Gaudy Night has a great ending.

I loved the ending of Kavalier and Clay. I thought it was perfect.

Hm. Owen Meany was the third book by Irving that I read, and ensured there would never be a fourth.

But I thought of a book I love despite the ending: White Fang, which turns into a little fairy tale at the end and doesn't match the rest of the book.

I suppose both examples illustrate the kinds of stories I prefer.

I love the ending of White Fang.

edit: I love how the man tells his dad that White Fang will have to express his friendship for the other dog by being chief mourner after they have a fight to settle who is who in the pecking order. And White Fang's confusion when his master gives him permission to go after the bullies.

I might be the only one, but I liked the end of Mockingjay, especially as an end to the trilogy. It was grim, given what happens to Prim, but I thought that was part of the point. It's war, and it's often pointless, and it's violent and deadly and ugly. But where Katniss and Peeta end up seemed hopeful to me, and fairly realistic, for this series.

Laura Lippmann does not write good endings(of her novels..imo, her short stories are perfect) So I'm not just jealous. Gone With The Wind has a very famous ending...if there had been internet in 1938, I imagine a lot of fanfiction about it.(some girls probably did it anyway)

Amy, having just finished Mockingjay, I have to agree with your take. I thought that a more traditionally upbeat ending would not have fit as well as the one we got.

Exactly, Anne. And by the time Prim died, so many others had, I think I was a little numb. Collins also sold it, in terms of Prim's desire to help, and her skill as a medic/future doctor, so it didn't seem unbelievable to me.

I thought it was almost sadder that you knew Katniss was only going to see her mother again outside of 12, and probably not very often. She lived, but she was so damaged to start with, it was sort of amazing that she managed to pull herself together with such purpose as a healer .

without reading the whitefont I am happy to see you all talking a bit more positively about the ending. I brought the book home and couldn't read it do to all the response I read -- now I feel like i can read it

Beth, I had similar reservations after seeing the reactions, and I was surprised at how satisfying I found the ending. In a way, I thought the blatant unfairness of some things--Finnick dying but Enobaria surviving--worked very well from a narrative perspective. I also loved how quickly friendships could form under wartime conditions while other relationships, e.g. Katniss's friendship with Gale, were permanantly damaged by that same war. No, it wasn't a happy ending in the most traditional sense of the word, but it wasn't nihilistic, either.

It was real-life messy without being narratively messy, if that makes sense.