I tend to compare books and literature in general to food. Yes, it's weird I know. But think about it, (for all you other literature nerds out there), when you start a book the first few chapters either draw you in or bore you. Silly as it sounds, it's similar to a meal. After the first few bites you either think, "This tastes pretty good," or, "Ehh, I'm not a huge fan of this..." Then as you go further into the story, it either gets better or stays good enough for you to continue reading.
The ending of a story is just as important, if not more important than the beginning. It's what the readers walk away with. It's how they remember the book. It's what stays with them. You can have an amazing book or series of books and still end them poorly. A bad ending to a great book is like a bad aftertaste to a great meal. Yes, I know it's a silly example, but it works for me.
A good writer should know how to end a story well. I'll admit I love "too good to be true" endings for books. But even so, a good ending doesn't necessarily have to mean a happy ending. The Hunger Games had neither. I would have preferred a totally depressing, yet beautifully written ending to the pitiful, almost-sorta-kinda-happy-ending that I was given.
I agree! BTW-this is a test to see if my account is working...lol :P
ReplyDeleteI've read the first one, just got the second but haven't had time to read it... I'll have to revisit this post when I get through the whole series. I agree with what you said about the ending of books. That's how I felt about the last Harry Potter movie; it was great up until they (in my opinion) totally botched the final battle.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was disappointed in the Harry Potter movie ending- but I loved the ending of the Harry Potter book series. It was an "almost too good to be true" kind of ending, but I thought it was great (=
ReplyDeleteOk so after some more pondering, I have a couple more musings... throughout Mockingjay I was actually wishing more main characters would bite it, even though I was sad about the ones that do die.I feel like in this, there was definitely some sacrifice, and no one is whole even if they are happy, so if Suzanne Collins wasn't going to have the main people going down in a blaze of glory, there wasn't really another way to end it than with the idea that life goes on, sort of. I don't like stories where everything ties up so neatly that no one actually has to sacrifice anything and everyone gets to be happy ever after (ahem, Stephanie Meyers.) It could have been better explained, definitely, but I think the not exactly happy, not exactly tragic end shows how there's no going back after what they experienced and gave up for the sake of other people. Anyway. My two cents :) I think your blog is great, btw.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, that's true. I loved the actual ending. As in, 'but there are much worse games to play'. I agree that there needs to be sacrifice, but I truly cannot believe *spoiler alert* that she killed Prim. I mean she's the whole reason it even started! I would have much preferred her to kill Gale. I didn't like him at all. But what I was MOST disappointed with was how, she comes back, majorly depressed, (which makes sense), and then all of a sudden Peeta is normal again? When did that happen?
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, btw. (: