# Totally Unexpected, Out-of-Left-Field Literary Endings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668 "2011-03-31T19:20:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/61 "2011-04-14T14:49:08Z")
John Masefield’s otherwise completely excellent children’s fantasy, The Box of Delights, comes to an abrupt halt when: the protagonist wakes up from his dream. Really? ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/62 "2011-04-14T15:42:28Z")
I submit [Out of the Dark, by David Weber](http://www.amazon.com/Out-Dark-David-Weber/dp/0765324121), 95 percent of the book is a straight forward alien invasion of Earth, with lots and lots of military jargon and description of equipment, and then, in the last 20 pages or so: fucking ancient vampires from Transylvania join the rebels and kick the alien’s asses, because, you know, they’re supernatural and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/63 "2011-04-14T15:46:15Z")
> [@lalenin](#): > > I submit [Out of the Dark, by David Weber](http://www.amazon.com/Out-Dark-David-Weber/dp/0765324121), 95 percent of the book is a straight forward alien invasion of Earth, with lots and lots of military jargon and description of equipment, and then, in the last 20 pages or so: > > fucking ancient vampires from Transylvania join the rebels and kick the alien’s asses, because, you know, they’re supernatural and stuff. I really wanted to read the book but I heard about the ending beforehand and it killed any and all interest. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/64 "2011-04-14T15:46:24Z")
Ben Elton’s Blast From The Past has a set up I could not image and an ending I could not predict. After shotting his long ago lover’s stalker, the American soldier shots himself ---
**Author:** ![markm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@markm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/65 "2011-04-14T15:51:11Z")
Midnight by Dean Koontz (really, any of his endings, the man is really a hack writer). During HS, I was an avid reader of his work, but every book left me feeling like “Huh, that’s how you’re going to end it?” Then I read Midnight and that was that. I decided no more for me. It was just too ridiculous. I mean seriously A werewolf threesome that devolves into a giant amoeba killed by some guy crashing a plane into it? Seriously? ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/66 "2011-04-14T17:42:33Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I’m a HUGE Heinlein fan, but I recognize that many of his books have unsatisfying endings. Not WTF endings, but many of his novels feel like he got tired of writing, and arbitrarily wraps everything up in three or four tacked-on pages. Hey now, those are fighting wor… um… er… OK, I’ll give you that. Especially “Number of the Beast”, I really thought he was going somewhere until the end. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/67 "2011-04-14T18:17:06Z")
Stephen King’s _Pet Semetary_. I mean he took…you know…up to the you know. And then, damn, you know what happened! Many sleepless nights after that book. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/68 "2011-04-14T18:41:07Z")
The end of John Varley’s _Millennium_. It turns out that the snatch program is being run by God (in the guise of a computer? Between the book and the goofy movie and the short story I forget which ending belonged where), giving it another shot because that whole Genesis thing was a bust and evolution didn’t turn out like he thought. Rough. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/69 "2011-04-14T19:01:54Z")
I’m fairly surprised I’m the first to mention Thomas Harris’ _Hannibal_. I probably don’t even need to create a spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/70 "2011-04-15T04:38:05Z")
> [@markm](#): > > Midnight by Dean Koontz (really, any of his endings, the man is really a hack writer). During HS, I was an avid reader of his work, but every book left me feeling like “Huh, that’s how you’re going to end it?” Then I read Midnight and that was that. I decided no more for me. It was just too ridiculous. > I mean seriously A werewolf threesome that devolves into a giant amoeba killed by some guy crashing a plane into it? Seriously? Wow, that’s bad. But, in the guy’s defense, the endings of the few Koontzes I’ve read weren’t as bad as the worst King endings… _Watchers_ was a very satisfying book (hey, it had a genius dog, it had to be good), with a moving ending that fit the plot and the characters’ motivations. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/71 "2011-04-15T12:48:57Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Speaking of King, what about Thinner? The Jaunt? The Ledge? _Thinner_ is the best King ending I’ve ever read, IMO. The one time he hasn’t screwed it up somehow. _The Jaunt_ ending is freaky as hell but I wouldn’t say ‘‘out of left field.’’ You get the feeling from the very beginning that some bad shit is going down. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/72 "2011-04-15T12:53:56Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > How are those WTF endings? > > Thinner: He seeks out revenge on those he think wronged him, it backfires, and he offs himself. That’s not what I remember. I thought In his lust for revenge, he accidentally passes the curse to his daughter. Much more sinister. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/73 "2011-04-15T13:05:30Z")
**olives** , I think that was the “backfires” part. He wants his wife to eat the pie with the gypsy curse in it, but both she and their daughter do. Realizing this, he eats some as well. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/74 "2011-04-15T13:23:52Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > **olives** , I think that was the “backfires” part. > > He wants his wife to eat the pie with the gypsy curse in it, but both she and their daughter do. Realizing this, he eats some as well. Ah, gotcha. I forgot about that part. Great ending. Ditto _Pet Semetary_. (The all time best ending is _The Long Walk_, though.) It’s rare that King can pull off an ending as disturbing and unsettling as the beginning and middle, but when he does it, man, he really does it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668/75 "2011-04-15T13:28:11Z")
Ed McBain’s “Calypso” had a very unexpected ending to the story, and unexpected for him as a writer who, though he wrote about murders, usually avoid the blood-and-gore of it. I’m sum it up in a spoiler box, both as a spoiler and because it is so disgustingly, disturbingly gory. You have been warned. When the rich crazy lady who kidnapped the singer who she thought was the husband who died and brought him to her own private deserted island and kept him there as a prisoner and kept him naked so (in her mind) he couldn’t leave her realized the cops had found her and were going to rescue the guy, she made sure he would not go outside by cutting off his skin Stephen King is a fan of McBain’s and I think he subconsciously copied many of these ideas in _Misery_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-unexpected-out-of-left-field-literary-endings/576668.md?page=3)