Good Books - Bad Endings

[Sommer Leigh]

I loved the Harry Potter series but the last book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was so bad that it almost ruined the series for me. It had a terrible ending. So very cliche.

I didn't mind the deathly hallows. Granted the beginning was slow. But what was really terrible was the epilogue. I think it was an epilogue, I don't have the book handy. Anyway the last part of the book. I actually thought as I was reading it that it must have been Rowling's attempt to stem the flow of fan fiction, like Here! This is what happens! Forever! The end! That being said, I found it detracted from the real ending (which I rather liked).

There are a few books here and there where I thought the ending didn't do the book justice, but the thing that makes me absolutely insane? Epilogues. I can't think of a single book where I thought an epilogue was necessary. I like coming to the end of a book and imagining what could happen in the future, how events may continue to play out. When the epilogue tells me what happens I feel kind of cheated, like the author couldn't stand the idea of me imagining the future for myself. And epilogues that wrap things up in the neatest little bow possible really kill my love.

[bcomet]

This will probably be very unpopular, but Stephen King, who I think is so completely talented in so many ways really disappoints with his endings. Some of them anyway, I haven't read everything. But part of the reason I stopped reading more was because the endings left me wanting. That's a whole lot of reading to go through not to get a "whew, what a read" completion moment.

His characterizations are so intense; his set-ups and complications are page turners. He has such a gripping and dark imagination. Then, it's like he gets bored and just wraps it up without any satisfaction factor for the reader (this reader anyway).

The Stand, IT, and a bunch of others. I wanted better endings.

I LOVED his On Writing though. BIG satisfaction factor. And mystery: What happened to the guy that ran him over?

[fersnerfer]

This will probably be very unpopular, but Stephen King, who I think is so completely talented in so many ways really disappoints with his endings. Some of them anyway, I haven't read everything. But part of the reason I stopped reading more was because the endings left me wanting. That's a whole lot of reading to go through not to get a "whew, what a read" completion moment.

His characterizations are so intense; his set-ups and complications are page turners. He has such a gripping and dark imagination. Then, it's like he gets bored and just wraps it up without any satisfaction factor for the reader (this reader anyway).

The Stand, IT, and a bunch of others. I wanted better endings.

I LOVED his On Writing though. BIG satisfaction factor. And mystery: What happened to the guy that ran him over?

I actually agree with you. I hadn't read King for a while and finally got From a Buick 8 on CD. There was about 45 minutes of book at the end that I didn't need to hear, aside form a somewhat predictable "I wrote this to become a movie" climax.


Under The Dome wraps up pretty well, though.


And as for all The Lovely Bones hate: I couldn't even get past 150 pages, the book annoyed me so badly.

[theepicwinner]

I LOVED his On Writing though. BIG satisfaction factor. And mystery: What happened to the guy that ran him over?

I believe he says the man died some years later.

[johndavid]

I recently read 'The Jungle' by Sinclair for the first time not long ago.

To me, the first 2/3 of the book was good and interesting. Once the banned word crap came into play it ruined it for me.

But the working and living conditions of the people in early Chicago kept me reading.

[CourtneyLeigh]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Ugh! I know that Hardy "foreshadows" her mental illness, but dang, it felt like such a cop out at the end. And it's not like I didn't know it was going there, but I hated them wandering around England and falling asleep on Stonehenge so that Tess could be arrested when they woke up. It seemed so random and pointless. It also seemed kind of random that Tess killed Alec, after all that time. But maybe I'm dumb and don't get the ending. Does anybody understand the end?!

Anyway, I loved the book up until the last couple of chapters. Beautiful prose. Great characters. Lots of British pastoralism. Stinky ending.

[thrintone]

Bad bad ending? Twilight. The whole last book was....um. That book also holds the prize for dumbest character name ever, IMO.

I don't know if it's just a Utah thing or a Mormon thing...the weird name thing. I know she's Mormon, but I don't think she lives in Utah. Anyway...I've lived in Salt Lake for about 6 years now and I will never get over the weird things people name their kids here. The blending of names...God, it's ridiculous.


Someone said The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I agree. When it ended I was so confused. I thought it was because I'm not really into zombies. I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one left unsatisfied.

[stephmcgee]

List Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars was one for me. It wasn't a horrible ending, but everything just came so easy for the MC. The big question that she had about herself, which I though maybe would have been dragged out over the series, was answered for her on a silver platter. She beat the "bad guy" super easy too. And it just bugged me. Make the MC work harder for something and it'll be more satisfying all around.

[bcomet]

I LOVED his On Writing though. BIG satisfaction factor. And mystery: What happened to the guy that ran him over?

I believe he says the man died some years later.

I think the guy died mysteriously though.

[sierramcconnell]

Angelology

It was a wonderful book that I couldn't put down. But then all the sudden characters started acting out of character and they began looking for these things and stuff started happening and things began going down and...

...what the heck. What was that.

If you read it, you would know what I meant. It was just total WTF-ery. All over the place. I could forgive the naming of her characters. I could forgive the too thick research in places that it made my eyes burn. I could forgive the suspicious wing thing.

But the ending was just too...stupid and not at all like the rest of her writing.

I wonder if someone made her change it on a whim, and for the sake of publishing, she agreed and did it. Because it was totally different than the rest of the book and rushed out into something horrible.