s/o: how books end

[eaglei]

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE GIVER, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER - SPOILER!

 

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ SAVING ALICE, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER - SPOILER!

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The comment about the open-ended conclusion in The Giver got me to thinking about another type of ending - the one where it's all a dream. I'm not sure which is more aggravating - open-ended or a dream - but I lean heavily towards the dream endings!

 

An example: Some years ago, I read Saving Alice by David Lewis (husband to Beverly Lewis). The book, as I recall, was good - until the ending. It was all a dream. I was SO aggravated that I had spent time reading the whole book just for this disappointing and unrealistic ending.

 

So what about you? What types of story endings are unacceptable to you for one reason or another?

[flyingmommy]

I hate unhappy endings.... I also would hate to read an entire book only to find that it was just a dream. (Flashback to "Dallas".....LOL)

 

The biggest requirement for me is that the book has to have at least one character that I care about. I need to care whether that character lives or dies, succeeds or fails. When all of the characters have no redeeming qualities, I have a hard time finishing the book.

 

J

[Mimm]

Spoilers about My Sister's Keeper.

 

 

 

 

Ok, so she sets up this whole book so that it's pretty much inevitable that the sick sister is going to die and they go through the whole pain of the court proceedings and so on... and then they KILL the healthy sister in a car accident?? Random! And then they let the sick sister live out of the blue? That book was the first I had read from Jodi Picoult and it completely turned my off of her for all time. I don't mind surprise endings and I don't mind plot twists, but you can't lie to your readers about what's going to happen and then turn around and do something else. And to throw a car accident in out of the blue was really a sad attempt at a surprise ending. :p

 

Sorry if I sound overly annoyed at this. I do get too emotionally invested in some books I guess and that one really irritated me.

[Parrothead]

I hate cliffhangers. Inevitably one must wait at least a year to get the next book. Oh, the suspense of a series! Don't get me started on that.

 

I also hate when good writer writes a flop. I generally will read the entire book knowing there is a good part somewhere only to find there is none.

[Closeacademy]

I quit reading popular and/or lit books because I hate the trend toward surprise endings that are usually negative. I don't like open-endings, dream-endings and/or endings where everyone is killed off.

 

I like a good happy ending with the bulkd of the loose ends tied off unless there is going to be another book to tie off those loose ends.

 

The main reason I read romance the majority of the time is that I am garanteed a happy ending with the loose ends taken care of. In fact most of the time, I get a wedding and a baby at the end. I like that.:001_smile:

[asta]

My son said he wanted to ride his bike past the line for the new Harry Potter movies yelling out a fake ending of the books just to make a dig at all of the people who didn't read them.

 

I thought that was hilarious, but I told him no.

 

 

a

[AngieW in Texas]

I want the books/series that I read to feel finished at the end.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games series and thought the ending of the series was perfect for it.

 

I enjoyed the Gregor series by the same author until I realized that the 5th book was the last book. The series didn't feel finished to me. It needed an epilogue like in Harry Potter. The HP series wouldn't have felt finished if we hadn't found out what happened AFTER.

 

I was also extremely frustrated by the Midnighters series (Westerfeld) because it didn't finish the story. It just stopped.

 

I prefer happy endings, but I am okay with an unhappy ending so long as it is a logical ending for the story/series and it actually finishes things off.

[Dobela]

I don't read much fiction. If I do, it is usually a book or series that has been out for awhile (sometimes years) and has lots of commentary about it so I know kind of in advance what potential problems are with the series. If I know for certain that I want a happy ending, I go pick up some good Christian romance novels for a sappy story and a happy ending.

 

Otherwise, I tend to just read nonfiction. Biographies are great because truth is often stranger than fiction :D

[Wheres Toto]

Spoilers about My Sister's Keeper.

 

 

 

 

Ok, so she sets up this whole book so that it's pretty much inevitable that the sick sister is going to die and they go through the whole pain of the court proceedings and so on... and then they KILL the healthy sister in a car accident?? Random! And then they let the sick sister live out of the blue? That book was the first I had read from Jodi Picoult and it completely turned my off of her for all time. I don't mind surprise endings and I don't mind plot twists, but you can't lie to your readers about what's going to happen and then turn around and do something else. And to throw a car accident in out of the blue was really a sad attempt at a surprise ending. :p

 

Sorry if I sound overly annoyed at this. I do get too emotionally invested in some books I guess and that one really irritated me.

 

:iagree:

The ending was totally unnecessary. It would have been a wonderful story with the more obvious ending - the way it ended really irritated me as well. Evidently a lot of people hated it because they changed it completely for the movie.

[Sparkle]

I was just complaining about this very thing to my dh this morning. I finished reading Death in Lacquer Red by Jeanne Dams ***warning-spoilers***, and the ending was so inconsistent. The whole time during the book, the main character, Hilda Johansson, who is a housemaid in the early 1900's, is constantly terrified that the butler (her superior) will fire her over the tiniest little mistake or breach of conduct...then at the end of the book - she hides a fugitive in the basement of her employer's house, she breaks and enters a lawyer's office, steals a will, and sets an accidental fire which ends up killing the murder suspect. And the butler's like, "eh, whatever, your motives were good, so we'll overlook all these crazy antics" ??? The characterization drove me batty.

 

I will say that I like this author's other series, the Dorothy Martin books, a lot. But the Hilda Johannson ones leave something to be desired.

 

I like nice, satisfying endings, preferably happy, but at least ones that don't leave you hanging or wondering what the heck???

[Nature]

I agree. I really enjoyed the book, but hated the ending. I still continue to read her books . . . even though I don't like most of the endings.

 

Did any of you see the movie, My Sister's Keeper? I didn't like the movie at all.

Edited September 30, 2010 by Nature

[mcconnellboys]

I feel the same way about The Giver. I hated the ending of Sophie's Choice, too....

[KidsHappen]

I hate books that are going all really well, very interesting and then it seems like the author just ran out of steam or lost interest or something. The ones where there doesn't seem to be any climax or resovlement. I don't really read too much fiction so if I bother to read one, it better have a good ending.

Edited October 2, 2010 by KidsHappen