I am starting to worry about a disturbing book trend. Okay, maybe not a trend, but this is the second ARC I’ve read in the last month where the book doesn’t actually have an ending. Yes, these are both the first books in a series, but the beauty of a good series book is that it still has its own Beginning, Middle, & Ending.
Think about Harry Potter. Let’s say you read #1. If you loved it, you could probably hardly wait for the second one, but it was like waiting for an installment in a long story, not waiting for the continuation of a story you were right in the middle of reading and someone just took it from you and said, ‘you can have this back in a year’. And if you thought it was just okay and weren’t really interested in reading more, at least it was a complete story on its own.
Authors, you are not writing for TV. First books in series that simply end on a cliffhanger are not being fair to their audiences, and I personally think that sometimes an open ending like that will backfire. It certainly will with readers like me. The thing is, you are not asking me to remember the BIG MOMENT for a week, you are asking me to still be excited a year or more from now when the next book comes out. Personally, if I feel cheated out of an ending, why would I want to pick up the next one, knowing that there probably isn’t an ending there either?
Maybe kids feel differently? My friend, who is a teen, and who recommended I read this, did not seem nearly as upset as I was. Although, she did warn me, so it must’ve bugged her somewhat. Will she look for the sequel? Who knows? I doubt I will bother looking for the sequels to either of these books though. What about you? Do you like these books that just end in the middle? Do they hook you?
No sugar-coating here. A novel with no proper ending just doesn’t cut it. A book in a series should still stand alone as a complete work of fiction complete with resolution at the end. Absolutely. Anything less is cheating the reader. If an author did that to me, they’d only do it once.
Joelle, I agree. Even if a book is intended as part of a series, it should end with nearly all the loose ends tied up, or at least give the reader the deep satisfaction that we all crave in a book. And, like Kim, I would like to know more of your thoughts on this.
One more thing. Joelle, what about a book that has an ending the reader doesn’t expect, still resolving, but in a surprising way? What are your thoughts?
I just finished a popular new fantasy novel (adult fiction) that was 700+ pages long. It was SO well written that I was certain I’d be very pleased with the ending. But then page 500 crept up and I thought, “Wow, this is a lot to resolve….I hope this book has an ‘end’.” Well, 200 pages later, it didn’t. It is the first book in a series, and I loved the writing and the story, but I was so annoyed that it didn’t end! Or resolve at all! It was like someone took a 1400 page novel and chopped it in half. I can handle books that are about 200 pages long and are part of a series where each book “ends” this way, but I felt totally gypped by the author. I mean, I INVESTED myself in this book. I don’t think I’ll read another super long novel without finding out if it’s supposed to be a part of a series or not. I agree that every book, no matter the length or whether it’ll be in a series or not ought to have a beginning, middle, and end. I can tolerate shorter books that don’t quite accomplish the ending, leaving a cliffhanger, but I cannot handle such a long book not accomplishing it. Speaking of long…I’ll sign off now.