Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

How do you feel about books with unhappy endings, where everyone loses and the evil prevails? Hate the author or love the author for the twist? I wrote my book Medieval Minds http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Minds-... with Flowers in the Attic and Brokedown Palace in mind. In my opinion, they still lost. Cried on both by the way. Would love to know your opinion on books with unhappy endings.

An unhappy ending had better be preceded by a damn good riveting tale--- because for me--it is such a letdown to have traveled a nasty road with characters, wincing and dodging pain and struggle only to have the tale drop off into darkness. I am sure I've read novels with unhappy endings (and I am blanking out now on any specific title). But hope is what keeps me going through a dark tale...if there is no hope at the end of it....well, I kinda feel cheated.

Arabella wrote: "An unhappy ending had better be preceded by a damn good riveting tale--- because for me--it is such a letdown to have traveled a nasty road with characters, wincing and dodging pain and struggle on..."
Thanks Arabella. The books with the unhappy endings are the ones that stay with me longer. Not in a good way. Just on my mind, trying to create my own happy ending.

I agree Arabella. I hate when I'm totally into a book, I'm going on a journey with the characters and then out of no where...An un happy or unsettling ending. :/ Letdown? No thanks!

My son and I always argue about this. He loves sad ending. He loves it when the protagonist either dies or ends up in more trouble. I don't. He says he likes to imagine why it happened and like Rolanda said, it stays with the reader long after they finished reading the book. For him, that's a good thing. He almost succeeded in making me understand his point of view on the matter, yet, I can't side with him. Sad ending? Give me at least some hope!

Another ending I don't like is the one used in horror stories where in the end, when you think all is over, something somewhere is starting the events once more... Blah... I'd prefer a bad ending. That last one has been overused.

I have to use one of my favorites, The Hunger Games as an example. Sorry in advance if you hated it, but in my opinion, it had an unhappy ending. I cried and I will never forget that book. I read the series more than once and I did have to give Suzanne Collins a hand because I was not expecting the ending. Not many books stay with me, but that will be one of them. All because of the twist at the end. If it had the perfect ending at the end, I wonder if it would still be one of my favorites. I have read hundreds of books in my lifetime. But there aren't many that stick with me in such a way. That's what I mean by unhappy ending--even if the main character lives, they still lose everything.

I don't mind a dark twist at the end, either...I am always always delighted when a novel takes a sudden (supported by plot elements) left turn. White Fire by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child had an ending where I almost wanted to slam the book down....but there was this little...twist. *grins*
I read the Hunger Games. Reading the whole series...a happy ending would have completely thrown the energy, the thrust of the tales way off..
If there is change, for me, then there is a glimmer of hope even if things end in dark silence....
Or maybe that's the Pollyanna in me hoping against all reasonable hope some good will come of it!

To me an unhappy ending might be okay in a short story, but with a novel you invest a lot of time in either loving or hating the characters, and it can leave you in a bad mood when a character you favor meets an untimely or pointless death. I've seen movies that do that, and its a big letdown; for example, "Cold Mountain." On the other hand, even that scenario is okay for me if I'm aware from the beginning that the character is self-destructive and heading for death anyway; for example, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Otherwise, I prefer even an ambiguous ending to an unhappy one.

Jade wrote: "I don't mind unhappy endings. I don't mind happy ones, and I don't mind open ended ones either. It's all in how the author brought me there. Reading is a journey, and not all journeys end in a happ..."


Very well stated. My thoughts exactly!

I like to leave things a little open ended.
My novella Time Of Tides has been called bleak, but I like to think that I kind of left things open at the end.
I never want my reader to always know exactly what is going on. I prefer to leave an element of doubt in their head and leave them with a few questions.

As someone once said, always leave your audience wanting more. If you end things too unhappily or final where do you go from there ?