This week's question: Series Endings. What is your favorite series ending? Your least favorite?
My answer: I'm not sure I can answer this question. Am I reading ANY series that have ended? I feel like I'm in the middle of a zillion of them.
I love endings that feel both surprising and inevitable. (Yes, that sounds like a contradiction.) I don't want to predict exactly what happens, yet I want it to feel just right.
I love it when the last book wraps up all those dangly loose ends. I need to know that everything important gets resolved, including....
No matter how a writer wraps up a series, some readers are going to have mixed feelings with the way things turn out. They've invested so much time and energy in these stories and characters that they feel like the series should end exactly like they imagined.
If I had to pick my favorite series ending, I'd have to say Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I think J.K. Rowling is a master of series writing. Her series has an overarching story arc (the Harry-Voldemort battle) yet each individual book has its own resolution too.
Can you think of a series that ended EXACTLY the way you hoped? Tell me what it was!
I agree with Harry Potter, I loved the ending to it!
ReplyDeleteMockingjay didn't end exactly as I had hoped, but I felt it a believable ending. I knew it wasn't going to be exactly "happy" because of the circumstances. After all those characters went through, it was as happy as you could hope for!
The Immortals by Alyson Noel ended pretty well, too, I think.
I know what you mean about any series you are reading ending! Most of what I'm reading now are newer series, or series that have no end in sight! (HON, Sookie Stackhouse, Stephanie Plum)
I had mixed feelings about the Mockingjay ending too.
DeleteI got stalled in the Immortals series. It moved too slowly for me. I'm really impatient.
And I can handle series that never end as long as there are no cliffhangers :)
Haha! I am in the middle of like a million different series too. I have the last book for the WIngs series, The Need series, and The Curse Workers series though. I liked how Harry Potter ended. I thought it was great. The Hunger Games was a bit meh for me, but it was kind of what was expected as an ending. THe nightshade series I thought ended pretty well. I know that a lot of people didn't really like the ending, but I felt like it was wrapped up well. Rachel Vincent's Shifters series was awesome. I thought that ended well too, though I wish the series could keep going forever lol!
ReplyDeleteI almost mentioned Nightshade. I know the ending of that series ticked a lot of people off, but to me (even though it broke one of my love triangle rules) it fit my "surprising yet inevitable" rule.
DeleteI haven't read the last Shifters book. I'm behind! Too many series!!
I'm starting the Curse Workers series soon on audio. Narrated by Jesse Eisenberg. Excited!!
I think series endings can be a bad thing and a good thing. For an example, The Vampire Academy series, I was very happy with the ending. I think that The House of Night series should end, I am tired of the series, it seems to go on and on. When The Georgia Nicolson series ended I was sad, I love Georgia and her wild adventures! Great Post!
ReplyDeleteOne of my projects for the summer is to finish the Vampire Academy series. Somehow what one just got away from me. She writes really fast!
DeleteI have not read House of Night or Georgia Nicolson -- are those the Louise Rennison books??
My favorite book ending will always be the ending to the Cirque Du Freak series by Darren Shan. It was so heartwarming and heartbreaking. It completed the story in a special way that made me happy and sad at the same time. there are some books where I will always remember the last line and the Sons Of Destiny is one of them. (also the Goblet of Fire by J>K Rowling!)
ReplyDeleteI also liked the ending of the Deathly Hallows, i just wished it ended before the epilogue because the last line before 14 years later was remarkable.
now i'm really sad because I'm remembering the ending of my two favorite series that caused me to enjoy reading.
I love Harry Potter's ending but HATED the Darren Shan one. (I think it's a personal preference, to be fair, but that type of ending just makes me wish I hadn't bothered with the series as a whole.)
DeleteMine are at YA Yeah Yeah if you'd like to take a look.
@Rachel -- I should have added that to my post -- the sadness you feel when a series you love ends gets thrown into the mix --so you can never be completely happy with the ending.
Delete@ Yeah Yeah Haven't read Cirque du Freak but I can see that ending must have been controversial :)
I liked how the Wondrous Strange series ended as well as the Iron Fey series. It seems, just like you, that I am in the middle of a lot of series - some of them I think should have already ended and some I'm okay with them going on. :)
ReplyDeleteI have not read either of those series! My summer reading list is getting longer by the second!!
DeleteThe series for me is Vampire Academy. Last Sacrifice was so amazing. It turned out the way I always wanted it to be - Rose and Dimitri together. I did feel bad for Adrian though. I'm hoping he gets his love interest in the Bloodlines series. :)
ReplyDeleteSee above. One of my summer goals is to finish this series. I'm kind of excited about being able to read one book after another. Kind of like when you watch a TV show on DVD and can just keep watching and watching without caring about annoying cliffhangers :)
DeleteI'm excited to hear your thoughts on them :D
DeleteI agree about love triangle! It always irks me when the heroine gets to cop out from making a decision because either one of the guys die or random does something terrible (or is terrible all along). I think this is kind of the many reasons why I wasn't happy with The Hunger Games ended. I have no preference for either Peeta or Gale, but I think Katniss should've made the decision for herself, and not because a tragedy occurred.
ReplyDeleteAgree -- I just don't think that's fair. If it's too hard to make the heroine choose, then I'd rather not have the love triangle at all.
DeleteThe Deathly Hallows was a GREAT series ender! You are right! I see some chat of Mockingjay in the comments...I still think about the ending in that one...ugh.
ReplyDeleteThe Mockingjay ending was hard for me. That was a really sad book.
DeleteI'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and I think the Vampire Academy series pretty much ended exactly as I wanted.
ReplyDeleteOkay, all you VA fans - I'm on it!!! Promise :)
DeleteI loooove Harry Potter. So so so so much. And you are totally right about the love triangle. Thanks for putting it into really clear words. I want my heroines to make a choice, I don't want to feel like she settled at the end. If I've followed her through a whole series, then I'm invested enough in her to think she deserves exactly what she wants instead of what she's left with.
ReplyDeleteCould not have said it better myself :)
DeleteLove triangles that end with a deaf or the other guy all of a sudden becoming a jerk really piss me off! LOL I like an HEA! If something doesn't end HEA then I'm really mad!
ReplyDeleteJen M, you're the greatest. Just saying!
DeleteThanks! Just realized another horrible typo! Deaf! LOL I mean death! I swear I went to college and everything!
DeleteI knew what you meant!!
DeleteIt might have been autofill. Once I started to write "Thanks for stopping by my blog" and got "Thanks for stupid by my blog" instead.
Luckily I noticed before I hit publish!!
Totally picked HP too! I felt the same way you did when I saw this question too ... so many series I haven't finished!
ReplyDeleteNew follower BTW!
So jealous that you are living in Australia. Marybelle, below you, lives there too!
DeleteLoved your post on Aussie slang.
I think apart from the HARRY POTTER and THE HUNGER GAMES series I have not finished any series.
ReplyDeleteYou made the point of being in the middle of a zillion of them, this is my problem too. I doubt if I will finish even a small proportion of them.
It has to be exceptional for me to continue on.
It bothers me to abandon a series -- I'm generally a person who finishes what I start. But there are so many books I want to read, I just can't stick around for book after book ...
DeleteHi there! I Couldn't agree more about love triangles AND Harry Potter. Definitely the best ending to a series out there!
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower :) If you get the chance please check out my blog at:
http://thegirlybookworm.blogspot.com
Thanks!-Megan
I love reading a series but hate when it ends. There are a few series where I'm up to the last book but just haven't read it yet. The best ending to a series has got to be Harry Potter. My all time favorite series and it ended exactly as I wanted it.
ReplyDelete