Surprise-Ending Stories You Enjoy Again and Again

Extollager

Extollager

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Not to be unfair to O. Henry, but I have no desire to (re)read "The Lady or the Tiger." But I just reread Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," which was brought to mind this morning by dolphintornsea's list:

The good Ray Bradbury stories

Regarding The Sound of Thunder, the ending of Stephen King’s, 11.22.63 reminded me of the end of this short story. Specifically, the political aspects of what the protagonists had returned to after changing history.
www.sffchronicles.com www.sffchronicles.com

I reread "Sound" and loved it. Of course, going into it, I knew it was going to have a twist ending with the frightened big-game hunter accidentally changing history, and it's obvious enough from the clues that that's what's going to happen such that even a first-time reader will know something of the sort is coming. And so what!

Then I thought of Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I suppose I've read 10 times and could read again now with enjoyment. Or Conan Doyle's "The Speckled Band" from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I must have read that a dozen times or more, and it's a favorite I'll probably return to. Katherine Maclean's "Pictures Don't Lie." If anything, I think with some such stories you like them more when you already know what the surprise is.

So I thought Chronsters might like to mention favorites of their own, stories that unquestionably are meant to have surprise endings, and that you enjoy rereading.
 
Extollager said:
Not to be unfair to O. Henry, but I have no desire to (re)read "The Lady or the Tiger."
Click to expand...

Frank Stockton, not O. Henry. (Thank you for the chance to be pedantic. One of life's little pleasures. :) ) But O. Henry's "The Cop and the Anthem" isn't bad to revisit.

I've thought about this before, and there seem to be a lot of stories, particularly short stories, that I will reread in spite of knowing the ending. M. R. James ghost stories, for instance, and the Sherlock Holmes stories. There's something about the writing that draws me in and carries me along in spite of that. And I'd add most of the Continental Op stories by Dashiell Hammett, and novels by Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. All of these are so redolent of a certain time and place, and in very different ways well-written, that I think they transcend the appeal of a satisfying plot resolution. I've even been tempted to revisit a couple of Agatha Christie's novels, though there are very few mystery writers of her time period and particular sub-genre who hold my attention the first time.

I don't know how many times I've read Thomas Burke's "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" or Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" or Saki's "The Open Window" or Edith Wharton's "Afterward" and "Pomegranate Seed."

Beyond that, I also get a kick out of revisiting s.f./fantasy by Bradbury, Fritz Leiber, Fredric Brown and C. M. Kornbluth, among others.


Randy M.
 
The ending of I AM LEGEND, especially the "new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever" part since it references his years of isolating himself in a fortress of his own making.

The Interlopers by Saki. Good ironic ending.
 
Fredric Brown is always a treat. "The Geezenstacks" is one of my favorites. I also enjoy the ending of "That Hell-Bound Trail" by Robert Bloch; it had me practically cheering at the end, which was uncommonly optimistic. "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts" and "The Lottery" are easily my favorite Shirley Jackson stories.
 
"A Maze of Death" Phillip. K. Dick. I wasn't expecting that twist, not even a hint. (No Spoiler for those who have not read it)
 
I remember a sci fi book in my Spanish lectures at Toronto Univ. The end was the most shocking I have ever seen. Abcalia was the name of the book, but apparently the author didn't have enough common sense to translate it into English. Go figure.
 
I really like the story called "The Three Marked Pennies" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman, and when I taught high school I used it in my classes as an example of symbolism and irony. It's good, and a bit Twilight Zone-y.
 
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is regularly re-read by me, even though some of its passages are known by heart. It's no longer possible for its surprise ending, nor any of its other surprises, to actually surprise me.

bookmarks.reviews

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the

A 1974 New York Times review of Le Carré's classic George Smiley spy novel
bookmarks.reviews bookmarks.reviews
 
REF: Don.
"Tinker, Tailor, ect" plus "Smiley's Game", you should watch the BBC series with Alec Guinness as Smiley in both of them, first class pieces of work, when ever I read one of the Smiley books now I always picture him as Guinness!!
P.S. Try "The Professor's Teddy Bear" and "The Other Celia" both by Theodore Sturgeon for surprise endings.
 
Not necessarily a twist, but I love the end of Excession, when everything begins to kick off and you realise (if you're only as bright as me, anyway) that there have been clues as to what's just happened but you didn't see them.
 
I loved the ending to Iain M. Banks's The Player of Games. Not a surprise, not a twist but one of emotion, as Gurgeh probably destroyed the only thing he ever loved. I didn't really understand until several re-reads and a few years.

Similarly, Look to Windward also packs quite an emotional punch.
 
I agree with Mr James; eminently re-readable despite knowing the fate of the protagonist (usually something grim!). Also the Nine Billion Names of God.
 
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