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AIBU?

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Original poster

To start a thread where we can warn each other about books with crap endings?

239 replies

SinisterBumFacedCat · 18/09/2015 12:59

Her by Harriet Lane

I feel like I've wasted time reading this book because it had a truly shit ending.

Also The Deep End by Emily Barr

Please share yours....

OP posts:
poocatcherchampion · 18/09/2015 13:01

Like gone girl?

KurriKurri · 18/09/2015 13:02

poocatcher beat me to it with Gone Girl Grin

DirtyMugPolice · 18/09/2015 13:03

How I lost you by Jenny Blackhurst

Full of plot holes, a lot of time with me going 'huh?' And a weak story. Rubbish.

Original poster
SinisterBumFacedCat · 18/09/2015 13:05

Also The Uninvited by Liz Jenson. To get an idea of how frustratingly shit the ending was, find a good book and then tear out the last few pages and burn them.

OP posts:
RockerMummy184 · 18/09/2015 13:06

Slightly off topic, but I once had a DP who read the last page of EVERY book he read before he started it, because if the back page seemed shit he wouldn't waste his time.

He read the last page of The Day After Tomorrow by Alan Folsom before he started it and ruined the whole amazing book for himself! (The final 3 words tie up every cliffhanger, mystery and loose end in the story!) Grin

JessicaTreuhaft · 18/09/2015 13:31

Daughter by Jane Shemlit. Got to the end and just thought 'oh fuck off'. Just cannot believe the character action.

AlisonWunderland · 18/09/2015 13:41

The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt.
Good book but doesn't end so much as just stop.
I actually turned over the page expecting another chapter and went wtf? I even emailed a friend who had read the book to check if my copy had pages missing!

laffymeal · 18/09/2015 13:43

Gone Girl is the king of this. The TV equivalent was State of Play, totally shit ending that ruined the entire series.

Sylviecat · 18/09/2015 13:44

I totally agree about 'her' - it was actually well written and engaging up until the ridiculous ending!

ButternutSquish · 18/09/2015 13:44

Grey Mountain by John Grisham....not sure why I was disappointing, all his books are disappointing

ElviraCondomine · 18/09/2015 13:47

The Crimson Petal and the White.
Bizarrely makes a virtue out of not actually writing an ending. It's otherwise very good. But the end made me very cross.

Contraryish · 18/09/2015 13:48

Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time - the ridiculous 'twist' at the end made a mockery of the whole book, such a let down.

The Fault in our Stars - I so wanted it to just end like the book the character is obsessed with, can't remember the name now. There would have been poetry in that as an ending! But it didn't.

TittyBiskwits · 18/09/2015 13:48

The Crimson Petal and The White by Michel Faber.

Brilliant book but the ending left me feeling unsatisified.

SonceyD0g · 18/09/2015 13:49

Whispers in the sand by Barbara erskine. There is no ending. The author doesn't finish the story! Fantastic book up to that point

TittyBiskwits · 18/09/2015 13:49

Ooh x posted with elvira Grin

Doje · 18/09/2015 13:51

Shanteram. Great book, just don't bother with the last 100 pages.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 18/09/2015 13:53

Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
I loved this book, so well written! But the ending was just wrong. If I re-read it I skip the last bit as it always leaves me feeling cross and sad at the same time.
My mum also does the skipping to the end of a book. She can't abide a mystery.

BitOfFun · 18/09/2015 13:56

The Miniaturist. It just stopped.

GoringBit · 18/09/2015 13:56

I loved the ending of the Crimson Petal and the White but agree that Gone Girl was disappointing.

whitershadeofpale · 18/09/2015 14:06

I loved the ending of The Crimson petal and the White (though I was disappointed at first). but if you read his short story collection The Apple, you'll get a good idea of what happened.

ThenLaterWhenItGotDark · 18/09/2015 14:10

All the Nicki French's after the first few.
You're waiting for the psycho twist. It never comes.

Witchend · 18/09/2015 14:11

One that irritated me immensely was Box of Delight. It's a fantastic book, so is the previous one, Midnight Folk.
Then he's meant to have dreamt it all. What???
Thing was very similar things happened in the Midnight Folk, without it being a dream, so it wasn't the author thinking "oh magic doesn't really exist so it has to be a dream".

Totally spoilt it. Grr!

Bakeoffcake · 18/09/2015 14:16

I didn't like the ending of Kate Atkinson's "A Life In Ruins"
The rest of the book is amazing so I chose to ignore the last few pagesGrin

nickEcave · 18/09/2015 14:16

I didn't have a problem with the end of Crimson Petal and the White but Captain Corelli's Mandolin ending was complete rubbish. All that time spent intricately developing his characters and then he gallops through about 30 years in 20 pages. I was so cross and disappointed I've not been able to read another one of his books since!

FATEdestiny · 18/09/2015 14:18

All of the Fifty Shades books.

Really the three books are just one book with poor editing. The first book is the start, the second the middle and the third the end of a single story. So it could have been one book without the need for the storyline to merely pause (rather than conclude) between books.