I've recently noticed that most of my reviews mentioned endings affecting my like or dislike of the book. Whether it's a cliffhanger, a closed ending, an open ending, a plot twist, I end up taking note of it one way or another. Just off the top of my head, I can recall that:
(NOTE: If you love going into books completely blind, skim through this. There is nothing spoiler-y, except for types of endings.)
- We All Looked Up had an open ending, and even though it fit the type of book it was, I just wasn't content with it.
- The Storyspinner had an ending that just randomly ended.
- Grasshopper Jungle had an ending that I wasn't expecting at all.
- The Falconer had a great cliffhanger ending that I'm sure you've all heard of at this point.
- Magonia had an ending that made it so that it could've been either continue as a series or a standalone.
- All The Light We Cannot See made me sad, because the ending came way sooner than I thought it should've.
What do my favorite endings consist of then?
Good question! From my list above, I really am picky with my endings! At the moment, I can think of two books that I felt had great endings.
- The first being Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. It was a happy ending, that involved closure to everything.
- And the second, is The Book Thief. Even though it's only the saddest book on the planet, it was meant to happen. Plus we still got to see one final character before the book ended.
In conclusion, I need my endings to be perfect. If they aren't, I get all frustrated. I need to know all the answers to my questions, I need a solution or a conclusion to the problem, and I need it to actually make sense. Above all, it needs to satisfy me (Because I am so important haha).
When it comes to series, this is even more important. I don't want to waste all my time with a series if it's only going to end badly (for me). This is kind of why I am avoiding the Divergent series (sorry), and also the Delirium series, which I actually have already read the first book to.
(Also random thing, do you know who spoiled the ending for the Iron Queen in the Iron Fey series? It was the author herself, Julie Kagawa. I may still read it though, but still. Hahah.)
How about you? Do endings play a huge part in your enjoyment of a book? Or do you not care? Is the journey more important than the end?
