Have you ever read a book, got to the end and you were just completely, utterly shocked? Me too. This has happened to me a few times and honestly, a couple of books I couldn't even finish because of this. I was so mad, or sad that a certain character died that I just couldn't bring myself to finish the book. As we're reading, we have this perfect ending in mind that we think "of course this is what's going to happen, they couldn't end it any other way." But, there is always - and I mean always - foreshadowing to what the ending will hold. You might not pick up on this while you're reading the first time, but read it a second time and you'll see it coming - not because you already know what's going to happen but because you will notice the subtle clues as to what the ending will hold.
While a surprising ending may not be one in your favor - you're either mad about what happened or mad that you didn't see it coming - the author did their job: they kept you guessing. They didn't make their intentions so obvious that you knew the ending before the book revealed it. Some books are like that - you can guess the outcome before you're even halfway through. I don't those are necessarily bad - they're just predictable. I like some books that surprise me. But, I must say there was one where I was so mad the author killed the character that I gave up reading his books for about 6 months (and then a new one came out). I think there's a certain line when it comes to surprise endings that authors might not want to cross. Killing off a well-liked main character has a definite negative effect of my view of the author. When this happened to me, I gave very bad reviews of his books to my friends who were looking for something to read. I was so mad, I didn't want anyone to ever read his books again. I know this is dramatic, and at the time I thought I was justified. This author is Nicholas Sparks, whom many of my posts are about. I love his books, but there's one that I just never could quite finish. Still haven't. He crossed that invisible line with me in that book, and I don't think I'll be going back to review the foreshadowing. But definitely, his other books have my support. He's my favorite author by far, and I'm pretty sure will continue to be so.
I hope you all enjoyed my blog. (I thought a final blog about endings would be quite fitting for this occasion).
To answer your opening question.. Yes, I have. As we all have. As someone who doesn't read as much as I'd like(or maybe as much as I should), I found your post and passion about reading in general to be pretty interesting; especially how your thoughts and support of your favorite author kind of came "full circle" all over one of his writings. As you sort of mentioned, this wouldn't have been the case if you weren't such a passionate reader for one; and two, if you didn't think so highly and strongly for him and his writings already. All in all I thought this was a really nice post, Amanda! Good luck the rest of the semester!
ReplyDelete