Focus on Reading - Week 16 - The End

[Booknblues]

How important is the ending of a book to your total enjoyment?
Has the ending of a book effected your rating of it? How?
What makes a good ending?
How do you feel about happy endings? Sad endings?
Anything else about an ending which you consider?

[Tracy]

As long as the ending fits the story, I’m okay. I certainly don’t need everything tied up in a bow.

That being said, there have been books with unsatisfactory (to me) endings, and my rating was absolutely affected.

Books with endings designed to shock, or that throw in a resolution that makes no sense are a pet peeve. The Sherlock Holmes stories come to mind- it seems that Doyle threw a solution to the mystery in from left field.

I also try to avoid books that are unfinished, though I just read In Search of Lost Time and loved it. Somehow a book that is in seven very long parts doesn’t feel that unfinished!

[Robin P]

The ending can make a difference to me. I have read some books that seem like they are rom-coms or cozy mysteries and then a major character dies tragically - no fair! I don't need a happy ending, but it should fit with the rest of the book. It can be open-ended, as long as it's not a mystery. Some books have epilogues that seem like they were just tacked on for no good reason.

I don't mind series but I don't like to find out at the end of a book that it is part of a series and ends with a cliffhanger. Or thinking that a book was part of a trilogy and after I read 2 of them, I find out the author is now doing 5 - or 7 - and they aren't written yet.

Klara and the Sun has a development toward the end that is "unrealistic" and I loved it. Then the very end has a realistic ending in terms of a relationship (don't want to give any spoilers) and I loved that too.

[Theresa]

@Tracy - I had no idea you were reading Proust!! I read it on 9 months between September 2019 and June 2020. I had joined a discussion group that met once a month to discuss the assigned 400 or so pages. It really helped keep me moving through it.

I agree with you and actually feel it really did have closure...though since Proust died before he finished editting the last 2 volumes, it may not be as tight as he would have made it. But who knows?

[Patricia]

How important is the ending of a book to your total enjoyment?
- Not much. Sometimes, the ending makes me happy. If the ending is happy I'll give it 3 stars and the 2 stars is for the plot of the book.

Has the ending of a book affected your rating of it? How?
- Slightly because I always look in the plot.

What makes a good ending?
- I think is the plot of the story is good so the end too. But some books end with a tragic story like Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. The story is sad but it has lessons too and it makes me cry😅😅😅

How do you feel about happy endings? Sad endings?
- Happy endings is I think joyful and sad endings make me cry.

Anything else about an ending which you consider
- I think is agree on something like the book The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. It's about two siblings fighting each other in lemonade and in the end, they get along and they're not fighting anymore. I want sibling revelry endings too:D

[Holly R W]

I'm really enjoying all of our thoughts about reading and this week's subject, books' endings, is no exception.

How important is the ending of a book to your total enjoyment? I find that I am tolerant of all kinds of endings (some not that satisfying), as long as the book is absorbing. Yet, I get irritated by twists, abrupt endings, and endings that don't fit the story as a whole.

Has the ending of a book effected your rating of it? How? With my last book, the more I read of it, the less I liked it. As the author is highly regarded, I awaited the ending and thought that it would enlighten me. Sadly, this was not to be. The ending was wretched (a rambling, disjointed dream sequence) - My rating dropped to 2.5.

What makes a good ending? This is a hard question to answer. A good ending brings a feeling of closure to the book. I like to know how the characters have fared. A well-written epilogue can be satisfying to read.

How do you feel about happy endings? Sad endings? I like realistic endings, whether happy or sad. I don't like tear-jerkers, however.

Anything else about an ending which you consider? I have read some books where the style of writing has changed radically two-thirds of the way through. I wish authors wouldn't do this.

[Theresa]

Such a great topic!

How important is the ending of a book to your total enjoyment?a

The book has to end. It cannot just trail off or stop. It also needs to fit the book.

Has the ending of a book effected your rating of it? How?

For sure. The ending of Circe totally cemented its 4 star rating for me. State of Wonder's wishy washy odd unclear ending cemented its 2 star rating from me. If the ending is somehow spectacular to me -- whether just perfect or perfectly unexpected -- it can add a full point. Unsatisfying endings knock a good point off.

What makes a good ending?

It doesn't have to have every little thing tied up with a bow, everyone does not need to have a HEA, it can be a shocker, it can be ambiguous, or a cliffhanger, or only partly finish off plotlines. Whatever it is, it has to fit the entirety of what story we are being told, and with cliffhangers, have me eager to read the next installment - which better show up at some point.

How do you feel about happy endings? Sad endings?

I'm definitely more a happy ending reader than a sad ending. My favorite genres are mysteries (especially cozy mysteries) and regency romance, and books set at Christmas. HEA is clearly my preference. I absolutely don't mind a sad ending, but I don't like being manipulated into one just because for some reason the author wanted a sad ending. Although there have been times when reading someting that ends with me having a really good cry is something I seek out. I rarely seek out or reach for a book that has every appearnace of being sad and ending sad.

Anything else about an ending which you consider?

I really have a problem with series books where the series isn't continued and there are some dangling continous plot threads. I'm talking about where it is not finished because the publisher dumped them or told the author that they were not selling sufficient to keep publshing. Or even the author just decides not to write that series any longer. This happens more often than you think. At the very least, one more book should be published that wraps up that series or even a novella. Something. This is particulary irritating me at the moment about a mystery series by Canadian author C.C. Benison which featured a young English village vicar whose name happens to be Father Christmas, and while tending his village flock, he finds himself solving a murder or two here and there. In addition to the murder in each book, there are various plotlines involving the vicar and the village that are complicated and unresolved because the publisher pulled the plug on the series after the 3rd one was published. The titles were based on the 12 Days of Christmas starting with Twelve Drummers Drumming and moving in descending order. Totally engaging, and I'm really sad they were not continued. I'm sure that part of the issue was that they suggest a holiday setting and got no holiday; instead a play on words.

[Joanne]

I agree with Holly and Theresa-I can deal with any sort of ending, as long as it makes sense and there is some closure, if the books is not a series. If a series, then it should make me want to pick up the next book at once!

[Joy D]

How important is the ending of a book to your total enjoyment?
The ending is important to me. I needs to fit with the rest of the book. It needs to bring a sense of completeness.

Has the ending of a book effected your rating of it? How?
Yes. If the ending feels unsatisfying, I am likely to knock off a star.

What makes a good ending?
The ending should convey a sense closure as well as possibilities for the future, consequences, or broader meaning. For me the best endings are those that linger in my thoughts well after I finish the book.

How do you feel about happy endings? Sad endings?
I like happy or sad as long as it feels satisfying. I dislike twists at the end, or an ending that basically negates everything you've just read. I love adventures with a climactic ending. I dislike cliffhangers or anything that baits me into reading a subsequent book to find out what happened.

Anything else about an ending which you consider?
I am not a big fan of epilogues. I feel like the author should fit important parts of the book into the storyline. I especially don't like the "many years later, here's what happened" type epilogues, stated in a couple sentences, after reading hundreds of pages to lead up to that point.

Here are a few examples of books with endings that did not work for me:
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (would have been 5 stars with a different ending)
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (the ending was so obscure that I wondered why I read it)
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (disempowerment to the max)
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (ending is sudden and feels incomplete)

Some authors that excel at endings: Elif Shafak, Ray Bradbury, Pat Barker.

Open endings are ok with me, if they also bring "food for thought." I don't need everything tied up neatly. In fact, if it's too tidy it tends to feel unrealistic. But I agree wholeheartedly with Theresa that "the book has to end. It cannot just trail off or stop."

[Booknblues]

How important is the ending of a book to your total enjoyment?
I think that several people here have said that the ending has to make sense with the rest of the book and that is essential. I hate when the book has the feel of "well, I've written long enough so I am just going to wrap it up."
Another ending I dislike is when it isn't clear what happened at the end and I have to go back and re-read it a few times. The ending has to be clear, even if it is a non-ending kind, if I have understood the book until the very end, I should be able to understand what happens in the end.

Has the ending of a book effected your rating of it? How?
I do rate down if the ending does not work with the rest of the book. Recently, I really enjoyed Bewilderment and I believe that it had to end a certain way, which it did, but he continued on a bit and that brought to mind many questions, that I think he didn't consider or answer, so I dropped rating down.
Conversely there were elements at the Florence Adler Swims Forever which I really enjoyed and so brought my rating up.

What makes a good ending?

As I have said it has to fit with the rest of the book. It has to make sense. Even in a series, I'd like a definite ending.
I don't mind an epilogue which tells what happens later with characters. Sometimes I want to know without reading another book. I liked that there was an epilogue at the end of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and We Were the Lucky Ones

How do you feel about happy endings? Sad endings?
There are times I want a happy ending and generally romance and other lighter fares will bring that. Also usually in a mystery the bad guy is caught and there is a certain satisfaction to that.

If I am not reading a book which has a predictable happy ending, I am perfectly ok with a sad ending as long as it appears to make sense. There was one I read this year whose ending really irritated me.

[Theresa]

I also want to comment that on occasion, there are endings I am not too happy with or sure about, but as a few days or months go by and it sits in my mind, I come to a realization usually that it is perfect, or the only possible ending.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was one of those.

Proust was one of those...but you sort of knew that would be the case given the whole reading experience.