Discussion posts are some of my favourite posts to read. New ideas get shared that way, or old ideas are revisited and given a new spin. And of course, I get to be my opinionated self as I hoist my views upon others, while pretending to be objective. Or maybe not. I do welcome alternate views and I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Books without resolution seem to drive many readers up the wall. What happens in the end? is not a question many desire to ask after they have read the concluding sentence. Yet there is such realism in open endings that I have come to appreciate. Open endings don’t mean to me that there is no resolution. They mean that some aspects are left open to interpretation for readers, and I think that that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Take the endings of the following three books. Although, if you have not read them but intend to, beware of spoilers. You can still follow my argument without those examples.
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[toggle title=”THE VOW by Jessica Martinez”]
Mo and Annie marry, so that Mo can continue to live in the USA while the rest of his family returns to Jordan. After a couple of months they decide they can’t do this anymore. They love each other as best friends do but they are not in love. They take Sam’s (the law student) advice and so Mo self-deports, such that their marriage would be annulled.
The book ends with them at the airport. Mo is leaving for Jordan. All Annie is certain of is that she and Mo love each other but she doesn’t know if they’ll see each other again soon or never again. She is also thankful for their years of friendship, while trying to grapple with the fact that she won’t have Mo around anymore to lean on but that she will need to become more independent.
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[toggle title=”RAW BLUE by Kirsty Eagar”]
Carly is petrified of getting close to guys because she had been raped before. For most of the books, we see how she deals with her estrangement from her family, and her trying to come to terms with her fear of guys and sex. She dropped out of university to surf and works as a cook at a café to support herself.
Then Ryan comes along and she slowly opens up to him, allowing him to see her most vulnerable self. She even admits to him that she was a rape victim, even though she had not told anyone before. The book ends with her accepting that what happened in the past doesn’t need to have a hold on her future. She trusts Ryan and so has overcome her fear. What happens after that, if she goes back to uni or mends her family ties is left unsaid.
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[toggle title=”BURN FOR BURN (Burn for Burn #1) by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian”]
Now, I absolutely hate cliffhangers. For the most part I feel they exist for the sake of it, just readers will pick up the next book. Yet with Burn for Burn, issues pertaining to this particular book were addressed, while still leaving questions that will clearly be answered in the next book.
Kat, Lillia and Mary each seek revenge on someone. They each manage to get their revenge too. In the book it is very clear what they plan, what they do, what the outcomes are and how they feel about it. Lillia feels back for Alex when she realizes that he did not even wrong her. Kat has the satisfaction of seeing Rennie not be crowned homecoming queen. Mary’s target however is left hospitalised, so she is terrified that he will end up dead or paralysed. She also blames herself for ruining their homecoming dance. That is where the book ends.
Sure, Reeve’s state is technically a cliffhanger but I see it more as an open ending. The main parts have been addressed, while the book ends at an appropriate spot to ‘hit pause’ as readers await the next book.
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See, open endings leave some aspects unresolved, thus pointing to a future that lies ahead of a character. This actually helps to make characters come even more alive because that way they are no longer bound to the pages of the book. These characters have possibilities that aren’t open to them if everything already falls neatly into place by the end of the book.
What needs to be resolved are the main issues that a book deals with. If a character is tormented by a particular fear, then readers need to know by the end of the book how the character overcomes that fear. Side notes about their life are of secondary importance. Do they lose their best friend in the process? If said ex-best friend isn’t a central character, then the reasons the friendship failed along the way do not have to be explained. I mean, have you lost a friend before? You didn’t necessarily get to hear their side of the story, why you two couldn’t work things out, did you? Similarly, I do not believe that books need to answer every last question.
Open endings therefore mirror lives. Books present segments of characters’ lives, where those segments make for the best stories. Anything that happens afterwards does not technically belong to that story.
How do you feel about open endings? Do you prefer complete resolutions that address every last detail? Do cliffhangers bother you?
Whilst I think you’re right – that open endings do mirror life in their uncertainty and possibilities – I hate them.
I just need closure for my characters. if one of them is sick, I need to know if they die. If there is an attraction between two characters, I need to know if they end up together. I go into a book to read about a fictional world with a clear beginning, middle, and end. I just cannot handle the “you can decide!”. I CAN’T decide because I didn’t create the characters. I don’t care if I hate the ending, I just WANT an ending!
HAHAHA! I feel like that when it comes to movies. For movies everything’s already fed to me, how the character look like, their mannerisms, their surroundings, friends, etc. Might as well tell me how everything goes doe. But for books, my imagination is much more involved, so I don’t mind thinking of all the possibilities. I do that with my own life anyway because there are so many times that I had a hundred alternative options. And there’s always that What if? which translates extremely well into book for me.
I like open endings occasionally…but I feel like sometimes they can just be done BADLY. Sometimes I’m not sure if I didn’t like the open ending, or I just didn’t like how the open ending was written. There are also definitely times where I specifically want closure to a book/series…but open endings have a time and a place, and I like them every now and then.
Ah, yes. When it comes to series endings, I must have closure. After all these cliffhangers I was subjected to, I refuse to accept an open ending at the end of a series. But for standalones, I usually am alright with them.
I find myself annoyed at first by open endings, but then I often find myself still thinking about them days after finishing the book! I’ve grown to love the frustration because to me, it means I: 1. Cared enough about the story and characters and 2. Want to know what happens to them after the story ‘ends’. And then I get to engage my own imagination in plotting out what I think would happen!
Sadly, I don’t find enough open ended books. I see a few examples here, but would love to find more.
Yes, imagination is good! Provided authors leave us with sufficient material to be able to imagine the possibilities of their future :) If a book merely gets cut off because a school year has just ended or whatever, then I feel like I’m left hanging and that is not a feeling I enjoy.
Hmmm. I’d say all three books Jessica Martinez has published so far have somewhat open endings. You could check out the other two, besides The Vow as well :)
I still hate them and love them at the same time, haha. I get how the author is telling the story of this, not how their lives will play out forever. But then that feeling of lacking just sucks.
Cliffhangers are worse. There’s just this whole sense of lacking that’s even worse than open endings, because open endings can be such an art that makes you think. and then there’s cliffhangers, which is just such the poorest way of creating drama.
Have you read The Lady or The Tiger? By Frank Stockton? It’s a great example of both, because the story ends with such a suspenseful note, but it’s clearly open ended to make the reader think. READ IT.
More often than not, I hate cliffhangers but open endings that wrap up the plot while pointing towards possibilities do leave me smiling. That way the characters don’t die and I feel like their lives continue. Just without me.
Nope, I’ve not read it. Never even heard of it. Looking it up now!
I feel like open endings and cliffhangers are two different things. Cliffhangers lead into the next book, and they can either be done really well or really poorly. An open ending at the end of a stand-alone book or the end of the series… again, I think they can be good or bad depending on how the author approaches it, and depending on the book itself. I don’t need everything to be wrapped up in a bow, but I do need closure. Like you said, the main issue of the book should be resolved. And I think some books lend themselves more to well-done open endings or cliffhangers than others do.
Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from. Though for me, I see cliffhangers as a subset of open endings. Most of the time I hate cliffhangers but I think you’re onto something when you say it can be well done. It does depend on the craftsmanship of the author to make it work.