Wait... That's The End?

Ok... So I clearly I misinterpreted the plinky prompt for today. The prompter said 'Discuss a book that left you disappointed'. Which my initial reaction (which is often the one I choose to write on because its quicker) was to right about a book that left me disappointed but was not necessarily disappointing.



But doesn't one equate to the other? Well I don't think so not. There is no requirement for a disappointing book to leave you disappointed (wouldn't you be glad it was over with at least?). More significantly, a fantastic book can quite possibly leave you disappointed, you can believe that after all that the author would choose to end it like that. Or maybe you didn't want it to end at all.

The book I always think of when I think of random endings is To Kill A Mockingbird. I will admit here and now before people get their knickers in knots that it has been MANY years since I read this book and had this experience and it is quite possible that it has become a little hazy and poorly remembered.



I can recall getting to the end of the book and thinking 'That is a really strange place to stop.' It just sort of ended, though I had this feeling I hadn't gotten to the end of the story. It put it in the words of the plinky prompt 'I was disappointed'.



I sorted out the reason for the abrupt ending. You had to recall the identified reason for the story at all. Although it was intrinsically about the racial court case and various racial divides that wasn't the purpose for the story. Well it is but then that is the why its considered such good literature I suppose.



The book is from the perspective of the little girl, whose name I have long since forgotten, Scout? perhaps. It is really irrelevant. What isn't irrelevant is that she explains early on about her family etc. In particular her older brother and the fact that his arm doesn't hang straight, pretty sure it is that is always thumb of the hand away from the body (also irrelevant). She says that there is a story behind why his arm hangs that way - and then proceeds to tell it.



And that is why the story ends where it does. Though I was a little bit disappointed I can understand the construct after I think about it.



Bonus Prize for the people looking for dud books (why you want to read dud books I don't understand). I hated the final Harry Potter book. In fact I generally disliked the last 3 (so 5,6 and 7 for those who can't count). After the movies become popular I found that the writing in the books changed. And I hated the movies so by the time the seventh book came out... the Harry Potter I had read and loved in the earliest books had been completely put to death.



But more significantly so had the writing style. The final books are even WRITTEN like they were intended for movie production. Because of this a lot of the intermittent moments captured in the earlier books. If you don't believe me you only have to look at the way the later novels shrink. And its not because their story lines are any less detailed. They leave out the quirkiness and admittedly the innocence the early books had. In all I was very disappointed.