Discussion post: Endings

Ok, I’ve never done a discussion post so we are all going to experience this together. Basically, I am just going to discuss (duh) my thoughts on the topic and that’s it. So today I will be discussing endings. While writing my December wrap up, I realized how picky I am with how books end so I thought I would share my thoughts in this post.

Epilogues

I hate epilogues. Especially the kind of jump ten years in the future the characters are happily married with kids thing. It leaves absolutely nothing up to the imagination. I don’t know about you guys, but I like to imagine what I think happens to my faves after the book ends. I need some kind of open-endedness to it. Some epilogues are ok, I guess, but it is just so unrealistic to jump in the future and see the characters happily married and everything. Like, yes, of course I want them to be happy and married, but more than that I want them to be real and in order to seem more real their story has to be realistic.

Open-ended? Completely closed?

Neither. I need it to be somewhat open, as I said before, but I also want everything wrapped up nicely. So what I mean by that: the plot itself needs to be resolved completely. The villain needs to be beaten and vanquished and we need to know what happens to our heroes after that and how their world changes. However, character-wise I like endings to be more open. I want to know what happens right after the big bad is defeated, but other than that I like to use my imagination. So the answer to this question: the plot needs to be completely closed, but the character’s endings should be left to the readers’ imagination.

Some endings I like

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians
2. The Dark Artifices
3. Simon vs the Homo sapiens Agenda
4. Yes No Maybe So
5. Sorcery of Thorns

Some endings I don’t like (and why)

1. Harry Potter (too closed)
2. Ruinsong (too open)
3. The Infernal Devices (too closed, but I still love it)
4. The Diviners (does not make sense for the world/characters)

So that’s it on my discussion on endings! This post was kind of fun, so maybe I will do some more like it in the future.

Let me know in the comments: Do you agree with my thoughts? Are you as picky about endings as I am? What do you like/not like in endings? Should I do more discussion posts like this?

Want some more? Check out my recent posts:

• Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher ARC Review
• March Wrap Up
• February Wrap Up
• January Wrap Up
• The Honey Witch by Sydney J Shields