What book ending really disappointed you?

Miss Fluff

OK boys and girls, try and avoid spoilers where possible, but what book have you read recently where you were really disappointed by the ending?

Every new book to me is like a glorious love affair, you should be devestated when it ends and every book should leave a permanent imprint in your memory.

I have just finished Tenderness of Wolves by Steff Penney, it has been widely acclaimed and recommended to me as a thumper of a good read. And it was certainly a thumper, I was engaged 90% of the way through. For the most part I enjoyed it enormously but was ANGRY :mad: at the author for finishing it prematurely. There were numerous major sub-plots which transpired to my mind to be mere distractions and left lots of unanswered questions. Perhaps a sequel is in the making but by the same token a book should be mindful of the reader's commitment to the story. Have you read anything recently that bitterly disappointed you when you finished it?

ZorbaTehZ

Haven't read it recently, but the ending to Lord Of The Flies was very very disappointing.

stolenwine

The Castle- Franz Kafka

Valmont

stolenwine wrote:

The Castle- Franz Kafka

Is that because he never finished it? Anyway I was in the Kafka museum in Prague two weeks ago and I bought it so I'm looking forward to reading it either way.

stolenwine

Yes, I was joking. It makes for unsettling, frustrating reading but if your a fan I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I didn't know there was a Kafka museum in Prague!

dublinario

I thought the ending of The Bible was overrated.

I can't really think of an ending that disappointed me, but I can think of several that left me glum: The Grapes of Wrath; A Hundred Years of Solitude; 1984; The Trial. All these books left me deflated because they were so brilliantly bleak and life un-affirming.

sioda

The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks ok I knew it was a continuation but felt gutted

monkey tennis

Anything by Neal Stephenson.

AJG

Up Above The World by Paul Bowles.

It was one of his later works and he built the narrative up to such a crescendo that the ending just seemed to fizzle in comparison.

Psychedelic

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

terrible book overall really to end such a great series

dubtom

Miss Fluff wrote:

Every new book to me is like a glorious love affair, you should be devestated when it ends and every book should leave a permanent imprint in your memory

Your lucky, Only one book has had that effect on me and that was 'So they may face the rising sun' by John McGahern.I was utterly dissapointed when I finished it, not because of a bad ending, just because I'd finished it.No other book, maybe apart from enid blytons offerings when I was a lad, has had such an effect on me. I read very little fiction at the moment, and most of the stuff I've read lately is mostly forgotten as soon as I finish.

BenjAii

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Despite it being a good read (I would recommend it) ended up being disappointed.

Didn't live up to the very high expectations it set for itself. It's cleverly structured. It's half a dozen stories, he tells you each of their first halves in order in the first part of the book and then each of their second halves in then in the second half of the book. They are all set in different timeframes from the 19th century to a far distant post apocalyptic future.

The problem is that he sets them to be cleverly interlinked thematically, with constantly recurring motifs. You sort of expect all this to be tied up at the end, but it isn't just left hanging. It reminded me a bit of the Matrix films, introducing lots of clever ideas to get you excited, but then going nowhere with them.

Despite all this a good read, especially the parts as he goes further and further into the future.

brianthebard

Fight Club and Diary by Palahnick were both finished terribly imo. They were both good stories, rattling along at a nice pace and I was wondering where they would go and then....he just drops all pretense to originality and turns both stories off. Very disappointing.

oxygen_old

The end of Mr Y had a fairly rubbish ending on it.

Blackhorse Slim

The Da Vinci Code. I know, I should have known better, but I've been interested in this stuff since reading The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in the 80s. Even though the writing was generally ****e throughout the book, I was still hoping for a clever ending. Sadly, the 'revelation' at the end was signposted and obvious. What a waste :mad:

crotalus667

The final Harry Potter , ok I know it’s not up there with the literary greats , but I was hoping for an entertaining ending that had a twist in it instead it just seemed so Hollywood as soon as I got to a certain part I predicted the ending , after seven books it just seemed such a let down

cailinoBAC

My sister's keeper. Ugh, what a cop out. I thought it was quite well written up until the end, showing all the moral dilemmas of the situation and then just...like that, everything, doesn't work out perfectly, exactly, but in a way that difficult decisions don't have to be made.

Shryke

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Very slow to get started and it takes time to like but things really kick off and it's brilliantly written, but then the ending...

norrie rugger

me wrote:

King's the Dark Tower series

All because of the crappy "I can not think of a real ending" ending.

I'm sorry but taping on a crappy ending, knowing it and telling people two pages to go not to read it as you may be disappointed is total tripe.
I mean you read 7 (yes SEVEN) books and he says to not read the ending as it may be considered crap.

He even has the nerve to say and i paraphrase "don't go further in this book, as you may not like the ending. instead try to imagine that he gets everything that he wants and lives happily ever after with all his friends"

I'm sorry King but I bought those books so that you could tell me the story.
If I wanted to imagine the ending why would i bother buying books at all?
And if i COULD imagine an ending and story, then i would be writing books myself

Also the fact that he ties it in with nearly every other book he has ever written screws them up also, especially The Talisman and The Black House

End rant

taken directly from the Books to Avoid thread

Capt'n Midnight

The cat who walked through walls - Heinlein

The kitten may have died

Lemon

Every Rupert Thomson novel I have ever read, especially Divided Kingdom....

Eoin

brianthebard wrote: »

Fight Club and Diary by Palahnick were both finished terribly imo. They were both good stories, rattling along at a nice pace and I was wondering where they would go and then....he just drops all pretense to originality and turns both stories off. Very disappointing.

Fight Club is one of the few instances where I have found the film much more enjoyable. I really don't think I would have enjoyed any of the book, had I not seen the film first.

Anyhow, off the top of my head, it's probably American Pyscho for me. It's probably supposed to be open to interpretation, but I'm still not too sure.

AceofSpades001

Sandor wrote: »

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Very slow to get started and it takes time to like but things really kick off and it's brilliantly written, but then the ending...

I know the part you are talking about, and I agree, but I liked the ending as regards Yagherak!

Captain Slow IRL

An awful lot of Stephen Kings books end badly - It is the most memorable!

I couldn't follow The Dark Tower after the 4th book, yawn!