now that you’ve finished mockingjay, do you find yrself experiencing any of the following symptoms?
- spontaneous fits of uncontrollable sobbing
- hours spent staring blankly at a wall
- an inability to converse about topics unrelated to hunger games
- an extreme aversion to white roses
- constantly referring to yr pet as “buttercup”
if you meet any of these criteria, it is extremely possible that you have developed a serious case of The End of an Awesome Book Syndrome, also known as TEABS. and while this disease has the potential to cause massive amounts of damage to yr heart, brain and what scientists like to call “human spirit,” it is definitely treatable, if not curable. as TEABS survivors, we’re here to tell you that it IS possible to overcome this tragic disease, which is why we’ve put together this guide of healthy tips and steps you can take to beat this sickness and reclaim yr life! so take charge of yr recovery and read on!
CONGRATULATIONS! by clicking on this blog post, you just took yr first step towards TEABS recovery. pat yrself on the back, and remember: no matter how painful this road becomes, you will never be as effed up as katniss everdeen. PERSPECTIVE Y’ALL.
since TEABS affects everyone differently, we urge you to choose the tips that work best for you. feel free to tailor your therapy to directly address your severest symptoms, and if you think this means i’m giving you a free pass to drink excessively, you are obvs v. familiar with this site and YES.
CUE INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC THAT WILL IN NO WAY REMIND YOU OF THE HANGING TREE.
There Are Other Books Out There
step 1: allow yrself to acknowledge that, in time, you will be able to love other books again. while nothing can replace hunger games, you have plenty of room in yr YA-lovin’ heart for more favorites.
step 2: look in the mirror and tell yourself: “i am an awesome reader! and lots of books will appreciate being read by me!”
step 3: wean yrself off HG carefully by choosing a highly rated book with a similar theme or character. for example, if you’re still craving dystopia, give the knife of never letting go or the enemy a try. if you need to connect with another lovable asshole of a heroine, go no further than the jessica darling series. and, as always, you can find plenty of new fish in the sea via our site! in fact, consider us the eharmony of YA readership.
step 4: if all else fails, reach out to the books you know best, the ones that have never let you down. sure, re-reading the entire harry potter series may bring on a whole new bout of TEABS, but at least yr conversational repertoire will expand to more than just peeta vs. gale.
It Takes a Village
step 1: log onto FYA and read the zillion comments generated by our mockingjay posts. YOU’RE NOT ALONE!!! feel free to contribute yr own two cents to the conversation because YOU MATTER.
step 2: proceed to the caf and settle down at the local FYA v. important business meetings table. there you will have the opportunity to find other people who live in your same town (or state) so that you can actually meet up!
step 3: attend a local FYA v. important business meeting and pour yr heart out about every single detail in mockingjay to a REAL LIVE PERSON! who has also read mockingjay! and therefore UNDERSTANDS!
step 4: after drying yr collective bloodshot eyes, form a group hug and then buy each other shots of tequila and spend the rest of the night slurring to each other, “i luf you somuch. i would take yr plash inthe hungrames in a HEARBEAT!”
YAngelism
step 1: harness yr TEABS angst and transform it into raw energy. we recommend meditation, red bull or plain old fashioned hard drinking.
step 2: target a friend or loved one who has not yet read the hunger games.
step 3: unleash yr energy upon him/her in the form of incessant references to HG until he/she finally breaks down and reads it.
step 4: realize that you’re actually spreading TEABS instead of curing it, but hey, misery loves company!
Candy Is Dandy But Liquor Is Quicker
who am i kidding, this isn’t yr last resort. this is probably YR FIRST RESORT. and for good reason, because ALCOHOL WORKS. sure, it may send you straight into a tragic, cardboard housed existence on the streets (lifetime told me so), not to mention the potential for liver damage, but for now, nothing matters except NUMBING THE PAIN OF TEABS OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE FINNICK IS DEAD SOMEONE STAB ME IN THE BRAIN WITH A TRIDENT AND MAKE IT STOP.
step 1: mix up yr fave HG cocktail and keep it in a flask for easy access.
step 2: drink every time you:
- say the word “mockingjay” (look, you want this therapy to be effective, right?)
- ask a coworker if they’ve read the hunger games
- google mockingjay, katniss, gale, peeta or “fourth hunger games book”
- post a comment on a blog about mockingjay
step 3: take a shot every time you:
- compare the real world to panem
- blame yr problems on president snow
- consider signing up for archery lessons
- purchase a piece of HG merchandise
step 4: chug every time you:
- write a blog post about mockingjay
- contemplate writing HG fan fiction
- act like a dick and then tell people it’s because you were “hijacked”
- dream about naming yr future child after an HG character
step 5: write a drunken email to FYA to thank us for SAVING YR LIFE. you may, if you so desire, also compare us to katniss, and we will not consider that a TEABS relapse.
and now, to borrow a page out of the It Takes a Village section, we invite you, dear readers, to share yr own struggles in the comments. have you found a way to cope? if so, please offer up yr own TEABS survival advice and encouragement to yr fellow sufferers.
because together, WE WILL SURVIVE.
(even if our livers don’t. but hey, if katniss can survive without a spleen, surely we… OH DAMMIT TO HELL)
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Admitting you have a problem is always the first step: My name is Beth and I have TEABS.
I finally got back on FYA today, even though I finished MJ the day it came out (and then cried at an unrelated event that did not call for tears) because I just needed time to absorb everything. Reading all of the comments has definitely helped cheer me up because knowing that other people are as emotionally disturbed/unable to move on is a good thing.
And I’m being a good girl and reading books for autumn quarter now, so that takes my mind off of the end of HG. Okay, not really. I just end up thinking about how much I’d rather be re-reading the whole series than these other books.
All in all, thank goodness for FYA!
Hi, Beth!
Hi, Beth.
Oh thank god! I’ve been crying sporadically too and I thought there was something seriously wrong with me. I really was considering going to a psychologist. Thank you for restoring my feeling of saneness! You’ve saved my life!
Just wanted to add: There’s a statue of a cornucopia in our city and I just can’t drive past it without imagining Mutant wolves jumping around on it.
I have TEABS so freaking bad. I have created an alternate reality in my head where Finnick is alive and happy and banging annie/me like crazy and whispering tender love-words in her/my ear.
It’s just, I don’t understand why he had to die. I understand why Prim had to go, kinda but WHY FINNICK WHY???? Was it so that I could understand that Katniss is SELFISH and plauged by Half Assed Bad IDEAS??? Thanks I already knew that and somehow managed to love her anyway. So since I don’t understand it I’ve decided that it didn’t happen.
So I’m def. going with the embrace emotional unhealthyness cure. Anyone else?
FINNICK ALL THE WAY BABE!!!!
How was Katniss’s selfishness the reason for Finnicks death? All she did was save him a heck of a lot of pain after those creepy as hell mutants got him.
It is amazing how much this book has affected us all. The more time passes since I’ve finished, the more I’m impressed with sc for ending it the way she did. I still feel a bit raw, honestly, and look forward to drowning my sorrows with my fellow fyaers, rehashing and rehashing every single moment until I can actually get on with my life!
I am very grateful for FYA cause it is now my mockingjay support group. All I can say and do is think about hunger games. I took the suggestion of the book to another level by giving them an actual deadline.. I am glad to finally admit I have a problem.
Thankfully I have lent the Hunger Games to 15 (and still going) people at my work, so each day someone else finishes the book I have a whole new conversation to have…very therapeutic.
I say since the mockingjay talegate was such a success..a mockingjay happy hour to discuss is in order as well!
erica, yr work in YAngelism is inspiring to us all. i might have to start calling you Erica YAseed. which is a really weird name. so i probably won’t call you that but yeah, you’re awesome.
I’m so glad you guys posted this because I’ve personally been amazed at the response to the last few blog updates. It’s good to know there are so many other Cray Crays out there (and by that I mean absolutely mutha cussin awesome FYAers). It’s kind of healing to have all these people to vent with, esp. considering NO ONE I know has finished this book (of the two people I know who have read the series) because they have jobs or need sleep or something. So we’ve all been here before with many other books, some TEABS worse than others: Oh Jellicoe Road I could still cry about how much I miss you. Harry Potter, Princess Diaries, and even Twilight (don’t judge me. I have issues with Breaking Dawn and I think Bella is an ass but I was sad to see the stories and the thesaurus overusage end), among many others have left me feeling sort of empty afterward. But we pick ourselves up, take a deep breath and move on and stop obsessing over what in the hell Gale is doing over there in District Two (hopefully it’s shirtless, whatever it is), weeping over Finnick and his um, trident, and stop wondering why Katniss couldn’t even stand to tell us her kid’s names. We’ll be alright.
Sigh.
I have to say, having FYA to read has helped with the major case of TEABS I’ve developed (especially since none one in my face to face interactions has finished Mockingjay yet; I don’t get it, it’s like these people have lives or something).
The other thing is that I found out last night that Terry Pratchett’s fourth book Tiffany Aching book, I Shall Wear Midnight, is due out September 28. If the summary is anything to go by, it’s going to push ALL my buttons and be utterly fantastic and crack me up and make me sob. So I’ve replaced the anticipation for Mockingjay with the anticipation for MOAR TIFFANY and MOAR FEEGLES (and hopefully MOAR GRANNY WEATHERWAX). It’s given me a completely new reason to stare at the walls!
My midnight-black kitty is really resenting being called Buttercup. So I’m glad I can admit to TEABS and find support. And also glad my cat is declawed.
By cat is NOT declawed, and after finishing Mockingjay, I have a very large scratch on my right cheek.
I am taking your suggestion and re-reading my true love, aka Harry Potter. Except… it’s page 4 and already Vernon Dursley has visited the bakery! The freaking bakery!
AHHHHH PEEEETAAAA! I HOPE YOU ARE HEALING!
Reading Harry potter to cure teabs is like contracting smallpox to cure chickenpox. I had the same urge, though!
GAH! WHY DID VERNON HAVE TO GO TO THE BAKERY WHEN HE KNEW THAT WOULD UPSET YOU?!
oh yeah, cos he’s a dursley.
Hi, my name is Rosey and I have major TEABS. As soon as the book was over, I became obsessed with getting the mockingjay pin. However, it’s $60 on ebay. I walked over to my local Borders in hopes of finding a pin, and harrassed no less than three employees until they looked it up and said they’re out of stock and not shipping any more. To avoid breaking down in tears, I bought the mockingjay keychain and affixed it to my backpack.
And yes, I’m turning 30 soon. Why do you keep asking?
There’s a keychain????? I’m so on my way to Borders. Hope that’s not considered falling off the wagon. (And have no fear Rosey…I’m 36. Yikes!)
I did the same thing! As soon as I managed to make myself crawl out of my reading den after I finished Mockingjay I rushed over to Borders for the keychain. Now I feel dumb for not looking for a pin when I was there…
And it turns out the Borders cashier was supposed to come to the release party at Book People! Only, Borders had her working late… Stocking the Mockingjay books. I’ve decided that Borders can be as cruel as the Capitol to it’s employees and patrons.
shabbygeek has the pin, and once i saw her picture with it, I NEEDED IT IMMEDIATELY. it looks really classy, y’all! although at this point i’d probably still want it even if it was as fugly as bella’s ring.
THAT’S SAD.
I’ve been tweeting my TEABS progress. But it’s all basically the same: “MOCKINGJAYYY, WHYYY???” and “Omigod, I saw Inception. You what’s even worse though? Mockingjay TEABS!”
And I’d like to say I have the whimpiest TEABS in the world – all I do is the staring and crying. I’m not kidding. Though I have been acting like a total biyatch, and I *should* be blaming it on hijacking! Damn it, I’ve had an excuse all along!
I hate having TEABS, but I also love the fact that I can feel this involved in a book and that I honestly care this much. So I usually let them drag on, because I’ll miss them when they’re gone…
IMA WIF YA SISTAH!
Pretty much from the moment I finished Mockingjay I check FYA every 5 minues. I comment on each post just so that I will get an email for each new comment. I’m so glad I’m not alone in my suffering of TEABS but yet I still feel so alone. I wish my dang husband would hurry up and read it now!! I sit and think about the ending and replay it in with head with no less than 50 alternate endings. Each with Finnick living. I think somewhere down the line someone pissed off Ms. Collins and she wrote the last quarter of the book with the intent of pissing people off in an amount equal and/or greater than the amount she was pissed off. Because frankly, her killing the people she killed and keeping alive the people she kept alive just really pisses me off! And really, what did I ever do to deserve this??!!!
I do love though all the discussion this book has brought forth. It’s fun to be engaged with a book while reading it but then living through it with other avid fans takes it to a whole new level.
I’m going to go make an Effie now….
Oh the alternate endings…my craziest thought was at the moment where Katniss and Buttercup reunite (so cute) I kind of thought it might work out that Katniss becomes a crazy cat lady and names all her kitties after her fallen friends, avoiding making a choice for Peeta/Gale entirely. In my delirium, I even tried to make the connection between KATniss and Tigris.
So pretty much, writing gold ^
Well, poop. If I have to drink every time I leave a comment here about Mockingjay (drink!), well, I hope my boss is cool with me showing up wasted on Monday morning. TEABS is some real shit, y’all. I think I’ll just pin the URL of this post to my shirt when I get to the job and let you ladies do the explaining for me.
penelope, mockingjay TEABS does NOT mess around. i need to write a letter to the american medical society so we can get this shizz RECOGNIZED.
Thank you for existing, fellow unashamed YA readers who actually read fast! Everyone I know is on like chapter 4 while I’m spazzing out over Katniss killing Coin and ending up with Peeta! Argh! I won’t quit you, Gale! Can I get an amen?
Anyone want to take a shot of tequila every time Katniss ends up in some sort of infirmary or hospital? Damn you TEABS…I need some morphling…
At least you have people that might eventually finish reading it to talk about it with. The only person I’ve been able to convince to read the series is only on the first book and they like to not read books in one sitting.
Amen for Gale, even though I kind of wanted Gale for me all along so I kind of wanted Katniss to be with Peeta, leaving him available…because he’s not a fictional character or anything.
If we took shots every time Katniss was in the hospital, we would probs end up there with her!
Mmmmm… morphling…
Amen
After my tears, I reached for my cheap bottle of long island ice tea and decided to Haymitch it up. And then I wrote a blog. And then I came here. And tweeted and Facebook-ed about it, which is KIND OF like spreading the word.
I guess I can now get back to the pile of library books on my dresser. Since it’s 3 am and there’s no one to talk to about this book. TEABS is hard.
Oh man, i really thought I had avoided serious teabs…I finished the book and while I was sad it wad over i didn’t feel too much teab-yness. But it’s been getting progressively worse! I dreamed about the book last night and woke up this morning thinking about finnick while stroking my cat! I’ve officially contracted teabs! My treatment/drink of choice is diet dr pepper haha!
sam, my TEABS is progressing the same way. i first i was like, “ok, dang, that was sad, but hey, now i know what happens!” several days passed and then it HIT ME LIKE A MACK TRUCK. or one of gale’s bombs (OOOH BURN) (LITERALLY!).
Thank you all for helping me deal with a serious case of TEABS. I don’t understand all these slow readers. I’m trying to decide what book should help me through this crisis. Maybe Graceling?
OMG Graceling is so good. I loved it and yet it did not leave me dying for more. I mean that in a good way. It was a good, complete story with another kick ass heroine and left me without the slightest hint of TEABS.
ya i finished the book the day it came out and i only knw 1 person whos read the series and they are only on chaptr 2! F those slow readrs and as i amen’ed 2 a comment earlier… i need some morphling! this TEABS is pulsn through my vains!!!!!
There is no joy, no sunshine, no love left in the world. I am a train wreck. Pulling a Haymitch to numb the searing pain.
Hi, my name is Cindy, or Annless G. Throwoak if you prefer, and I have TEABS.
I have been relying on this site as well as a few close friends as my lifeline for the past few weeks & with the exception of Henri’s blind hatred of out beloved & perfect Peeta – they has been the only things tethering me to survival.
Last weekend AFTER rereading both Hunger Games & Catching fire fore the second time the week before, I did read the Jessica Darling series almost continually all weekend. Then I read Mockingjay.
The actual reading was very hard as you all know. A friend & I actually decided that Mockingjay should come with it’s own built in Cinna pouch for Xanax, Valium or Morphline built into the binding. Not since my first Deathly Hallows read has a book affected me with such anxiety mixed with awe. Except this was worse because it was just as gut-wrenching in half the pages. Seriously, I still can’t get over the fact that they are adverising this book to teens – because as a pretty adjusted adult this book f-ed me up. Seriously.
Since Thursday I have power slammed both ‘The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks’ & today ‘Jellicoe Road’. I am proof positive that YAngelism works. But even as I was reading these very good YA books, Mockingjay is still haunting me.
*sigh*
I’m not sure when I’ll be able to re-read it. It took me over 2 years before I was able to re-read DH & that seems about right. But I’m reaching out. Sharing my joy and pain. It’s a process for sure.
A big glass of bailey’s…I’m haymitching. Thanks FYA!
I feel like an idiot for not realizing what TEABS meant before I read this post. *headdesk* ANYWAY, I’m also struggling to believe that I actually made it the first 15 years of my life without your wisdom. Minus the drinking games, because, you know, I’m still 15. xD I get my Haymitch on with chocolate milk because it is CHOCOLATE and CREAMY and YUMMY. OH SNAP.
Anyway, I would make you my allies in the Hunger Games in an instant! Before, of course, we’d have to end up killing each other! And yes, this is a TEABS relapse! =D Maybe it’s better to just say YOU ARE AWESOME.
Hi, My name is Christina (or Baughmet B. Lazeficus, if you will, haha), and I have a major case of TEABS.
I totally needed a Cinna-type pouch of Xanax for this one. I’ve cried at books before, but never have I felt so anxious or worried while reading, and so crushed and wrecked at the end. I def need to try some of these methods, though admittedly some of them haven’t worked. While trying to share with friends, the recapping and reliving just sent me into relapses. I thought, “man, if I could just write a short piece of fanfiction, it could be cathartic, and it’d all be fine.” WRONG. That send me into another relapse. This book is just THAT awesome — hence the TEABS.
I guess that only leaves one option… TIME FOR THE BOOZE. Oh, it is ON, Effie!
At the urging of my friend who’s been helping me through my TEABS (and who is suffering her own severe bout of TEABS over this), here is the link to that piece of fanfic I ultimately DID produce. Hope it helps
Alternate Epilogue: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6282142/1/Alternate_Epilogue
I’m the guilty party & it’s truly a great ficlet. Gave me more of a sense of peace for sure.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
There are tears in my eyes.
You absolutely touch every note perfectly. You said everything I needed to hear in order to feel whole about it.
LOVE how you named the kids.
LOVE how Peeta found redemption in his work/art.
Thank you a million times, from the bottom of my heart.
Real.
Since I cannot drink, cuz I am carrying my own Peeta, I have no clue what to do… you guys have options to go with your TEABS, but I don’t! here in Chile The Hunger Games are not very popular! and I have no one to share it with, I am trying with my younger sister… but she is SO into college, then my fellow Hunger Games reader is not reading Mockingjay cuz is not in Spanish, yet, and she knows very lil english… she’s trying, but since I finnished it on wednesday/thursday I am all alone! I think I’ll re-read… then go and re-read the whole trilogy and cry some more.
is that a valid way to cope?
Fortunately I have one more chapter left of The Knife of Never Letting Go (when I finally received Mockingjay I of course just dropped everything else I was doing), so that’s helping! But unfortunately, once I finish that today, I’ll have TEABS over again. Until I read the sequel!
Oh man, you are going to have much worse than TEABS after you finish The Knife of Never Letting go. You will have angry-cliffhanger-itis. Like screaming WHY?!? PATRICK NESS! WHY?!
THIS SITE IS GOD DAMN INSANE! i <3 it! thur r waaay 2 many ppl like me tho… im nt likn that!!!
I <3 HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i wanna name my future daughter Clove SO BAD.
IM WAIF YA SISTAH!
I so wish I could be a Mockingjay virgin again! My husband and co-workers haven’t finished it yet…I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY ARE READING SO SLOWLY! So I don’t have anyone to talk about it with yet, it makes it even harder when no one understands….I’m so glad FYA is here to make it easier….
If anyone is still suffering, try Ship Breaker.
kristen, i almost bought that book the other day! i’ll definitely have to read it.
and my family’s RE-READING all the books, so they haven’t even gotten to MJ yet!
Step 2: Drink everytime you…
…post a comment on a blog about mockingjay
So, if I flood this post’s comments with a dozen (or a hundred) “OMG WHY PRIM WHY” posts for the sole excuse of getting wasted on a Wednesday at midnight, allz is forgiven, right?
TEABS!!!!!! I have such a bad case of it! But…
I do have a recomendation for annother favorite series for mine! The Alex Rider Series! I LOVE THOSE BOOKS!!! Now, for those of you who happen to look up the series you will notice that the series is about a fourteen-year-old who happens to be an English teen superspy. I admit that it DOES sound kind of cheesy and if you look up the basic plot lines of the books in the series they do sound weird but, Anthony Horowitz (the author) is a fantastic writer! I could never put the books down! I finished the sixth novel in the series at about two in the morning and I literally started screaming when I couldn’t find the seventh one. And that brings me to annother point. The series is currently eight books long and Horowitz recently mentioned that he was writing the ninth book. Now, you are probably thinking, Oh! That series is so long that the books must get boring! Well, that isn’t true! I love this series especially because it NEVER gets boring! Not even one of the books is even a little bit dry. They even get more exciting as the series goes on. So
(even though I am a Harry Potter fan) JK ROWLING CAN SUCK IT!!!
All these years with the TEABS and never knowing what to call that feeling at the end of a great book. Thank you for giving it a name.
I love this post! I feel listless, directionless. I want to read something, but I know whatever it is, it won’t be as good as HG. I am so glad to learn there is a name for this horrible sickness, and that I’m not alone! The case to be made for reading HP again: getting ready for Deathly Hallows on the screen.
I need a bit of advice. You see, recently I got one of my friends to read the book. .. and… she.. didnt like it. Yes, you read right. SHE.DIDNT.LIKE.IT. and refuses to read Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. Im dumbfounded. Really and truly. Some part of me doesnt even want to continue THAT friendship. What kind of person doesnt like the Hunger Games!!???? What is wrong with this girl!? WHHHAAATTTTT.
WHAT. WHAT THE WHAT.
wait. is her last name snow?
Hi, I know, really really really late!
BUT!
First of all, I’ve been scouring this site trying to find out what TEABS even stands for! And when I did… oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy do I got it bad! I was lucky enough to read all three Hunger Games books all in a row, but then I was really in a tizzy when they were all goneeeee.
SO! I jumped right into the Walking Chaos series… and I’m right back into TEABS goddamittohell!
Hahaha well, I’m just happy you have coping mechanisms all in a neat list to help your readers along on the tough road to recovery! Andddd I’ve unknowingly done ALL of those embarrassing things you listed above. yeah.
I am new to FYA, and I love this post. I have been suffering from TEABS for years and never knew what to call it – thank you!