[Lightmare]

Talking about the endings of books in general. I hate it when a book has a really dull ending and there's nothing to get you to think, no wise piece of advice at the end or a general anti-climatic ending.

I reckon the ending is a decider of whether the book gets into a hall of fame or whether it rots and dies. A reason I read books is to find the ending. If the ending is bad, it doesn't matter how awesome the book was, it quickly fades out of my mind - to be never thought of again.

Take for a completely random example, the ending of Brisingr. Horrible, in all honestly. I was enjoying the book until that part, where I thereby forgot all the excitement I was feeling.

Anyone else got a disappointing ending?

[Rinion]

The ending of Breaking Dawn was frustrating. A large chunk of the book was devoted to the build-up of tension and fear for the battle to come at the end, and then it didn't happen. Sometimes, anti-climaxes work well for a book, but not when so much angst has been poured out for something that never comes about. Presumably, Stephenie Meyer didn't want to kill off any of her characters, which I suppose is appropriate, considering authors tend to shy away from killing off Mary Sues, and most of the characters in Twilight are essentially that, especially Bella once she has become a vampire.

The ending of Watership Down is one of my favourites. The final sentence links to the first in the book, and essentially sums up the point of the novel: the cycle of life continues, come what may.

[FrogzRule]

Oh my goodness, the ending of Orson Scott Card's Lost Boys made me cry. I don't know how to explain it without giving it away, in case anyone ever reads...it just made me really sad. It wasn't a bad ending, it was pretty terrific for a bittersweet one, and those can end up being iffy in my opinion, I knew it had to end like that because everything else would have been unrealistic, but I wish it hadn't. =/ I would totally read the book again, it was so fabulous and I'd like going through and finding all the foreshadowing I previously missed, but goodness, that ending was horrible for someone who gets attached to little-kid characters.

[Yeerk Slayer]

Hmm . . . Lemme see. *runs o room and gets books*

Well. I liked the ending of "The Burning Bridge", by John Flanagan, because it was very emotional and I really wanted to get in the book and throw Halt onto that ship, dammit! *coughs* Yeah, I liked it because it was good and made you feel for the characters.

I also liked the end of "Scorpia", by Anthony Horowitz. It was fairly sudden--Alex is walking and suddenly a sniper hits him, and he's dying, and then he closes his eyes and... it's the end of the book! I had to go out and by the next one as soon as I finished it!

My favourite ending, though, was the ending in "Here, There Be Dragons", by James A. Owen. It was . . . surprising, and it was an interesting end to a fantastic book. I loaned it to six other people and they all loved it, too. Everyone seemed flabbergasted by the end.

Now, onto endings I dislike . . . the end of "Breaking Dawn", by Stephenie Meyer for reasons stated by Rinion, and the end of "Raven Rise", by D.J. MacHale. It was confusing, and weird, and it didn't fit with the rest of the book at all. It wasn't explained, and I didn't like that.

[Rinion]

I also liked the end of "Scorpia", by Anthony Horowitz. It was fairly sudden--Alex is walking and suddenly a sniper hits him, and he's dying, and then he closes his eyes and... it's the end of the book! I had to go out and by the next one as soon as I finished it!

Oh, yes. Although I generally dislike cliffhangers.

It seems that, for longer works, simple endings work the best, because to come up with something intricate or purposefully emotional dies under the weight of the rest of the book. Simple endings are often emotional enough, if it's the end of a particularly long journey for the reader, and, after all of those pages, there really is nothing else to say sometimes. Endings like "All was well" for the Harry Potter series and "'Well, I'm back,' he said" for The Lord of the Rings.

[Lightmare]

Endings like "All was well" for the Harry Potter series and "'Well, I'm back,' he said" for The Lord of the Rings.

I don't like simple endings, even when they are kinda necessary. I wish Harry Potter had ended with something along the lines of

All was well. But occasionally, every few years, Harry would feel the lightning-scar on his forehead - because in those happy years all the pain and suffering that had happened when he was a teenage boy sometimes seemed like a distant dream.

And LotR had something happier like

"Well, I'm back." he said. Life would go on peacefully for Sam for the rest of his life, though he would sometimes look at the stars and wonder whatever became of the Hobbit he used to pull out weeds for.

I know they're kinda weak....cut me some slack I made them up on the spot

Anyway, the idea is to give the reader a feeling of how the rest of their lives progressed, without ignoring the events that happened in the actual book. Seems like a fair ending tribute.

[Ganashi]

The endings of "The Great Gatsby", "The Alchemist", "Of Mice and Men", "Lord of the Flies", and most works by either Edgar Alan Poe and Shakespeare are amazing.

[Lelex]

I think the ending to Inkdeath was brilliant. It's as though everything that has happened will happen again.

In a series, I like it when one of the books (not the last) end with speech, or a cliffhanger, although for the last in a series I like them to end with something that leaves you thinking.
The ending to Brisingr was horrible, but then, so was the ending to Eldest.

[Queen Cookie]

I loved the ending of The Amber Spyglass, but I think the endings of V.C.Andrews' books are terrible.

[Lightmare]

I loved the ending of The Amber Spyglass, but I think the endings of V.C.Andrews' books are terrible.

I thought it was anti-climatic, it didn't do justice to the events that had happened in the book.....though I don't know what Lrya meant by the "Republic of Heaven", so maybe I'm missing something.

[garfield]

I loved the simple endings in Harry Potter and LotR. Especially LotR. I think, in those cases, it was definitely a case of less is more. It's kind of like, there was so much packed into the books that a nice, simple, short ending is just perfect.

The ending of a book, for me, is one of the most important parts. If the ending is bad, I can pretty much be disappointed with the entire book, even if most of it was good. It carries a lot of weight, I think.

The ending of Breaking Dawn was disappointing, for the reasons stated above (but I didn't really like the book to begin with, so...)
I was also disappointed with the end of the Darren Shan saga. It pretty much made the entire series pointless, in my opinion.
I disliked the ending to Northanger Abbey, because I thought it was quite rushed (although I know some of Austen's other novels' endings are fairly abrupt too).

I loved the ending to Invisible Monsters (Chuck Palahniuk). Soooo unexpected, but amazing.
The ending to Fire Bringer and The Sight were both really good, too. I read them a few years ago, but I still love them both. =]
I loved the ending to Winnie-the-Pooh, simply because it was so frightfully sad. I know that sounds odd but, as an ending, it really is excellent.

I can't think of any more, but I'll get back to you. ;]

[Queen Cookie]

I loved the ending of The Amber Spyglass, but I think the endings of V.C.Andrews' books are terrible.

I thought it was anti-climatic, it didn't do justice to the events that had happened in the book.....though I don't know what Lrya meant by the "Republic of Heaven", so maybe I'm missing something.

If you didn't understand that, then you missed the whole series, because they were about that.

[Lightmare]

Well as far as I understood it the book touched on several issues, religion being a main one, but I still didn't understand "Republic of Heaven" I'm afraid

Please explain to me as to what it meant

[MOSES]

Books that don't end in happy endings like The Amber Spyglass's ending are horrible. Or books that end happy but leave you wanting to know what happens, like Breaking Dawns.

[African Rooibos]

Let's see here:

The ending to The Sweet Far Thing was great. My favorite character was killed off, but it made the ending better

The ending to HP was horrendous. Cheesiest epilogue in the world, and Harry lived; pretty sad about that

The ending to Scorpia was great as stated above

The ending to Breaking Dawn was ok. I didn't like how anticlimatic it was, but otherwise I was fine with it

The ending to Animal Farm (just read it at school) was good. Loved the last sentence

The ending to My Brother Sam is Dead was great. It made me cry, but completed the book

The ending to Maximum Ride: The Final Warning was horrendous...that whole book was

I could go on, but I'll list some others later