# Books that when they ended you went "WHAAAAT?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489 "2014-01-23T00:39:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/1 "2014-01-23T00:39:47Z")
For me, the best example of this was Michael Crichton’s “Sphere”. EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON I can think of who’s read the book reacted exactly that way. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/2 "2014-01-23T01:10:58Z")
This might be a tad obscure, but mine is **The Mist in the Mirror** , by Susan Hill. It was an excellent, creepy little ghost story right up until the very end when…I forget the absolutely idiotic resolution, all I can remember is the book hitting the wall. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/3 "2014-01-23T01:41:53Z")
…agree with Sphere. The ending of the book Hannibal had me literally throwing the book across the room. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/4 "2014-01-23T01:42:59Z")
There’s always Stephen King’s _It_… ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/5 "2014-01-23T01:45:26Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > The ending of the book Hannibal had me literally throwing the book across the room. QFT. And into a dumpster, lest it be read again. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/6 "2014-01-23T01:45:32Z")
“That Was Then, This Is Now” by S.E. Hinton. The ending didn’t really resolve anything and the main character ends up really confused. I remember reading that book for school in the 6th grade, and how weird the ending made me feel. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/7 "2014-01-23T01:48:33Z")
I threw Stephen King’s _The Stand_ across the room after reading it for the first time. Of all the cop-outs… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/8 "2014-01-23T02:18:06Z")
Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” and “Diamond Age”, but the ride was worth it both times. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/9 "2014-01-23T02:25:03Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > I threw Stephen King’s _The Stand_ across the room after reading it for the first time. Of all the cop-outs… Heh? You mean the extended version? Cause the original version has a normal ending. > [@](#): > > Hannibal. At the time it was belief that was Harris saying, “Well, what do you expect when you let a guy like Hannibal escape? It’s not like Starling is smarter than him.” I don’t buy the explanation that she’s keeping him under control. He drugged her and brainwashed the Eff out of her. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/10 "2014-01-23T03:23:12Z")
_The Reality Dysfunction_. As I approached the end, I was starting to wonder, how on earth can he wrap all this up in just 50 more pages? Then I hit the end and he didn’t. Only _then_ did I notice that it was the first book of a trilogy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/11 "2014-01-23T03:26:43Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > I threw Stephen King’s _The Stand_ across the room after reading it for the first time. Of all the cop-outs… Which version? There were two different versions with dramatically different endings. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/12 "2014-01-23T03:33:12Z")
Yeah, Sphere. The Gripping Hand was pretty wtf. Hannibal. Different reasons, but John D. MacDonald’s last novel just sort of… stopped. When I read it, I wrote on the rear inside fly, “Hey John, where’s the rest of this book?” Then he died. Oh well… ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/13 "2014-01-23T03:36:52Z")
Pretty much every John Grisham novel I’ve read. Guy can crank out 95% of a great book, but can’t write an ending to save his life. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/14 "2014-01-23T03:37:06Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” and “Diamond Age”, but the ride was worth it both times. Oof. I’ve liked most of his books, but I’ve started and failed to finish Diamond Age twice…glad to hear I may not be missing too much. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/15 "2014-01-23T03:48:20Z")
The Fifth Sacred Thing. I know, it’s not exactly new, or well known, but I finally picked it up this summer off a giveaway pile. Since no one really cares to read it and it’s over two decades old, I’m not going to bother with spoilers. It’s all about a futuristic pagan pacifist utopia and the EEEEEVIL Christian nation coming to take over the pagan pacifist utopia. So the pagans decide not to fight, but to use pacifist morals and techniques to protect their city. Okay, so it was fairly eye-rolley, but the book didn’t get actually flung until the “pacifists” win by instigating a bee to sting the right person at the right time (it’s a long story) and turning some of the invading soldiers against their own army. They kill each other dead, with, like, not at all peaceful deadly weapons. And then the pacifists go off and stand on a hill above the carnage and congratulate each other on holding fast to their ideals, since pacifism carried the day and the invaders were driven out of their city without violence. But they didn’t and it didn’t and they weren’t and it just pissed me off to no end! Getting someone else to kill for you is not pacifist! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/16 "2014-01-23T03:53:21Z")
“The Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman. There’s a scene at the end of the story that’s apparently supposed to explain what’s going on but I don’t understand its meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/17 "2014-01-23T04:11:24Z")
**Nineteen Eighty-Fou** r by George Orwell Holy crap was my main thought. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/18 "2014-01-23T04:25:12Z")
“The Brothers Karamazov”. The ending at the tomb, while beautiful, is…abrupt, to say the least, and leaves a lot of threads hanging. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/19 "2014-01-23T14:16:37Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > The Fifth Sacred Thing. I know, it’s not exactly new, or well known, but I finally picked it up this summer off a giveaway pile. I Googled this fully expecting it to be one of those early 1970s novels by authors full of “the new world of peace love and dope.” I was wrong, but unsurprised to see it was written by Starhawk in the crystal-gazing era. That anyone read that blithering trash, fiction and non-, let alone that millions apparently did… well, let’s put that era right behind the '70s for cultural oblivion. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489/20 "2014-01-23T14:32:39Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > The ending of the book Hannibal had me literally throwing the book across the room. That’s the one I came to mention. I was mad for _days_. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > “The Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman. There’s a scene at the end of the story that’s apparently supposed to explain what’s going on but I don’t understand its meaning. Ha, I just finished that about a week ago, and I didn’t really get it either. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-when-they-ended-you-went-whaaaat/679489.md?page=2)