There's a new series out that housewives across America are jumping all over themselves to read. I'll confess-I've read it to (but I'm not naming names, so you can't really judge me!). The writing's not the best, she repeats the same words and phrases frequently, and it can be down right annoying at times. But I Love the way she ended the series. I feel satisfied and complete, knowing this fantasy fiction people in a completely fantasy land universe are okay and going to be okay.
Handle With Care by Jodi Piccoult--very well written, emotionally heart wrenching. You fall in love with the daughter who has osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), you learn to love/hate the Mom, and the other characters in the book develop well, too. However, because of how she ended that book, I will forever proclaim how much I hate it. I will never recommend it and I hate my coworker for forcing me to read it. Now, I've loved other books from her that I've read. My Sister's Keeper does not have the happiest ending, but it's one, as a reader, I can accept. But endings matter to me, and this one is horrible. I even picked up the book in Walmart and held it in front of my husband's face, waving and it proclaiming, "Worst ending ever. Worst. Ending. Ever." He thought I was nuts and didn't understand--but he's not a reader so he wouldn't. I'm sure there are hundreds of books where the authors end the story with a tragic twist--I don't know if it's because they're trying to shock the reader or if they felt it's the way the story was supposed to go, how the story wrote itself in their head. However Jodi Piccoult envisioned that ending, it wasn't one I like or can happily pass on to other readers.
I read a sequel in a YA series a month after I bought it. I knew the author was going to break up one couple because the female main character really belonged with another male. I knew it. But I loved this couple, loved the boy and loved how the girl was when she was with the boy. And I dreaded reading the book because I didn't want to hate the author. I Love the first book in the series. Have read it repeatedly. But I let the sequel sit on my nook for a good month because I was scared of how I would react. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and I was able to approve of the way she did things. My husband thought I was nuts when I put my nook down and smiled, saying, "I'm okay with it." He asked, "Do you think the author really cares?" And I answered, "Yes." Because I would want you to be. But she wrote it well enough and the storyline flowed so it was realistic. And there's still a third book to come out. Do I think the first boy will get back with the girl? No, definitely not. He might prove a stumbling block for the relationship between the second boy and the girl. But knowing there's more coming, makes it easier to be okay with how authors end some books.
Endings to first books, second books, even seventh books, can leave you hanging, making you angry, anxious and ready to scream because you have to wait six months to a year for the next book to come out and tell you what happens. Which is okay, because as long as I know the characters still have the potential for their Happily Ever After, I can wait.
