Books with terrible endings??

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Spiritdragon

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I live to write, not write to live!
My vote for crap ending of all time goes to -

IT by Stephen King ....

I mean the rest of the book is really very good, the ending was abismal...I mean a bloomin spider!!! What the hell does that have to do with a flippin clown!

What is yours?

James
 
I didn't really like the end to The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson. Didn't really make sense.
 
Hannibal was a dire ending in my opinion. That was one of the saving graces of the film - that they changed the ending

***SPOILER ALERT!***

so that Clarice didn't end up running away with Hannibal. The ending, incidentally was the reported reason why Jodie Foster refused to revive her role as Clarice. They ended up changing it anyway, but Jodie was no longer interested in it.
 
Spiritdragon said:
My vote for crap ending of all time goes to -

IT by Stephen King ....

I mean the rest of the book is really very good, the ending was abismal...I mean a bloomin spider!!! What the hell does that have to do with a flippin clown!

What is yours?

James
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AGREED!!!! The entire book was pushing a supernatural/ ghost clown. Great begining with a lunchbag let down ending.
 
Spiritdragon said:
My vote for crap ending of all time goes to -

IT by Stephen King ....

I mean the rest of the book is really very good, the ending was abismal...I mean a bloomin spider!!! What the hell does that have to do with a flippin clown!
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes ... finally someone who agrees. That was such an awful ending the giant spider. Took all the 'creep factor' away. It started well, built up well and then just fizzled.

The other book that does the same thing is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Was so awfully aggravating that it ended the way it did. :mad:
 
for me, robin hobbs fool fate series, with all the marriages.
i've not read any stephan king, but if the films are accurate, then i think he does endings rather badly! because most of the endings seem pretty poor (even the miniseries endings which are meant to be more true to the books, seem to have let down endings)

dunno what else. i tend to forget books with bad endings.
 
My terrible ending will have to be the ending of 'Cell'by Stephen King, the story was great, one of his best stories but the ending was just, welll....blah, I know that is not a word but its the only way I can describe the ending to 'Cell':)

PS It - I agree - terrible ending :D
 
kyektulu said:

Wow has the guy ever done a good ending?

Maybe that is for another thread entirly, lol. :p
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The Shining comes to mind. The ending was quite good, IIRC. But otherwise, I think Mr. King should designate another writer to be his official "closer."
 
CarlottaVonUberwald said:
i like stephen kings endings...
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I agree.

I think the Sword Of Shannara endings irritate me because they leave so many unclosed mini plots. Which is largely why I stopped reading them.
 
Nesacat said:

Yes, yes, yes ... finally someone who agrees. That was such an awful ending the giant spider. Took all the 'creep factor' away. It started well, built up well and then just fizzled.

The other book that does the same thing is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Was so awfully aggravating that it ended the way it did. :mad:
Click to expand...

Oh My god YEEEESSSS! But she could write a wonderful travel guide.
 
I hate cop-out endings. You remember at school during the English Language lessons (do they still have English Language??) how you were told never to use the 'it was all a dream' ending? You wouldn't think professional authors would use something like that, but I've seen a few.

One of the most disappointing endings I can remember was Eco's Focoult's Pendulum, despite which I still regard it as one of the best non-sff books I've ever read (also one of the most infuriating).
 
Not that the beginning, middle or any part at all was even close to being remotely good, but Robert Newcomb's (possibly the worst author on the planet) Gates of Dawn is horrendous and deus ex machina at it's worst.

To focus on a good book/series., and although I have come to accept it more, Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy conclusion still leaves me a bit sour.
 
OFF TOPIC ANSWER: yes we still have englsih language...only top set students do lit at my school and i'm led to believe thsi a is a growing trend ( this is at gcse both are mixed below that) and at a- level you can do split or combined. then at uni..well you get it lol
 
@ Jay, yeah the Night's Dawn Trilogy's ending is a bit anti-climatic but on the other hand I can't think of another way he could have ended it without resorting to full-scale bloodbath slaughter of all the possessed, which betrayed the theme of the series. And, over time, it has become more logical. If the writing had been a bit better, the ending could have been cosmically awesome.

The ending to Judas Unchained was quite good, but felt a bit disjointed, especially the way the Primes were deal with very off-handedly. Also possibly one too many plot threads left unresolved for the sequel series.

Personal worst ending goes to Memory Sorrow and Thorn, because it is such an absolute and fundamental betrayal of the whole style and theme of the series.

Hobb also writes retarded endings. The long, drawn-out, nauseatingly cloying endings to both Farseer and Liveship have put me off reading any more of her books for some years to come.
 
I like Robin Hobb's endings. Everything nicely tied up. Which I don't normally like, it's good to leave the reader thinking for themselves a bit. I love the ending to His Dark Materials, where Lyra and Will are split up forever. Sad but good!
 
Actually, that ending made little sense. I think Pullman did it so he can continue to write new DM books and when he tires of it, he can then have a 'proper' happy ending where they get back together. As it stands simply seperating them when the story hadn't mentioned that bit beforehand came off as simply a nasty thing to do to the characters. Amusingly the last time I saw a writer do that was with Pullman's arch-nemesis Lewis in the final Narnia book.
 
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