Books with lousy endings

[M'Sharak]

The ending to Cryptonomicon bothered me. It just sort of stumbled to a stop, and I thought it left a number of things hanging unresolved or forgotten.

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children.

It's been quite a while since I read that one. What didn't you like about the ending?

I gotta agree The Stand's ending SUCKED! So basically God stops the devil from setting off a nuke. What? This was stupid as heck. So in other words God allows billions to die from a virus and the devil to leave a trail of carnage, but decides to intervene when the devil wants to nuke a few thousand folks?

Wow, that's not how my copy of The Stand ends. I thought the expanded version was supposed to be so much of an improvement over the original edition?

Of King books, the one which lost me was Pet Sematery. I wasn't even interested in reading any more by him after that.

 

[The Fatman]

The Stand by Stephen King and It by Stephen King. I'm a big King fan but those endings were unforgivable.

See, now I will disagree about the ending of IT. As it's written, I have no problem with IT being a giant psychic prehistoric spider. I like the idea/reinforcement that Derry itself is so tied to IT that once IT's destroyed the town goes with it. I also find the very end, with everyone's memories fading, to be beautifully bittersweet.

I was more referring to the kids all having sex. It was just absurd. Although, It's origins were dumb, too, I thought.

I disagree that the sex is "absurd", as I definitely think it works in context of the plot as an act of love to bring the group back together... but that's not not at all me saying I like or agree with the scene itself. I feel that scene (while being INCREDIBLY age-inappropriate, character wise (they're only supposed to be 11 or 12!)) completely goes against the theme of the 1957 scenes, which is the innocence and power of childhood. A gangbang is kind of the antithesis of this theme.

That said though, I don't feel that one scene is enough to ruin what is, IMHO, the second best novel AND finish of all King's works (only behind the Shining)

 

[sidious618]

See, now I will disagree about the ending of IT. As it's written, I have no problem with IT being a giant psychic prehistoric spider. I like the idea/reinforcement that Derry itself is so tied to IT that once IT's destroyed the town goes with it. I also find the very end, with everyone's memories fading, to be beautifully bittersweet.

I was more referring to the kids all having sex. It was just absurd. Although, It's origins were dumb, too, I thought.

I disagree that the sex is "absurd", as I definitely think it works in context of the plot as an act of love to bring the group back together... but that's not not at all me saying I like or agree with the scene itself. I feel that scene (while being INCREDIBLY age-inappropriate, character wise (they're only supposed to be 11 or 12!)) completely goes against the theme of the 1957 scenes, which is the innocence and power of childhood. A gangbang is kind of the antithesis of this theme.

That said though, I don't feel that one scene is enough to ruin what is, IMHO, the second best novel AND finish of all King's works (only behind the Shining)

Eleven boys have sex with a twelve year old girl.

That girl would be... well, unconceivably scarred.

It was so ridiculous that I vowed never to read that book again. To be fair, though, I had already found it to be slowl and plodding.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That one ST: New Frontier novel which ends with the phrase "And then the ship blew up".

 

[Emher]

I was more referring to the kids all having sex. It was just absurd. Although, It's origins were dumb, too, I thought.

I disagree that the sex is "absurd", as I definitely think it works in context of the plot as an act of love to bring the group back together... but that's not not at all me saying I like or agree with the scene itself. I feel that scene (while being INCREDIBLY age-inappropriate, character wise (they're only supposed to be 11 or 12!)) completely goes against the theme of the 1957 scenes, which is the innocence and power of childhood. A gangbang is kind of the antithesis of this theme.

That said though, I don't feel that one scene is enough to ruin what is, IMHO, the second best novel AND finish of all King's works (only behind the Shining)

Eleven boys have sex with a twelve year old girl.

That girl would be... well, unconceivably scarred.

It was so ridiculous that I vowed never to read that book again. To be fair, though, I had already found it to be slowl and plodding.

Makes me glad I've only read the original version of The Stand and The Green Mile by King. I mean I enjoy a good gangbang as much as the next man but that's just wrong.

 

[Australis]

M'Sharakk said:

Of King books, the one which lost me was Pet Sematery. I wasn't even interested in reading any more by him after that.

Me too, exactly. Before that, especially his first 3-4, I thought he was great, but decreasing. 'Cujo' was the point I began to suspect, 'Pet Sematery' confirmed it.

'IT' came after that, and I didn't mind it, but the opening of 'The Regulators' was just... yuck. Because I enjoyed 'Talisman' I tried again with 'The Black House', but tacking on the 'Dark Tower' ending was again a ruiner for me. The Dark Tower stuff doesn nothing for me. As someoen sai to me the other day, his SF/fantasy is nowhere near as good as his horror.

ETA: I am not a fan of horror, btw, I just think his writing, when it works, is just superlative writing.

 

[Cicero]

The endings to Mostly Harmless and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are the only ones I recall which were terrible enough to mostly ruin their preceding series (I actually didn't like any but the first and third Hitchhiker's Guide book, anyway, but was loving Deathly Hallows, and had loved the other Harry Potter books, until I came to the awful epilogue).

 

[CaptainCanada]

The epilogue was mediocre, but I don't see how it 'ruins' anything that preceded it.

 

[Trek Boy]

Deathly Hallows-not the epilogue in particular, although it was annoying, but that so many things were convenient and implausible just so that the story or characters would come to Rowling's desired conclusion.

 

[The Lady Eve]

M'Sharak and Australis - The ending of Pet Sematery did leave the reader pretty much up in the air but it disturbed the hell out me and I'm hard to scare. Bothered me for days.

I quit reading King for a while after It. I literally threw that book across the room. Fortunately, the 10 million pages were paperback.

 

[Lookingglassman]

The Road - The father ends up dying.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

The Deathly Hallows was absolutely horrendous in the way it concluded the saga. It was so cliché and so...predictable and such that it felt like a bad fan fiction writing. Throwaway lines like killing off Tonks and Lupin, when they were central characters? And Colin Creevy? It felt like she got bored near the end and didn't really have it written out.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I thought some of the deaths were a bit sudden, but the aftermath was well-handled, and, since the series focusses on Harry's POV, there's only so much room for scenes of him reacting to others getting offed (Fred's was enough, and really well-done); the little bit with Lupin's spirit afterward I thought was perfect. The whole book was a masterpiece, in my opinion (though I'd have omitted the epilogue since it doesn't really add anything, and the final scene in Dumbledore's office is a stronger conclusion).

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

She left some major plot points open and really the conclusion was rushed.

 

[CaptainCanada]

She left some major plot points open and really the conclusion was rushed.

If you're referring to the house elf stuff, I never got the sense that was meant to be resolved within the books.

 

[Harvey]

"Atonement" by Ian McEwan is a beautifully written if depressing novel. (I haven't seen the film yet.) Toward the end of the story it looks as if the author is going to give his long-suffering lovers a break. If you know McEwan's other work you really can't believe it and you'd be correct. McEwan throws the reader a curve ball and while the ending is artistically right it's still a downer because you've invested so much in the star-crossed lovers. Damn.

I haven't read the book, but having seen the movie which apparently conforms fairly close to the novel, I loved the ending. It was especially good for the film, because it sets up what looks to be a traditional ending for a sweeping romantic film, and then pulls the rug out from under you. It's a downer and a punch to the gut... but in a good way.

Certainly not for anyone looking for good cheer, though.

 

[The Lady Eve]

^Oh yeah. As I said, it is artistically right but the characters had gone through so much hell I was hoping that McEwan would be uncharacteristically mericful.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

She left some major plot points open and really the conclusion was rushed.

If you're referring to the house elf stuff, I never got the sense that was meant to be resolved within the books.

The werewolves definitely come to mind, I can't remember some others but it felt...really rushed.

 

[Kira Nerys]

Too many to list in an old thread.they started out great but fizzled quick

 

[Fedaykin]

How about the giant reset button at the end of The Dark Tower? Sheesh. There was a series that went downhill fast. The first 4 books are some of my favorites, not so much the last 3.