Plus a #OnceUponATime giveaway!
Have you ever finished a television show, movie, book, or worse yet an entire series, only to find you’ve been jipped? You spend hours upon hours investing in these characters, only to find they were dead all along (cough, cough, SPOILER ALERT, cough, cough Lost).
This irks me to no end. Why? Because I deserve a good ending. I’m not saying it has to be all Prince Charmings and true love’s kisses, but at least give me something worth my time. A perfect example is Shakespeare In Love. Bittersweet ending, but I was still totally fine with the outcome because it made sense.
Note: It needs to make sense!
I’ve been thinking a lot about endings. Good endings. Bad endings. Endings so ugly I literally want to regurgitate them from my brain. Maybe its because I just finished revising my first novel, or maybe its because I just finished reading the best series ever (hold on, I’ll get to that), but I’ve got endings on the brain so all of you lucky peeps get to read about them.
Okay, pause. I know you are dying to dance around whatever room you’re in right now because you are so excited to keep reading. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
Sixty seconds later…
Are you done? Good. So, about those endings. I’ve coined a new phrase. It’s going to be all the rage. Seriously! Brad Pitt is going to quote this in his next movie. (Well, maybe I shouldn’t go THAT far, but hey, it could happen.) Drumroll please…
Don’t Cry Alien!
I’m begging you from the bottom of my story-loving heart to please not do this. Think your ending through. Take your time so you don’t write yourself into a corner. And please, PLEASE, don’t set up this super great mystery as to who the villain really is only to reveal it was aliens from outer space all along. (Thus the term, don’t cry alien).
I have absolutely no problem with science fiction. Love the new Star Trek
Now good endings. Thoughtful and unexpected, but totally believable endings are what I crave. If you haven’t read the Shatter Me
Are they gone? Great.
I finished Shatter Me, Unravel Me
And then came Shatter Me. Two words: Aaron Warner.
Aaron Warner is one of the most dynamic male characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. He starts off as this totally crazy psychopath (or so you think) only to turn into…I don’t even have a word for him…I love him. The end.
Tahereh Mafi writes this series in such a way that you will read it again (like I’m doing right now only a week after finishing it), because the first two books become totally new reads after you’ve finished the third. There is also a set of novellas (Destroy Me
So the ending, cuz hey, that’s the topic of the day right? Ignite Me (book 3) ended exactly as I hoped it would, but still managed to totally surprise me anyway. I was smiling from ear to ear I was so happy with the outcome and what happens to these characters. I was like, “Finally! A point for team underdog.” Call me totally insane, but SPOILER ALERT Warner winning in this series felt like Jacob winning in the Twilight series. Yes, I’m team Jacob. Always will be. Deal with it.
Speaking of team underdog, how about that Killian Hook? How was that for a “hook” (haha, pardon the pun) at the end of the last season of Once Upon a Time? I was rooting for him all long. When he SPOILER ALERT and Emma kissed, and I mean really kissed, I was like “YES! Now that’s a good ending!”
Finally, I can’t talk about awesome endings without mentioning Kiera Cass’s The Selection. Now there’s a series that kept me on my toes. I knew who I wanted America to choose, but didn’t know until the very end who she would end up with.
The best thing about this series (and Shatter Me and Once Upon a Time, for that matter) is that the relationships are the opposite of Insta-love. America and Maxon are friends FIRST, then they SPOILER ALERT fall in love. The One 
So what have we learned, guys? If you’re writing a book, don’t cry alien. The ending can be bittersweet, sad even, but it must make sense and not look like you just couldn’t come up with something better. Because you know what? You CAN come up with something better than aliens invading the world you’ve created and everyone dies and wasn’t that oh so epic and how original am I? Um, no. Sorry. Try again.
The Giveaway…
All great endings have great beginnings, right? Check out this week’s awesome giveaway, including 3 stellar beginnings to 3 addicting series.
What ending (book, movie, or TV) did you absolutely LOVE or HATE? Share it in the comments below for your chance to win one of the following prizes:
- The Selection by Kiera Cass- Paperback (1 winner)
- Once Upon a Time Season 1 on DVD (1 winner)
- Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi- Paperback (1 winner)
Enter via the Rafflecopter through Tuesday, September 30th. Don’t forget to mention which of the three prizes you would like to win!
Have a great weekend, guys! As always, happy reading!
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Copyright © 2014 SaraElla.com
Omg I love once ending. Well the ending for now. I was right along with you rooting for hook. He is such a hottie 😉 and I tend to go for the bad dairying types anyways. Can’t wait for season 3. I am so happy you got me hooked on this series.
I’m so excited for the new season too! 2 more weeks!
Hmm the one series I can say I hated the ending of was Mockingjay! I was completely unprepared for all the UNNECESSARY deaths that took place!
Oh my word, Laura P! It’s like you are in my head. I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. That particular death made me wonder what the point of the series was. That person was who fueled Katniss from the beginning. ugh!
Ah, me too! That’s the first book I thought of when Sara mentioned awful endings.
haha! Hi Nadine! It was just atrocious wasn’t it? But I know of a book coming out soon that I KNOW is going to be awesome. Cough, cough “A Time to Die” 🙂 Can’t wait to get my copy in the mail!
Haha, geesh, no pressure, right? 😉
Nope haha 🙂 None at all. Says the girl starting queries. EEK!
Totally agree! In a way, I wish I hadn’t read Mockingjay because the ending ruined the series a little bit for me. After going through all of those up and downs to have it end…down. Didn’t really work for me.
This Mockingjay discussion is really booming! Love it! Thanks for commenting, Tricia. I felt the same way. It was a huge let down, but I know Suzanne Collins stands by her decision and I do admire her for that, as I admire Veronica Roth for standing by her ending of Allegiant (even though I didn’t like it). Lately I feel like I expect the darker dystopian novels to let me down at the end, which is why I was very nicely surprised that Ignite Me (Shatter me book 3) ended exactly as I’d hoped. Yay, Tahereh Mafi!
Ok. I have to say I did like the ending to Lost—they just needed to get to it way sooner and wrap up so many more questions. To me it was the shock factor–that’s why I loved it so. Buuuut it could have been executed a lot better.
Xo,
Christen
ChristenKrumm.com
Haha you can totally like the ending to lost. Maybe if it had ended sooner I would have liked it too. (PS as you can see i took your advice and did something other than the Maze Runner)
You picked a good one (other than the Maze Runner 🙂 )
I also love “Once Upon a Time!” I have always loved fairy tales and I love the twists the writers have put in the show. This last season I loved the way they ended it keeping us once again in suspense for the new season!
I agree, Cindy! I love how you never know who is a villain in that show. I really like redeemable bad guys. Hook and Rumple are my fave characters. Oh, I like Regina too!
Ooh, I love OUaT –unfortunately, my brother and I are in season 2 right now. We need to coordinate our schedules to catch up … so many episodes on the DVR right now! Definitely going to check our Kiera Cass’ novels –plus the covers look gorgeous!
Hmm … Mockingjay definitely had an interesting ending. I both love and hate it. The bittersweetness, the small bit of hope in the epilogue despite everything that happened –that barely made the tragedies worth it. The ending was “realistic” and giving the characters some magical happy amnesia or “fix” would be a slap in the face to everything that had happened. The realness of the consequences and the effect the Games had on the characters … I don’t always see that in the books I read.
I would definitely agree that yes, certain deaths were “unnecessary” in the fact that my heart did not need to be wretched in such a way … However, in the situation of war and battle that they were in? Definitely “necessary” in the fact that in real life, in war … people get hurt and they do die. For Collins’ to choose to kill off certain characters shows that she didn’t want to give an unrealistic view of war. However, I don’t really have an explanation for the most controversial death … *trying not to spoil* =)
— Zekkaina
Hi, Zekkaina! Thanks for leaving such a well thought out comment. If you hang out here for any length of time you’ll find I LOVE book talk. I totally agree the ending was realistic. I understand why the author ended it the way she did, but also felt that one death made the rest of the series pointless. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hunger Games. Catching Fire is one of my favorite books. However, I felt Suzanne Collins could still have gotten her point across without killing off that one particular character. I was just like, “Poor Katniss. Can’t the girl catch a break?” Anyway, so fun to meet another Oncer. Hurry up and catch up! New Season is less than 2 weeks away. And yes, Kiera Cass’s books are a must must must! Thanks for commenting! Good luck in the giveaway!
I agree, I didn’t really like ****’s death in Mockingjay. It was shocking and though I understand it was a war and not everything is going to end perfectly was still like NOOOOOOO! (especially since I was Team Not Peeta from the beginning). A series who’s ending really disappointed me was Hawksong by Amelia Atwater Rhodes. I felt like she just wrote herself into a corner and then did a disservice to her readers (who were there for FIVE books!) by employing a bit of deux ex machina in the end 🙁
I’ve never read that series, but now I know to stay away from it. As far as being not team Peeta, I see where you’re coming from but also felt as the series went on, we saw less and less of Gale, and thus our connection to him sort of got, well, lost. I really felt Peeta’s love for Katniss, though as much as she cares for him, I didn’t think she was truly in love with him. I felt more like she settled for him. It made me feel bad for Peeta. Katniss was never much of a romantic heroine to begin with I suppose. I think i like Tris better.
You’re right about seeing less and less of Gale as the series progressed. My sister is Team Peeta, and would say pretty much what you said lol. With Hawksong, It’s okay if you read the first book because it almost reads like a separate book from the rest of the series. Just don’t go any further than that because the awesome premise ends in disappointment 🙁
Thanks, Knwrites! I’ll keep that in mind. I kinda felt that way about Hunger Games too. Book 1 could’ve stood on it’s own 🙂
I LOVE the ending to the book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.
Ditto, Mikey Lynn! I cried <3
So cool!