Not him, please not him, is the mantra that plays over and over in my head.
The End
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| Harry Potter fangirl here, expect more of these |
That's not the ending to any real book, just something generic I wrote to prove a point, but if you're a fan of modern-day YA, especially fantasy/dystopian, you know exactly what point I'm trying to prove with this. If you're as big of a book addict as me, your heart has been cut from your chest, stomped on, thrown back in, then left in a gaping hole for a year before the sequel that sows you back up and makes you whole again.
Well, you know. Unless that one ends on a cliffhanger, too. *cough* Days Of Blood And Starlight, Everbound, Catching Fire *cough* (I love those books, but they wreaked havoc on my innards.)
Have you noticed the differences between today's Young Adult books and those of ten years ago? YA is dominating the book world, it seems, reeling in more and more reluctant readers with fantastical worlds, swoony romance, and accessibility. Trends are being capitalized on and overdone (hence this weekly feature), and in doing so, they're changing the very face of YA. One of the most annoying, sometimes agonizing trends is the dreaded cliffhanger ending.
Remember the days of Hogwarts? Magic wands, Voldemort, Quidditch and gentle half-giants? Those books ended nicely and satisfyingly - for the most part - yet had teens and adults alike raiding stores on every release day since The Chamber Of Secrets. So why do writers today seem to think they need to torture their readers with incomplete endings to get them to come back for more? Shouldn't quality of the writing and story be enough? I can't tell you how many times I've read a book that came to a very satisfying conclusion while still leaving me wanting more, only to continue on with one extra chapter or epilogue that shatters any sense of resolution and leaves me in a state of shock and impatient waiting for months, if not longer.
To those authors, I have one simple, burning question; Why?
It's not like I won't continue with the series if my heart hasn't been indefinitely lodged in my throat with the ending, not if I love the books. And I also won't continue a series I don't love just because of a cliffhanger ending. I haven't met a single person who does base their series continuance on a cliffhanger, and several who are just so sick of it by now they refuse to read the next book after a bad enough hanger just for principle's sake, so what's the point?
But that's not even what has me so aggravated with this trend that I'm calling it an epidemic. It's not the regular cliffhangers that have me stomping around like an angry ogre. It's the extra-strength, screw-you cliffies that have that result. The books that don't simply leave something big open; the books that leave everything open. The ones that, whatever they like to tell themselves and their readers, do not end.
I won't name-drop any series' (serieses? Seri? O.o), but I have been plagued with these books lately! It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to start a new series before all the books have been released, because I'm just too sick of getting invested in a story that ends mid-scene and makes me wait a whole year to find out if one of my favorite characters really did die, or if the hot guy really is in cahoots with the man bad dude. I don't even understand how that's good marketing, to be honest, because instead of drawing in new readers, they're pushing us away.
I could rant about this for pages, but no one wants to read all that, so I'll end this with a simple reminder of what a book is; A book is a complete story arc, which means it has a beginning, middle, and end. There can be a larger issue left unresolved for later books in the series, but not the whole damn story.
Are you as fed up with the new screw-you brand of cliffhanger as I am? What are some recent reads that kept you riveted, but left you hanging mercilessly at the end? Let me know in the comments! <3
Ugh cliffhangers are the bane of my existence. You seriously should have seen my face when I got to the end of Days of Blood and Starlight. My lip started to quiver and I may have teared up just a little bit (okay a whole lot). I seriously love these posts Kelly ^_^
ReplyDeleteSeriously though 2014! Ugh Laini Taylor :(
DeleteHaha I know!!!! It wasn't quite as bad as Days Of Blood And Starlight, but at least then I didn't have to wait a freaking year and a half. I'm going through Akiva withdrawals already.
DeleteI'm so glad you like these posts! I was originally just going to do one long one and lump them all in, but I decided it'd make more sense to just feature a different one every week until I run out. It kind of makes me want to write more about the positives of YA to balance out some of the negativity (it is my favorite genre, after all), but I'm not sure how I'd do that yet.
Anyway, thanks for the comment(s), Sarah! :D
It's definitely frustrating to have cliffhangers, and yeah, I appreciate it when the story has an end à la Harry Potter or something. But when the cliffhanger is freaking epic like Everneath & Everbound I love it too. It's just all the endings in the middle there that frustrate me to no end. But yeah, whether or not the story has a cliffhanger ending is no indication of whether or not I'll continue on with the series. So if that was the publisher's intention, too bad. Nice post :)
ReplyDeleteI have a love/hate relationship with cliffhangers like Everneath and Everbound. I appreciate them, and I don't exactly wish they'd had a less shocking ending, but...now I have to wait a year to find out what happens! *pouts*
DeleteNo, my main issue is the ridiculous ones with absolutely no ending whatsoever.
Thanks Debby! <3
Am I weird, I like cliffhangers *hangs head in shame*. Yes, they make me itch to know what happens next but I like trying to work out what happened and where that curve ball will land. I like reading with my heart pounding thinking "oh no, you are not going to go there, you can't leave us like that". Obviously I'm a book masochist!
ReplyDeleteYes. You are a weirdo. But that's a good thing because normal gets boring after like twenty minutes.
DeleteNah, seriously, I used to be the same. I still am when it comes to certain books. But now it seems like no book that has a planned sequel can just end anymore, and after awhile it gets a bit annoying to me.
I think for me it isn't cliffhangers that are so much of an issue as series that don't really stand up as separate books (which you bring up in this post). I feel like with this series obsession going on in the publishing industry, authors might have this really great idea for a story but instead of just writing it as one book they rip it into three bits and sell it as a series. With each book in the series then there isn't any conclusion or ending, like with Harry Potter, but this abrupt sort of - Here we are, now wait a year for the next book! I don't expect each book to have this sort of wrapped-up solid ending like Harry Potter, but I want an obvious distinction between each book that makes it feel like it has reason to stand on its own and wasn't just created as a series just because. If any of that makes sense?
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I meant by the screw-you cliffhangers so it makes perfect sense. I don't always like but can definitely appreciate a good cliffhanger after some type of resolution, but the books that end mid scene then come back with a ton of filler bug me because, as you said, it feels like they're turning one book into a trilogy or whatever just for the sake of calling it a series.
DeleteMy lest favorite thing about cliffhangers--after the "nothing has been resolved, no answers have been given, you're just cutting the story in thirds here" is the "cliffhanger copout." Big exciting suspense created at the end of Book One, and then cheaping out at the beginning of Book Two. That sinister stranger--actually your ally. The certain death--missed by a mile due to something the hero did that *should* have been mentioned in the previous book. The corpse our narrator finds in your snippet at the beginning--some random kid from their class mentioned once in the previous volume.
ReplyDeleteOverall, for books I prefer sequel hooks to cliffhanger endings. "But if Vanessa wasn't the one who was sending the poison pen emails all this time, who was it?" "We may have defeated Lord Venamus, but the Bluod Empire is still out there." "Just as I was putting up my feet, the phone rang. It was a man whose Pomeranian needed walkies badly, another job for Dana Dunn, Dogwalker!"
Haha your examples are priceless. Especially the last one. :p
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Too many books put in the obligatory hanger, leave you panting for months, only to say, "Hey, didn't really happen like that, no biggie! Whoops." It's just like...O.o No.
Thanks for the great input, skjam! :D
So now that I read and commented on #4 I'm going back and reading the previous ones to see what I missed. So helllllooo from the past! :P
ReplyDeleteOkay *Serious face* I LOVE cliffhangers. I know I'm weird and I'm letting my freak flag fly high but I just do I can't help it. I mean trust me I'm usually irritated, angry wanting to throw something and depending on the book probably crying too! It's the same thing that some of my favorite shows I watch do on a nearly weekly basis and end of seasons? Forget it. Agonizing cliffhangers. My worst cliffhanger to date; Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I'm still waiting in agony for Origin. Huge sigh :/
I will admit though that the reason I Haven't even started Bloodlines yet is because I'm afraid of a cliffhanger. So here they sit, never been cracked open on my desk, waiting for the final book :D
Sheri @ Perks of Being a Bookworm
Oh yeah btw that fake book bit at the top I thought it was real from an actual book..you should write! :)
DeleteHaha I understand that. I used to be the exact same. But they've been getting more common now, and when I've got a year long wait ahead of me...I usually want to scream and kidnap the writer until she gives me closure. I'm also guilty of purposely waiting on a series so I can cheat the cliffhanger by having the next book on my nightstand. :p
DeleteThank you so much, Sheri! I actually have always wanted to be a novelist, since I was 8 lol. But I don't have the willpower to stick with the same story for long enough to actually finish it, so I wind up with a dozen half finished stories on my laptop.
I have that exact same problem. But for me it's more like this as I write and/or plot out an outline: "Yes. Great idea. And she can do this. And he can say that. And oh crap...but why are they doing this now?" And that's where I stop. I can begin and end but the middle. The why. The reason people are doing the things they do. It's all blank. And I can't focus I just end up staring off into space. So then I throw myself into reading a book and never go back to it. *Sigh* So I can in a round about way sympathize. So if you ever find your motivation let me know. Maybe I can rub off some of the luck and kick myself in gear lol.
DeleteBut I mean it! You really should write :)
Endings are what I'm worst at! I'll start an outline, start itching to write the story and not finish the outline, then only have a vague idea of how to end it. So then I'll have my character going through the motions while I try to make up for my lack of outlining and note-taking skills. And eventually, my stories die lol. But I'm sure I'll break through one of these days and actually finish something. I'll send my motivation rays your way when it happens. ;)
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