**SPOILER ALERT: There is a good chance I may blurt out the ending of several books. Proceed with caution ***
Okay, I just recently finished (or almost finished), “The Friday Night Knitting Club” by Kate Jacobs.
…now’s the time to go away if you don’t wnat to know what happened…
*looks around*
Are they gone?
Okay…
Holy crap that ending sucked!!! I was one hundred pages away from the ending and I was absolutely restless with where this book was going – it was just too positive and things were going way too well. I did what I usually didn’t do and I skipped ahead and scanned through the rest.
Alright, here is the spoiler part – there is a death at the end.
I don’t like an unexpected death in a book. Especially a main character death that came out of nowhere.
I don’t mind it, when I’m fully prepared for the death. In “I Know This Much is True” by Wally Lamb, there is a death, but it definitely isn’t a surprise. It’s something I expected considering where one of the characters was going in the book. In “At Risk” by Alice Hoffman, the main character was a girl with HIV/AIDs. This was another death I expected.
In a more recent book I finished, “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, it had a death, too, but it leaned towards a surprise death, because of who ended up dying. Yet, it wasn’t too much of a surprise because the majority of the characters were dealing with serious diseases.
In the book “Love Story” by Erich Segal (inspired the iconic movie), it started out saying there would be a death (but I cried at the end anyways, of course). Yet, it was brilliant and it captured the hearts of us all (because we were PREPARED for what would happen, obviously; can you imagine the protests that would have happened had we not been?).
I can go on. I can continue listing out brilliant novels with sad endings. Death endings. Death endings I was 1) prepared for 2) seemed to make sense considering the plot line and 3) …was not a total slap in the face.
This ending was a slap in the face. This wasn’t supposed to happen and I damn near threw this book across the room in protest (I did shout, though; totally shouted).
This pissed me off a lot because the book was so happy and pleasant and soothing. I’ve read these types of books before and I know that the book will be like this. I expect it and I don’t expect it will go into deep issues and that’s okay. I don’t mind. But when a happy book (and kind of shallow book, to be honest) becomes suddenly heavy duty sad…what the heck???
Anyways, I had to rant. I couldn’t take this sitting down (even though I am sitting as I type this…just imagine me standing with my fist shaking at the sky).
Rant with me – what book enraged you the most lately? What was the worst book ending you’ve ever read?
I don't care if 95% of a book is beautifully written and compelling, if the ending SUCKS I'll give it a one star rating! 🙂
It is a morbid soul who would do that to readers. I also hate an ending that sucks.
Oh I'll join your rant alright. I just reviewed a book that I otherwise really enjoyed, Away From the Spotlight. A contemporary romance, one of my favorite genres too. It was a long book….400+ pages and it took probably 350 to tell the hero and heroine's story (Okay STOP READING NOW if you don't want to know the ending!) then he FREAKIN' DIES!!! And she ends up in love and with the turkey from earlier in the story-that's not the bad part. The bad part is that HE FREAKIN' DIES!!! Really? Seriously? After all of that? Sheesh.
Alyson, I agree with you about that particular book. I felt it needed to end about page 300, shortly after the marriage. Another book I reviewed, however, also had a surprise death. Even though I hated that the hero died, it was the right thing to do for THAT book, because the book was really about the heroine's learning to be independent and on her own and you could see that throughout the book. So, surprise death can work even if I don't like it.
Endings that resolve issues are great but I must add that I like endings that leave you to wonder what comes next. Either in another book or just in your mind. I like when the credits run in a movie and show the happy couple with a bunch of kids, etc.
To me the tone of a book sets the stage for the ending. The tone can go up, but it should never go down. In other words, it can be depressing and end on a hopeful note, but a positive story should never end on a downer.