Every week, the lovely ladies of TB&TB post a prompt and bookish peeps from all over the blogosphere answer with a list of ten books that fit that prompt.
This week's topic is:
Top Ten Book Endings That Left Me With My Mouth Hanging Open
In no particular order (and with no spoilers):
1) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling: The actual ending of the book wasn't very jaw-dropping for me but the ending of the chapter "Beyond the Veil" was. (I'm not ashamed to admit that it also left me blubbering like a kid who'd lost his balloon.)
2) Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn: My love of Raybourn's books started with this one, the very first, and it wasn't only because I was sincerely shocked by the reveal of the killer at the end (but it sure as hell helped).
3) The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: I'm cheating a little on this one because I saw the film before I read the book, but the ending is exactly the same, so it counts. I was not expecting what happened to happen and it left me surprised and sobbing.
4) Hell by Robert Olen Butler: While I liked the book in spite of its flaws, the ending was not what I had been expecting. I can't say whether I liked it or not, but it definitely was a "what the hell?" kind of moment.
5) Cosi Fan Tutti by Michael Dibdin: For more information about why my jaw dropped, you can read my review of this book. I'll just say that randomly shoving in unveiled social commentary on the unnaturalness of homosexuality isn't a good way to end a novel.
6) The Pearl by John Steinbeck: The only reason my mouth was hanging open at the end of this book was because I realized that reading it had been a huge waste of time. Really, Steinbeck? That's your idea of a good ending?
7) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova: When it's finally revealed what happened to the narrator's family I wanted to throw the book across the room. Such a waste of the Dracula mythos and, in my opinion, paper.
8) Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy: Not realizing at the time that Landy's SP books are planned to be three mini-series combined into one overall series of nine books, I was not prepared for the cliffhanger ending that marked the end of the third book.
9) Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams: My least favorite out of the five Hitchhiker's books, the ending of Mostly Harmless had me scratching my head going, "Wait, that's really how it all ends?"
10) "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale" by Neil Gaiman: Okay, so it's not a book. But it's one of my favorite short stories of all time and it has an ending worth a bit of a jaw drop.
So, there you have it. I've missed TTT more than I can possibly say.
-Gabe
funny, when I got to the Pearl, I said to myself, 'the pearl' with the scrunch up look upon my face. lol.
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