10 popular books with bad endings
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• The series "Game of Thrones" was remembered not only for its excellent acting, magnificent costumes and scenery, but also for its disastrous finale, which flooded all the honey of good impressions with a huge barrel of tar.
But Game of Thrones is not alone in its woes. There are many films, series and books that "began for health" and ended "for peace." And if about series with the most disastrous ending we have already written, then it's time to mention books with unsuccessful epilogues.
10 The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins
• The first book of The Hunger Games hooked readers (mostly young people), and they faithfully remained with the heroes of Collins through all three parts.
• However, if you study the trilogy, you will feel that gradually the plot begins to fade. And by the end of the third book, it becomes clear that Collins simply decided to organize a happy ending for her characters, despite the logic of previous books.
• The thing is, The Hunger Games protagonist Katniss didn't consider Peeta's character as her love interest for most of the three books. So when they end up together at the end of the third book, it doesn't feel like the truth.
9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• One of the most popular children's books in the world is filled with all sorts of fantastical stuff. Alice drinks a mysterious potion and suddenly shrinks, allowing her to squeeze down the rabbit hole while following the White Rabbit. She communicates with the talking Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, plays croquet with a flamingo as a club, and does a lot of other things that are impossible in the real world.
• For the story of Alice's adventures, an ambiguous ending would probably fit. This would fit perfectly with the overall theme of the story. Instead, Carroll ends the story with a literary cliché, saying that it was only a dream.
8. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
• This tragedy has taken first place in the list of the worst book endings according to Goodreads users. The end of the story of passionate young lovers, in which "everyone died" instead of living happily ever after, is disappointing.
7. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• In the center of the story is American businessman Samuel Edward Ratchett, who was found murdered in a compartment of the Orient Express train, despite the fact that the door was locked from the inside. Once Ratchett was implicated in the kidnapping and murder of a small child.
• The famous detective Hercule Poirot, who was on the train, undertakes to solve this riddle. Through his deductive method, Poirot figures out that Ratchett, on whose body twelve stab wounds were found, was killed by all the other passengers on the train, with the exception of Poirot himself.
• In the end, Poirot, who considered Ratchett a "beast", tacitly justifies the killers, letting them all go. While a fascinating read, its ending fails because it goes against Poirot's extremely high ethical standards.
6. End of the Road, Mary Lawsen
• This is a story about a large and dysfunctional Cartwright family living in a Canadian town. The family has 8 sons and one daughter, Megan Cartwright, who becomes a nanny for her brothers.
• In the end, Megan escapes to England and begins an independent life. However, sad letters come from home, and Megan's sense of duty to her family turns out to be stronger than her own dreams.
• One of the worst endings of the books comes when Megan decides she has to go home and take on the role of guardian again. This at once crossed out the entire development of the heroine and returned her to her starting point.
5. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
• It's a gripping story set in Gilead, a dystopian United States where women are treated like property.
• The protagonist of the book is a young woman, Fredov's servant (that is, belonging to a man named Fred). So what makes the ending of this intriguing and provocative story a failure?
• The fact is that readers are led to an inconclusive ending. In the end, Atwood doesn't reveal what happened to Offred, or the motives of whoever orchestrated her escape.
• Undoubtedly, such a decision of the writer is justified by something, and she has the right to write any ending she sees fit. But it's impossible to imagine Atwood wanting to leave her readers disappointed after reading her book.
4. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• This children's story gives its readers not childish experiences, and in the end a sad ending.
• Children tend to hope for the best, so the ending of a story in which one of the good characters dies will make them sad and maybe even cry.
• Some critics considered the death of the kind and cheerful Leslie a kind of punishment for the protagonist Jess. Others believe that her death was necessary in order for Jess to invite his little sister to Terabithia. But perhaps all these theories are wrong, and the writer "removed" Leslie from the plot simply because this is a fictional friend.
3. "Farewell to arms!", Ernest Hemingway
• This tale of love and war is simple in style and dark in substance. Not everyone can "digest" his chopped dialogues, short sentences and dry style.
• And the ending of the novel, told with cold calmness, dooms the hero to a meaningless existence, proving once again that the world first of all "kills the very kind, very gentle and the best." So to the positive books "Farewell to arms!" clearly does not apply.
2. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
• Like Katniss's decision to stay with Peeta, Josephine's decision to marry an elderly professor, Friedrich Baer, rejecting a young man named Laurie, who was in love with her, excited fans of the book. The age difference between Joe and Bauer is 15-20 years.
• Olcott wrote that readers often asked who the sisters ended up with, and she found the question tiresome. “Girls write to ask who little women will marry, as if that is the only goal and end of a woman's life. I will not marry Jo to Laurie to please anyone, ”the writer once said.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling
• How the plot of the last book in the Harry Potter series should or should not have unfolded can be discussed all day long. But the epilogue of the story is undeniably unfortunate.
• Instead of letting readers know about the consequences of defeating Voldemort in the wizarding world, Rowling lists the details of the main characters' adult lives. Now they are married and with children.
• This ending seems a bit too corny and sweet considering what Harry, Hermione, and Ron went through in the last books.
