I’ve been giving some though to book endings since late last night, right after I finished Cassandra Clare’s CITY OF BONES. I blogged about it on my personal LJ, but still wanted to explore the topic of endings further. The closing chapters of a novel are just as (if not more) important than the open chapters, and in my opinion are much more difficult to write.
The beginning of a book is filled with the fresh unknown. And while it needs to engage me straight away, I also am more open to whatever unravels from page one. Who am I to judge what’s about to happen in a book in which I have not yet given a solid chance to hook me?
Reaching the closing chapters of a novel is a totally different experience. By then, I’ve come to know the characters, and I hopefully care very much about them. I’m well settled in the world inside the pages of the book, and if the book has done its job, the LAST thing I want to do is actually leave this world. For just that reason, The End is inevitably going to be heartbreaking.
The challenge of writing an ending to a book is being able to get the reader to think, “Wow, that was great!” even as they are untangling themselves from the characters and world you’ve created.
I don’t think happy endings are the only way to achieve this. Sickly sweet and perfect endings can be just as disappointing. An ending can be sad, or mixed, or downright depressing, and still be the right, satisfying ending. It has to make sense and ring true for the book, and for the characters in it.
A great example is Cindy Pon’s debut novel, SILVER PHEONIX. Without giving away any spoilers, the ending has received some mixed reviews. Some show it love, some don't. I show it love, even though yes, it was not the happily ever after ending I usually enjoy. But it was, in my view, the right ending for the book and it made sense for the characters at hand. Besides, there's a sequel coming! :-)
The same could be said for Carrie Ryan’s THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. The ending might be bleak, with a few light rays of hope to lead into next year's sequel, but would a happy ending really fit with the rest of the novel? I don't think so.
I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever read a book, set it down, and not had any qualms with the way it ended (even with my own books!). Have you? What endings have you loved, disliked, or questioned? What, for you, makes up a great ending?- Mood:contemplative
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
thefiverandoms- thefiverandoms
Comments
While I do like the main issues sewn up (the end of Harry Potter led to actual applause in my house when we read it), I do like the sense that life goes on (which means I didn't care for the 17 years later bit of HP--yes, I wanted to know what happened to them, but it was all a bit too neatly sewed up/nailed down that there was nothing left to imagine. They aren't living on in my mind--they are middle-aged and boring.)
Surprises at the end can be good or bad. I loved it in Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, because if totally fit once I read the book over again--the ending gave me additional information and expanded my picture. I would hate the kind of surprise you were talking about, though--where some sudden revelation changes the nature of the entire book into something I can't swallow. So surprises are tricky--they probably fail more often than they succeed.
I'd have rather read about them all in Rowling's encyclopedia, though.
One ending I really enjoyed was Dairy Queen, which doesn't tie everything up neatly, but does keep with the premise (that the book is the result of a summer assignment). While lots of things are left "to be continued," enough is resolved so that the reader is satisfied, and the resolutions feel in keeping with the rest of the novel.
I loved the twist ending at the end of The Demon's Lexicon--and totally didn't see it coming. I thought the last scene dragged on too long--too chatty--but otherwise it was ingenious.
So what do I think makes a good ending? A sense of completion, but the possibility of more, the suggestion that the characters live on outside the pages.
Need was good, too; it showed how you can leave things open enough for a sequel without having an incomplete feeling.
I don't like endings where everything is unrealistically neat, where everyone gets exactly what s/he wants, where the romances pair up everyone like Noah's Ark. But I like a sense of resolution: that some conclusion has been reached.
Wasn't it Richard Peck that said children's books need to have the promise of a life that continues on after the end with the possibility of a happy ending? I might be wrongly paraphrasing - I've searched for it online and can't find the exact quote...but I like that idea of possibilities.
I do think good endings are very important -- a good beginning will make me keep reading a book, but a bad ending will definitely spoil my experience of an otherwise good book, like a terrible dessert at the end of a delicious dinner.
I am a sap so I do enjoy a good, well-deserved happy ending. But I don't need one to be satisfied by a book - I loved the ending of THE TIME-TRAVELER'S WIFE (it made me cry, one of only three books to do so that don't feature sad things happening to dogs). I particularly love it when the main character doesn't get exactly what she/he started the book wanting, but realizes that what they do end up with is better, even if it's bittersweet.
There's also the issue of unresolved stories, whether in a series, or not. I know some folks have been less than thrilled with the ending to THE HUNGER GAMES, but I actually quite liked it. I felt the issues I cared most about were resolved, and the other issues were left in a state that felt fair to me, given the actions and nature of the main character.
One type of ending that I encounter regularly in my favorite genre (fantasy) that I think is often mishandled is "the big magical shebang" where some giant spell goes off, or some portal opens, or some otherwise large-scale magical event occurs and everything gets resolved against a fantastical lightshow backdrop. These can be well-done (and I must admit I have one of these at the end of my second book) but a lot of the time I feel sort of like the author got too overwhelmed and just decided to throw in a bunch of FX to distract the reader from the actual plot resolution.
Two other thoughts that occured to me:
1) I am a sucker for books where the ending somehow reflects or resonates with the beginning, either physically (characters return to the same location) or thematically (the questions/issues posed in the opening paragraph) or both. So that you could hold up the first paragraph, and the last paragraph, and sort of see the entire book captured there.
2) One thing that will make me want to throw a book across the room is when a character is killed off at the end and I feel like it's only being done because the author wants to show the reader that "things are serious" (this rule applies to TV and movies too, Joss Whedon). I can understand that desire, but it generally just feels like cheating to me.
But you guys have nailed it, I think. It's that sense of continuance...when the main issue is satisfied, but a greater something in their world continues on.
Now that I think about it, when a book is self-contained and everything that is mentioned in the story is wrapped up and finished by the end, it's a satisfying ending, but it's kind of like a meal that satisfies you, but you're perfectly content to stop eating.
I like a book that's like an absolutely delicious meal that's too big. So you sample everything on your plate, you reach a point where you're totally satisfied with how things worked out...yet there's a little more left, and you know it's soooo good, yet you just don't have room in your stomach to finish it. So in a book, it's a story within a story. The plot of the book and the struggle that the characters are most directly involved in is finished up happily, but the greater story isn't...and I like it when the ending shows promise of what is going to happen in that greater story.
Maybe that's why I also am a sucker for an ending that somehow reflects the beginning.
Now, to consider how to infuse my own stories with this!
-Susan