All the Endings: Books Finales that Disappointed Me

So I don’t know how much I mentioned it this month, but I’ve been doing a casual version of Nano and am currently at that stage of wrapping things up in my WIP. Which means I’ve naturally been fretting about it *a lot*. I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I love endings and obviously I want this to be the culmination of everything I’ve been working on (although obviously first drafts suck and can’t be perfect… more on that another time…). My biggest fear is that I’ll have built up all this whole story and it won’t pay off- or worse, that the idea I had in my head was too crazy to begin with… Because we all know that feeling when you’re invested in something completely and then- BAM!- the ending just ruins it all. You know, the HIMYM standard of finales. Well, I decided to torture myself and think about all the ways an ending can go wrong:

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin– this, in my opinion, is an example of making a bad book worse. Even if you liked this book, the ending will make you want to scream loud enough to shake the Greek islands. It was so frustratingly unsatisfying.

13 Reasons Why– again, it’s no secret I’m not a fan. That ending though- I genuinely felt like the book was building to a crescendo and it ended up turning down the volume. I also think blaming the counsellor was one of the worst “reasons” on the list and it did a genuine disservice to the profession (and people seeking help who fear they won’t be listened to).

Breaking Dawn– this book in general is *gagworthy*. There’s a werewolf falling in love with a baby, the most perfect of all the special snowflakes Bella turning into an even more perfect snowy skinned vamp and a lot of sitting round waiting for the scary, scary villains to turn up. But even with all that buildup, spoiler alert- though who even cares at this point- the big fight doesn’t happen. It’s the kind of ending that will make you want to smash it up and burn all the little pieces (incidentally that’s how you kill a sparkly vampire- you’re welcome for the tip 😉 )

Ashes to Ashes– this isn’t the worst book in the world- but GAH! What a flaming mess that ending was! Such a letdown! I very rarely think an ending ruins a whole book- much less a series- but this did just that for me. I don’t want to get into spoilers, so you can read more on why that was here.

STAGS– while the ending didn’t totally ruin my enjoyment, it was completely ridiculous. Some of this comes down to execution, but also the twist was a shade bonkers regardless.

Caraval– I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book- but one of my biggest issues was that the last twist was a twist too far. At one point every page turn was another acrobatic turn and that last one just landed badly for me.

The Fault in Our Stars– now this is far from the worst ending on the list, however, I make it no secret that I always found the twist too obvious from the first chapter and consequently didn’t find it impactful. Also, I know this would have been a bit on the gimmicky side, but I *loved* the enigmatic ending in the book Hazel loves and thought that was gonna be how the book ended the whole way through. This comes down to personal taste, but I was disappointed that never happened. If Green had gone there, I’d have been sold.

Safe Haven– I actually liked this book- yet there was one major flaw with it that I couldn’t get behind and that was the so-called twist. Even though it was foreshadowed, it didn’t blend well with the kind of book it was and was frankly just a bit silly.

The Wasp Factory– I liked this book overall- rating it 4*- nonetheless, I couldn’t get behind that ending. It didn’t work for me. It felt like a betrayal of a lot of the themes it was working towards. Again, I don’t want to spoil it, and wouldn’t have room to discuss it at length anyway, so you check out my review if you’re interested as to why I didn’t like it.

Great Expectations– this one might seem a bit bizarre, because I don’t totally hate the ending and this is possibly my favourite Dickens… BUT the ending as we know it is not what Dickens intended and having read the original ending I have to say, I thought it fit better with the themes of the book. Still wonderful though.

So do you agree or disagree with the choices on this list? And which endings really didn’t work for you? Let me know in the comments!

The Burn for Burn Series Sparked Some Interest… And Then Went Up In Smoke

So full disclosure: I never had a massive burning desire to read these books. I guess I warmed up to the idea cos I’m a Han completionist and was curious about Siobhan Vivian’s books. And as you might be able to tell from the title, it started out well… buuut went totally downhill Let’s see how it all began first though…

Burn for Burn– I enjoyed Burn for Burn a lot more than I thought I would. The authors created some amazingly complex characters and an intriguing plot. I really appreciated the way the flashbacks built up a picture. However, at this stage in the series, I couldn’t understand why there was a supernatural element further into the book. It came across as a little weird, because it didn’t mesh well with the feel of the rest of the story. The ending was also a little spoilt by its Carrie like similarities. Still, it got me curious enough to keep reading. Overall, to my pleasant surprise, Burn for Burn was hot stuff.

Rating: 3½/5 bananas

Fire with Fire– this had a great deal more hints of the paranormal elements than the first one. Even though this was my least favourite parts of the first, somehow it worked far better here and I was curious about where it was going. The atmosphere still wasn’t totally perfect for it, but I guess I find it easy to embrace the supernatural 😉 I did guess the twist- yet that wasn’t a bad thing. By this stage in this series, I definitely felt the books were *on fire*.

Rating: 4/5 bananas 

Ashes to Ashes– from the outset, I knew this was going to be darker than the others. I still couldn’t be quite sure whether that would be a good thing or not- since it hadn’t necessarily worked with its predecessors. However, I was willing to be open minded, as I’d made it this far into the series. Yet- it let me down again. Again, I felt it was all tonally wrong and didn’t blend the contemporary thriller vibe with the paranormal genre all that well. It did prod my sympathies, especially with regard to Lilia, but ugh, that wasn’t enough to save this book. Because I wish that was the worst of it- because honestly I haven’t been this disappointed in an ending for a long time. I could see the banana rating plummeting as I read it. So *spoiler alert* for people interested in reading this series, cos I’m going to vent for here on out. I HATED the fact that Reeve’s redemption arc was unfulfilled. I know that he did something terrible as a kid… however he really tried to make amends and suffered the whole way through the series. I just felt like he could have caught some break. It also didn’t help that I had *zero* sympathy for Mary by the end and kept thinking “what kind of justice is this?!” And in case that wasn’t bad enough, Lilia ended up with the wrong boy. Sorry, but Alex is a typical “nice guy” and I found it frustrating that I was supposed to sympathise with him there. Sure, she let him love her cos she was selfish and rich, but she grew over the course of the series and this decision kind of undermined that growth. She should have been able to let him go (and he shouldn’t have continued to insist that he was right for her despite her rejecting him). And this is a big deal because it just felt like Lilia was being punished by the author’s choice here. Punished for the person she was at the start and not for who she became. Worst of all, she had already undergone enough heartache throughout the course of the story and didn’t deserve that conclusion. ARGH it was so frustrating to have that be how the series came to a close!! It was like all the air being let out of a whoopee cushion. So much build up- such a letdown.

Rating: 2/5 bananas

So have you read this series? What did you think about it? And more importantly what did you think of that ending? Let me know in the comments!