Sorry endings

The written word is a powerful thing - bewaaaaaaaare!

As people who have inadvertently tweeted and blogged silly comments to their own regret will know, a word in print can have catastrophic consequences. That includes spoiling my mood for the rest of the day.

A book with a tragic ending can really, really upset me. I was reminded of this the other day when I read the finale in a trilogy of teen fantasies, only to be left with a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth. The London Stone, if you want to know. There was a great deal of death and despair and betrayal, and a conclusion as satisfying as cold porridge. Fills in the gaps, but you sure don't enjoy it.

I acknowledge an obvious lack of maturity in my literary tastes. I should merely wallow in the exquisite pain and hyperrealism of it all.

Should I bo|!ocks.

I read to escape. I read - oh dear, how gauche - for pleasure. I don't want horrible things to happen to the people I have enjoyed spending so much time with. If you make me love a character - don't destroy him. It's all I ask. King Lear, meh, he had some life lessons coming. Othello was a bit of a gull, granted. You can learn from the tragedies of these people. But when that person is coming right...when that person is, say, Elizabeth Bennet, about to embark on her first romance...you're just really going to wazzle me off.

This doesn't mean I don't want to read about tragic circumstances. Not at all. As I have mentioned, my favourite genre is crime, and you just can't have a good story without conflict. But give me something to smile about at the end. Please.

Stop reading now if you are afraid of spoilers, but these are some of the books that rained off my finals. Let me know if any had the same effect on you...Or, of course, if you think I'm mad.




The Once and Future King - T. H. White
Admittedly, I knew the story of King Arthur didn't turn out overly well. But the Disney film The Sword in the Stone lulled me into a false sense of security. This is not the sort of book you give to an impressionable child in need of some fantasy escapism. Once Arthur's sister tricked him into a romantic entanglement via some very nasty methods, I was properly traumatised.

Splinter - Sebastian Fitzek
What a great premise, I thought. A man has recently lost his wife in a car crash, and is trying to get through the grieving process. Then a psychiatrist offers to erase his memories of her, and his grief as well. The man refuses, but then discovers the clinic he visited the day before is a hole in the ground, and his wife is living at home with another man - who has his name. Is he going mad? Brilliant thriller - but the ending stuck a big pin in it.

In the Woods - Tana French
Fantastic writing, intriguing set-up, great humour...and an ending like a brick through the window. If you are a crime fan, Dublin's Tana French has talent with a capital T. But not if you take your Irish neat.

Ptolemy's Gate - Jonathan Stroud

I think The Amulet of Samarkand is one of the best books ever written for children. The sequel, The Golem's Eye, is a little less sprightly, but fantastic for going even deeper. And it's all going to work out in book three, right? Right? The author told me he thought the finale was the only one he could write. Thank goodness he didn't do Harry Potter. Although...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
Loved the series. But that epilogue...
Laaa-aaaame.

The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
First in the Simon Serrailler series, and the last I will be reading. Scriven's #1 rule of literature reiterated - DON'T kill off your most interesting characters!

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Am I joking? Jane Austen in here? But yes. Not all Jane Austen's books were created equal. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion are the three greatest novels in the English language. That is not up for discussion. However, while I thoroughly enjoy Northanger Abbey, much more than Emma, or Mansfield Park - which I don't like at all - that ending is rather a let-down for romantics. Fancy a witty, clever and delightful man like Henry Tilney marrying a young and rather simple girl like Catherine Morland - and when he wasn't even in love with her, but simply a bit flattered by her attention, and he 'felt like it was the right thing to do'. He should have married meeeeee....
*Legal note - The views expressed in this blog are purely and in their entirety my own, and not at all related to those of Auckland Libraries, Auckland Council, or associated agencies thereof. And the mailbox is broken this week.

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

It really is fortunate I'm somewhere in Europe this week. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of this book at all, but the worst of it was that the only decent character ended up with a decrepit old man while the love of her life married her annoying little sister. Why is this book famous?
*Please see above disclaimer.

At any rate, now that I have aired my shameful views to all and sundry, do you have any books you found a real let-down at the end?

What really annoys you about books or films?

I promise I'll read all responses when I get back!