Anyone read The Magicians by Lev Grossman? My younger brother's friend came over yesterday for a birthday/New Years party and basically threw the book at me saying that she absolutely loved it until the last 100 pages, and then something happened that made her furious.

I'm not sure it made me furious, but I do remember liking it until towards the end, although that's true of the majority of books I read.

but I do remember liking it until towards the end, although that's true of the majority of books I read.

Endings are tricky.

Does anybody have a nomination for a particularly satisfying ending?

Or an example of a great book that went completely off the rails with the ending?

Double pump!

I'm trying to think of examples of both myself.

Moby Dick is notable for having a great beginning and a great ending.

Jane Austen books just gets a quick wrap up and peter off.

I did like the ending of The World According to Garp which presaged Six Feet Under by following every character to their death.

Also The Circus of Dr. Lao has the best Index of Characters ever after the main narrative.

I loved Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale but disliked the ending.

Does anybody have a nomination for a particularly satisfying ending?

The Lord of the Rings

Or an example of a great book that went completely off the rails with the ending?

Of recent reads, The Giver stands out, as does The Historian.

I'm particularly fond of The Time Traveler's Wife all the way through, but its being not exactly chronological may help with that.

Speaking of that book, my brother and I watched the movie adaptation of it tonight (he just finished reading the book) and we were both basically offended by how bad it was. It was like they took everything good out of the book and filmed what was left.

I don't remember disliking the end of Winter's Tale, but now that I think of it I can't remember exactly how it ended. I only read it about a year ago too, which is scary!

Editing to add that I also don't remember how The Historian ended, but I think I liked it? The only thing about that book I remember infuriating me was that the main character didn't have a name.

A Prayer for Owen Meany, one of my fave books of all time, has a great ending. The entire book builds up to it, and it doesn't disappoint.

Also, I liked how The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Await Your Reply, and When You Reach Me came together at the end, although the latter was completely predictable.

I read The Magicians a while back and it was... fine, but I was never quite sure how to take it. I think I can dimly recall what might have annoyed your sister.

Also The Circus of Dr. Lao has the best Index of Characters ever after the main narrative.

And the questions! Was it a bear, or a Russian, or what?

Hm. I think my taste in literature determines that my favorite novels tend to end in doom, ambiguity, or one-liners. And I'm okay with that, obviously, but "satisfying" isn't the first word I'd use. I do think that the epilogue of Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is lovely. And Watership Down can still make me sniffle.

Oh! The ending of The Prodigal Woman is quite satisfying if you are particularly misanthropic (and the rest of the book might make you feel that way if you weren't already).

Seconding the rec for Owen Meaney.

For all that the story may make people grind their teeth, I thought The Sparrow ended strongly, in part because the entire story was a build to the revelations in the end--this probably had a great deal to do with the structure of the novel.

ETA: Watership Down is another example of an ending that was earned, and draws from the entirety of the rest of the novel. Thanks, Strega.

Or an example of a great book that went completely off the rails with the ending?

The Poisonwood Bible by Anne Kingsolver, and Corelli's Mandolin by wassname. I remember being peeved because I read them both in the same month and they both collapsed at the end, after being so strong at the start.

I tend to think that a strong ending requires an actual plot, not just good prose and interesting characters. You have to know where you're going, and set it up along the way. The characters and the reader both have to earn the ending, and it's frelling hard to do properly. (JJ Abrams, I'm looking at you!)

Anyone read The Magicians by Lev Grossman? My younger brother's friend came over yesterday for a birthday/New Years party and basically threw the book at me saying that she absolutely loved it until the last 100 pages, and then something happened that made her furious.

I'm not sure it made me furious, but I do remember liking it until towards the end, although that's true of the majority of books I read.

I thought the whole thing was self-consciously derivative, but kept trying to throw the reader a wink and a nod as if to say, "Look, with Harry Potter and Narnia, OF COURSE it's going to be derivative!" (With a strong dash of Phillip Pullman thrown in.) As if he was doing it on purpose, to be overtly meta. And if that's what Grossman was doing, I don't think it worked. In the end, I was still just left with the overall feeling of...derivative.