All I want for Christmas is… more fiction without happy endings

by Zuky the BookBum, posted in Bookish bits

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS... MORE FICTION WITHOUT HAPPY ENDINGS

A while back I got the idea for a new December blog series so I’m starting it today! This new series is called “All I want for Christmas is” and then I’m going to talk about more topics or characters, or whatever, I want in books.

Today I’m stating with something a lot of you might find strange, but All I Want for Christmas is more books that don’t have happy endings!

Don’t get me wrong… I love a happy ending when the time is right or something particularly traumatising has happened to a character, but I feel like a lot of the time, authors, writers, or directors create scenarios for a happy ending out of thin air where it would have simply been better to leave a situation open. Or sometimes, in my own dark twisted way, I would just prefer for a killer to not get caught or for someone to not escape the clutches of evil… is that fucked up? Probably, but so is life, where that kind of thing happens so often, apparently something that’s completely forgotten about in fiction.

I guess most members of public would prefer a happy ending, but I personally LOVE an ambiguous ending in books and movies. No spoilers, but one of my favourite horror/thriller movies ends with everyone dying and this is one of the reasons I love it so much. I remember the time I saw the movie and I was blown away by the shocker of an ending!

This is not to say I want loads more books or movies with bad endings because then the effect of it would wear off, I just wish there were a few more. It would just be nice if there were more authors who would allow for a darker, more realistic conclusion to crime stories.

So there we have it, that’s the start of this Christmas series! What do you wish there was more of in fiction?

Have you read any great books where the bad guy(s) get away with it?

36 thoughts on “All I want for Christmas is… more fiction without happy endings”

  3. YES 100000%. I love dark and realistic fiction and ambiguous endings are my jam. I wouldn’t normally recommend YA to you but I don’t like YA either so I think it’s ok, lol, but you actually might like Sadie by Courtney Summers. I was really taken aback by just how gritty that book was. And did you read Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton? That one isn’t quite a mystery, but it’s dark as hell and no one is happy and the ambiguous ending is perfection.

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  5. Nothing fucked up with that!
    I think that would be realistic. I’m perfectly fine with an ending that is not happy, but still satisfying. Like you can feel that the story is finished, and this is how it ends, it just sucks for some 😀

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  7. I can agree with this. Also, sometimes authors forget that not ending a book with a happy ending doesn’t automatically mean the book ends with a bad or sad ending. Ambiguous endings can be really good and powerful. (The Giver was one of my favorite reads this year, and it has a perfect ambiguous ending.)

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  8. As much this made me giggle when I first saw it, I actually have to agree. Life isn’t wrapped in this tight little pretty bow where everything turns out perfectly. I think if I was exposed to both happy and sometimes sad endings, I would be able to handle more things mentally. I remember studying about that in psychology, that our ability to handle stresses and what not can be greatly defined to what we’re exposed to.

    However…I’m going to wish for more LGBT books and more bromance… ❤

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    1. I totally agree with you! But I guess we’re exposed to so many unhappy endings in the news etc that most writers want to give their audiences an escape – which is fine – I just wish there were more realistic endings in books 🙂

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  13. Agree! I find myself enjoying books and movies more when they are unpredictable and have unhappy ending. I don’t like Allegiant, but it’s not because of the ending- I’m perfectly fine with that- it’s more on how the story is executed. 90% of my favorite books actually have sad ending, so that’s saying a lot 😀

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