Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish
The 5 Best Endings
1.Harry Potter
Sue me. No Deathly Hallows wasn't perfect and got a bit boring in the middle but The Battle of Hogwarts made me want to curl up in a corner and just weep
2. James Barclay's The Raven...no The Ascendants of Estoria! Oh don't make me decide.
It's wrong to say that I love both series equally. I love the Raven-books more...I discovered them at a time when I had grown somewhat tired of Fantasy in general but then Dawnthief happened and I was glued to the pages. Now I am older and wiser and have to admit that they're not without faults (please don't ask about the female characters in them...and it also is somewhat obvious that he started this series without having much of a clue how to continue it). In The Ascendants he has much improved in that Aspect so they're probably the better books overall...but The Raven made me fall in love with its characters in record time and stopped me falling out of love with the genre and no they're not perfect but don't talk to me about it OK? :P
OK actually we wanted to talk about the ending anyway. I love both...and I hate that I love them because both are probably closer to a Downer Ending than a Bittersweet Ending but they fit perfectly with the rest of the books. They tear my heart out. In a good way. Sort of.
3. Kai Meyer's The Dark Reflections
Why do I only have sad endings for this? I don't know.
If this works: highlight to see the spoiler:
Killing of the male love interest at the end of a YA fantasy trilogy is mean and it make me hate the author for a while but the characters not getting a HEA at the end of his books is sort of a theme (the others aren't quite as drastic but all acknowledge that saving the world, finding the of your life AND there being no personal costs at all is...unlikely). Yeah apparently I like it when characters are miserable. Deal with it. |
4. Tommy Krappweiß: Mara und der Feuerbringer
Even though I had some issues with the final book I loved the ending overall as it happily subverts the YA-parents are utterly useless trope
5. Josh Lanyon: Adrien English
There are occasions where I actually enjoy fluffy happy endings where everybody gets what they want. This is one of them.
Worst
(This meme is quite hard for me...I read so much crime-seres that are sort of neverending...if I don't enjoy them anymore I simply stop reading so I can't really say that I didn't like the ending)
1. Henning Mankell: Wallander
Should I have built a fort first to defend myself from the stones that are about to be thrown?
I'm not disputing that Mankell is a great writer or the influence on the crime genre but halfway through this series turned from 'gritty, realistic and things don't always work the way you want to 'things never work the way you want and Wallander is not allowed to be happy ever' and no he isn't even allowed to enjoy his retirement.
2. Kai Meyer: Brothers Grimm-series.
I'm grasping at straws here...and the only thing I didn't enjoy about was that there are only two book and I want about a billion books about Willhelm and Jacob Grimm having awesome adventures :P (now please don't reccomend Reckless to me...seriously don't)
3.Margeret Frazer: Sister Frevisse-series
I really can't fill this list with just series-endings so here's one that started out promising but turned WTF far too quickly (top tip: if you want to write historical novels that feature lots of sex and paganism...don't choose an abess as your main-character because that will only have your readers facepalming a lot)
4. Patricia Cornwell: Kay Scarpetta
Another series that turned bad...there is no other series I can think of that screams 'flogging the dead horse' as loudly as poor Scarpetta.
5. Kerstin Gier: Ruby red-trilogy
Overall I still enjoy the trilogy and it's delightfull and awesome but it feels like Gier didn't think about the ending and the consequences too much...