Sara Amini
I just finished reading Holly Black's Book of Night, and I give it full credit for this month's blog topic. Yes, I have written about endings before, in the 2018 post, The End is Near, but today's topic is different.
Don't worry, I won't tell you how the Book of Night ends, except to sputter words like provocative, shattering and unexpected. I literally can't stop thinking about it. If the goal is to evoke emotions, it reached it, and then some.
You've probably guessed by now, I'm here as much for my therapy as I am for exploring insights into story endings. BON has me asking: What is the right ending for a story? How much is the rightness based on reader expectation and genre? Just how much can we get away with?
According to Master Class at Writing 101 (yes I researched this) there are multiple classifications of endings including:
Resolved ending
Unresolved ending
Expanded ending
Unexpected ending
Ambiguous ending
Tied ending
But even as I look at this academic list, I don't know where to put Holly Black's Book of Night. And let me just add, that the narration by Sara Amini is stunning and visceral. She's amazing in her contribution to the storytelling.
But back to the topic. Each story is unique, as is each genre so let's go through a few. Maybe you can help me come to some conclusions about BON.
Romance and the HEA
I'm pretty sure all the Sup readers know that HEA stands for
Happily Ever After. It's linked to the fairytale ending, but also might have the contemporary, slightly more real twist of HFN, or
happy for now. It's satisfying, but also no big surprise...
Holly Black's Book of Night was not this in the slightest.
Mystery, Crime and Detective - the Resolved Ending
Here we have the wrap-up ending. It may include a review of what the characters will do after the last page, or not, but the bottom line for this ending is closure. There are not going to be many loose strings left in the plot elements because the story is complete.
Holly Black's Book of Night was definitely not this, because we know now it is #1 of a series.
Fantasy and the Cliffhanger, Surprise or Expanded Ending
Fantasy books are not always series, and not always cliffhangers, but they often are. How else to lure the reader on to the second, third and fourth book? There are options, like write amazing worlds and characters. One may also include epilogues (the expanded ending) and partial resolves/partial unresolved, but note, just because a book is part of a series doesn't mean it can't have a feeling of HEA and/or resolution.
Meanwhile, the true cliffhanger is just that. It leaves us hanging on the edge of a cliff. But
Holly Black's Book of Night was not really this. It has a powerful sense of
The End, just not what I ever thought it would be.*
The Hero's Journey - a Tied Ending
Here we have the full circle, the ending that returns to the time, place or sense where it all began. It doesn't mean that nothing has changed, but here we are again, but with more significance. Time travel themes are obvious in this style of ending and those stories following classical mythology tropes. The
Dark Tower Series by Stephen King is an example.
Holly Black's Book of Night was not this either, except in the sense that we find a very early phrase
repeated in the very last sentence, making for a powerhouse theme I didn't see coming.
Literary Fiction and the Ambiguous Ending
Here the ending is open to interpretation. Ten readers might have ten different takes on what happened, and what may happen next. For example,
Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
Not all literary fiction ends this way, and it still can make sense and possibly resolve at least a portion of the plot, but there is a feeling of wonder (or horror) or maybe doubt.
* Reviewers on Goodreads are calling this a cliffhanger ending on Goodreads. For me, it wasn't OMG what will happen next but more, OMG that happened?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments if you have a second. I would love to hear them.
See you there
xxKim
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