?

For me, Harry Potter was not the first, nor the last. My first loss was that of Sherlock Holmes. I cried when I reached the end and knew there would be no more adventures to be found at 221B Baker Street. My latest was actually The Heroes of Olympus series (I am a great lover of mythology based fictions and Rick does a fantastic job with meshing the two together.)I cried when I thought one of my favourite characters was dying. Thankfully he did not die and there's a new series of his for me to fall deeper in love with.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Some books, or series of books, they sort of loose their ummph and by the time the last one limps along, perhaps a person has stopped reading them.

Other books, and series, they are very good in their start and as they go along become better and better.

But the thing about them getting better, if a beloved character dies ... what do you do then? I finally got to the book which started the whole thing for me of the Mortal Instruments and , Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, and someone who is featured in almost all of the stories DIES. WHAT???! How CAN this BE? This isn't RIGHT.

Or what if the series ends, and that's it. No more. Sometimes, sadly, it is because the author has died. That's an entirely different sorrow to add onto the sorrow of the series ending. So it's a double whammy. Sometimes that series ends because the author is done with the story. For the author, they want to tell other tales now. In a way, that's not so sad, because it's not like the story stopped ... it continues on, but we just aren't getting to have them chronicled for us anymore.

Oddly enough, there is a person who didn't die, in Mastiff (by Tamora Pierce). I cried ...and cry each time I get to it -- when Pounce saves Achoo's life.

But yeah, when I read the last Harry Potter book -- I stayed away from any sort of contact which might spoil it until I'd finished it. (Some ... person ... posted in here something about Dumbledore dies before I even got my book, just a day after it came out. I don't know what happened to them. They might have turned from tadpole to frog by now. I don't know.) Back to Deathly Hallows -- when I got about 3/4 of the way through, I wanted to gallop ahead and read it. Find out what happens! But, but, it was the last book of the series ... and I was so sad that it was the last book of the series.

[Prof. Maxim Trevelyan]

This really hits home for me in regard to one of my favorite book series, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I revisited the series this summer after I found out that BBC TV series is in the works, with another companion trilogy The Book of Dust, coming in October.

The three books, The Golden Compass (also published as Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass were one of my favorites when I was a teenager, together with Harry Potter. I think I read the whole trilogy in two days, which was a feat for me at that time. One book was better than the other and I could not wait for The Amber Spyglass to come. After I turned the last page, I felt…morose, I think is the best description. One of the reasons was that a wonderful book series came to an end and with that, a wonderful world, but also because the ending, for me at least, did not make sense and I never expected it in a million years. It was rather anticlimactic and the main characters did not remain together, which was a big letdown.

But I understand why the author ended it that way, as sacrifice was one of the main aspects of the series, but it touched me very deeply, as if a semi-truck rammed me at full speed. Not only because Lyra and Will had to be separated for the worlds to heal, but all other characters that died, such as Lee and Hester.

This book series, though advertised as Young Adult, will leave a lasting impression on you, no matter your age, which I believe is a mark of a wonderful writing.