#12. The Quickie Ending
Have you ever read a book that was building up to a fantastic ending when all of a sudden it takes a turn that makes you want to cry? Instead of the expected big climax you receive a rushed and unsatisfying one. It’s made even worse if the book has been gripping up until that point or if the book in question in the ending to a trilogy.
What happens? Has the author not given the ending the time and consideration it needs? Have they just gotten so fed up with the series and wanted to end it as fast as possible? For whatever reason these quickie endings can be some of the most disappointing parts of reading, at least for me.
I can give two examples: one of an ending that seemed a bit fast but still worked, and the other one that bothers me still to this day.
The first: when I was reading the first Girl of Fire and Thorns book I thought the battle at the end was very rushed.I felt that the climax was not given the time it needed to be truly fantastic, though I still enjoyed it. A situation in which this did not work out so well is in the case of the last Hunger Games book, Mockingjay. I was extremely disappointed with the second half of the book and I actually had to read the ending a few times because I’d thought I’d missed something. I didn’t. I’m still a bit unhappy about that.
I know those aren’t the only examples of this, let me know about the ones you’ve seen.
What are your pet peeves? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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I definitely agree with you on the Mockingjay ending. When I read the ending of that book, I was pretty speechless. I wonder if they'll change it for the movie :O
I find that a lot of contemporary romance books have quick endings. The characters get together and bam the book's over. We don't really get to see them be together and that always leaves me a little disappointed.
I would think that they'll at least expand the ending of Mockingjay for the movie.
That's why I don't read a lot of contemporary romance. Gack!
I kinda hate a lot of quickie endings too! Endings can sometimes make or break a book for me. And I feel awful about those that aren't done right. This is why Mockingjay was my least favorite of the series. Actually, I'm afraid of a lot of series enders. Haha.
Exactly. I get really nervous before a last book in a series.
Oh I hate the quickie ending so much. It honestly just ruins everything. I didn't enjoy Mockingjay at all because of that. And Ruin and Rising. Oh world. That still gets my blood boiling. End of trilogies are so tricky because often I feel like authors try to overachieve, if you get what I mean, and then when it comes to the end, they realise that everything won't fit in nicely with a big red bow and so the quickie ending it is. It's such a shame!
Jess @ My Reading Dress
The Ruin and Rising ending is definitely a bit fast but it's not one of the really bad ones for me. Not like Mockingjay at least.
Oh I am so with you. Rushed endings that are unsatisfying just suck. That is bad on the author, and bad on the editor too. Of course, they're still better than non-endings.
That is true. You would think someone would point it out to them.
So irritating! Glad I'm not the only one who notices. I think a lot of it is publishers putting pressure on authors to wrap things up. Would be interesting to hear an author's take on this.
That would make sense, and it would be interesting to see what authors have to say about it.