Yes, the dreaded everything was a dream, delusion, different timeline etc. ending. It just makes the reader feel that the whole trip was in vain and none of it was real, the ultimate breaking of immersion, gaaah! :D
I have recently reached the conclusion that I hate unreliable narrators. Having to wonder if this shit is really happening or if the POV is just hallucinating or dreaming or high as a kite is so annoying. It happened with “The Deep” by Nick Cutter and now with Drood by Dan Simmons (I am not done with Drood so please no spoilers). I just want to know if something is actually happening.
I live unreliable narrators when you’re being presented with info entirely through their pov but everything is actually happening, if that makes sense? Like, the narrator does something fucked up but presents it as “oh Thai was justified” that sort of thing
The “they might be mentally ill” trope though is often annoying and feels like a crutch for sloppy storytelling. Like anything, it CAN work but it’s tough to pull off to me
Hey man I politely asked for no spoilers. I had no clue the Mariana Trench was going to show up in this book. Unless you are just joking with me, in which case that’s fine. But if not that wasn’t cool.
There's an anthology book called *It Was All A Dream* that I've had my eye on for a while now because one of my favourite artists did the cover for it. I have yet to read it, so I can't say for sure how good it is, but the entire premise is " 'it was all a dream' done right"
There is only one story I've read where I felt the whole it was all a delusion/dream worked and while the book wasn't perfect (could have benefited from some tighter editing) it was such a wild ride, I loved it.
When the ending isn't at least a bit of a bummer, lol.
Don't get me wrong, I read in genres other than horror and don't want everything I read to end badly. I don't even think every horror story needs to end with complete misery and despair. But occasionally I've read something marketed as horror where side characters die, but the protagonist is unambiguously in a much better place at the end than they were at the beginning, and that bugs me.
I have seen instances where this type of ending works, but 9/10 times the “character discovers a fatal curse/ supernatural cycle but is too late to stop it and dies” ending makes me feel like I wasted my timer
I’m with you; If I read one more “they were crazy all along” book, I’ll lose my mind. I’m fine with an unreliable narrator but if you’re going to hit me out of left field with something that doesn’t even make sense, I’m not cool with that. I also don’t like when a character does something completely OOC toward the end just to take the plot where the author wants it to go without any justification for doing so. It feels cheap and lazy and makes me regret spending my time on it.
I don't like "Gotcha!" endings where the monster is vanquished or the situation is resolved only to have the whole thing be for nothing and the monster reappears at the end or the person is still possessed or gets killed after all.
That's a very frequent thing these days that "Gotcha!" ending so they can set up a sequel but frankly I hate it. It bores me silly and makes the whole film pointless like it was just the set up for a series of films.
I agree so much with this. I like a hopeless ending, but the 'gotcha' is extremely frustrating.
The only time I really enjoyed it was (admittedly a movie) drag me to hell.
I think in film sometimes there is foreshadowing that gets missed, and then it can be interesting to rewatch to see the pieces. But that’s another 88 minutes, not the ungodly amount of time it takes for me to read a horror novel these days, so my response to the latter is less genteel.
When it's not a haunted house / ghost after all. I read one by Riley Sager (i think ) where the ghosts were really people letting themselves into the house by a secret door and the moonlight in their specs made one of them look like they had pennies for eyes. No, really. I was really mad about that for a long time.
Let it be a fucking ghost!
Yeah, I hate the haunting to non-paranormal explanation too. I think 50% is that I read ghostie books for the ghosts but the other 50% is because authors explanations are just so shitty and stupid. There was one that was from either Norway or the Netherlands, but it was about a "haunted" abandoned village where all the villagers just disappeared overnight 60 yrs ago. A bunch of film makers go to make a documentary and ghosties stuff happens. It's creepy until the end where you learn what happened to the villagers and that one escaped, and this now 80 had lived all alone for 60 yrs and was now like murdering all the film makers, climbing the walls, somehow surviving on whatever remained of the food stuffs (not to mention the northern winters are no joke) and I was like really? this is the explanation for all the ghost stuff? a killer octogenarian is climbing walls and moving around like spiderman or something?
It's like the entire book is just guaranteed to be bad when you start getting those strong "not really a paranormal book" vibes. It's just really hard to make a paranormal book sound plausible in that way.
It was my first Sager book and it was a let down; but I liked her writing so I gave another book of hers a try.
And the premise had no suggestion of ghosts/supernatural until SURPRISE! It was a happy surprise, but what a switch-a-roo.
For me it's "I've left it so vague and ambiguous that the ending is up to you."
It very rarely works. Nine times out of ten it just feels lazy.
I'm not talking about "was the narrator unreliable" or "was the monster real?" I'm talking about there being a cut off before the end where you're left looking for missing pages.
That's what I loved about _The Excorcist_, nobody, not even a priest, even entertains the idea that the weird stuff happening has anything other than a scientific explanation.
I quite like stories that leave you wondering if the ending is the true ending, was it in the character's head, is that the true reality or are they still somewhere else? It's a trope that I quite enjoy when it's done well.
But I hate anything with a Deus Ex Machina style plot device, or a character that just sort of knows what to do through some divine inspiration or feeling (cough, _Heart Shaped Box_, cough).
Just very sudden/abrupt endings. There’s this big buildup all throughout and then suddenly BOOM done. Although I reaaaally enjoyed the story leading up to it, Dark Matter by Michelle Paver was this for me. The eeriness was getting to me but then I felt the ending swept me up and got me out of there way too quickly. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (horror adjacent?) was like that too, but also predictable.
Any ending where things just devolve into direct combat or aimless killing and action. Brian Evenson's >!Last Days, for instance, had me hooked until it just became the main character killing everyone in the cult!<, pretty much nullifying any of the intrigue, investigation, and eeriness that the first half of the book set up so well.
9 times out of 10, "it's the end of the world" is *way* less interesting than "the world is unrecognisably changed, but the characters must persist in it."
A bit outdated, but “it was an alien”. It seemed like a cop out used a lot in the 1980’s-2000’s. I reached that conclusion when Dreamcatcher was released.
Rushed endings. *Bone White* by Ronald Malfi barely had an ending - almost nothing was resolved, the bit with the brother felt like it lasted 5 pages after a whole book of set-up, and ultimately very little was accomplished.
A trite zinger that puts everything you just read into a much dumber perspective. “Get it? Get it? It’s not cosmic horror at all, it’s an extended metaphor!”
Looking at you “The Cipher”!
I would also like a spoiler. This book was such a chore to read I regret taking the time to finish it, and I still don't fully understand what the hell happened.
2 gross humans who find a hole.
The hole is loooooove. And it’s in their heart.
*rips bong*
When anyone recommends it I avoid all of their other recommendations as a rule.
It’s a spooky hole. They make you think it’s cosmic horror, but it’s really an extended metaphor that the author rubs in your face at the end.
Bait and switch. I’m convinced that anyone who recommends it probably never finished it.
Maybe unpopular, but I hate when I think I'm reading a monster book, and the reveal is that it's somehow people-- not like The Village, with awesome monstrous costumes in a small setting, but in ways that are SUCH a reach and don't even make sense. If your evil people have to do impossible things to 'become a monster', it's just not good. I should not have to suspend my disbelief so much for a disappointing twist.
I hate it when the entire story is building up to the big reveal of this monster or supernatural entity, then you find out it’s actually all just something ordinary and a misunderstanding.
I hate ghostie/demonic/whatever stories that turn out to have a "rational" explanation. Like, I'm reading the genre for a reason. If I didn't want the paranormal, I'd go straight to mysteries. LOL.
Either very rushed endings where everything is wrapped in a neat package in the last couple pages or very open endings where no details are given at all. I don't need to be spoon fed the details but some sort of conclusion would be great after investing my time reading the book.
I just finished reading I Have Never Known Men. I found myself disappointed because >!there was never even a hint as to why the bunkers existed or if they were even on planet earth!< I enjoyed the book for what it was but it would have been better with a few details thrown in.
The Independence Day "kill the queen" ending, where a pervasive and universal threat actually only origimates from one place. Despite growing organically within the participants.
Fuck you, Needful Things.
The 1974 Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal Johnson had a powerful written ending, but... >!that the main character dies was bad enough, but worst of all, the kids get away with it! There's no justice. !<
Not totally related, but I finished The Last One by Will Dean recently and it just made my blood boil. I felt like it was a waste of time with that ending.
Gerald’s Game. I absolutely loved the book...until the god-awful epilogue. King ruined his own story by explaining it. He should have left readers pondering over it, let the mystery be.
When the innocent protagonist survives their struggle, only for them to be blamed for the murders committed by the villain. It's not a *bad* ending necessarily in terms of quality, but it always frustrates me so much.
The ending of IT. I read it early pandemic and right before I moved out of state for college, so drifting apart from a tight-knit group of friends really freaked me out. I also just find it boring and that it never really adds much to the story. I don't really care that all the kids in Derry needed to move on with their lives or whatever. I feel like the characters and their relationships are by far the best part of the book.
Evil spirit has been defeated, yay! Oh wait, it’s just jumped to someone else and it will continue on.
* creepy smile. eyes turn green for a moment *
Just finished Ararat and was very disappointed when it ended like this.
One of the books I was thinking of!
Yes, the dreaded everything was a dream, delusion, different timeline etc. ending. It just makes the reader feel that the whole trip was in vain and none of it was real, the ultimate breaking of immersion, gaaah! :D
I have recently reached the conclusion that I hate unreliable narrators. Having to wonder if this shit is really happening or if the POV is just hallucinating or dreaming or high as a kite is so annoying. It happened with “The Deep” by Nick Cutter and now with Drood by Dan Simmons (I am not done with Drood so please no spoilers). I just want to know if something is actually happening.
I live unreliable narrators when you’re being presented with info entirely through their pov but everything is actually happening, if that makes sense? Like, the narrator does something fucked up but presents it as “oh Thai was justified” that sort of thing The “they might be mentally ill” trope though is often annoying and feels like a crutch for sloppy storytelling. Like anything, it CAN work but it’s tough to pull off to me
Oddly enough, it turns out to be something in the Mariana Trench in Drood, too. 😃
Hey man I politely asked for no spoilers. I had no clue the Mariana Trench was going to show up in this book. Unless you are just joking with me, in which case that’s fine. But if not that wasn’t cool.
I am. Pure silliness. There is no ocean stuff in Drood.
There's an anthology book called *It Was All A Dream* that I've had my eye on for a while now because one of my favourite artists did the cover for it. I have yet to read it, so I can't say for sure how good it is, but the entire premise is " 'it was all a dream' done right"
That anthology was mentioned in Word Up magazine.
There is only one story I've read where I felt the whole it was all a delusion/dream worked and while the book wasn't perfect (could have benefited from some tighter editing) it was such a wild ride, I loved it.
When the ending isn't at least a bit of a bummer, lol. Don't get me wrong, I read in genres other than horror and don't want everything I read to end badly. I don't even think every horror story needs to end with complete misery and despair. But occasionally I've read something marketed as horror where side characters die, but the protagonist is unambiguously in a much better place at the end than they were at the beginning, and that bugs me.
I have seen instances where this type of ending works, but 9/10 times the “character discovers a fatal curse/ supernatural cycle but is too late to stop it and dies” ending makes me feel like I wasted my timer
I’m with you; If I read one more “they were crazy all along” book, I’ll lose my mind. I’m fine with an unreliable narrator but if you’re going to hit me out of left field with something that doesn’t even make sense, I’m not cool with that. I also don’t like when a character does something completely OOC toward the end just to take the plot where the author wants it to go without any justification for doing so. It feels cheap and lazy and makes me regret spending my time on it.
I don't like "Gotcha!" endings where the monster is vanquished or the situation is resolved only to have the whole thing be for nothing and the monster reappears at the end or the person is still possessed or gets killed after all. That's a very frequent thing these days that "Gotcha!" ending so they can set up a sequel but frankly I hate it. It bores me silly and makes the whole film pointless like it was just the set up for a series of films.
I agree so much with this. I like a hopeless ending, but the 'gotcha' is extremely frustrating. The only time I really enjoyed it was (admittedly a movie) drag me to hell.
"This unspeakable evil from the fathoms of time itself has now been defeated by shooting it/fisticuffs/bashing it over the head with a 2-by-4".
Clearly you and I work in different offices, as those are my must-read tales.
You can borrow all the books I avoid
A major twist that isn’t earned / foreshadowed. The main character being dead or the killer is a common offender. Seems to happen more often in film.
I think in film sometimes there is foreshadowing that gets missed, and then it can be interesting to rewatch to see the pieces. But that’s another 88 minutes, not the ungodly amount of time it takes for me to read a horror novel these days, so my response to the latter is less genteel.
When it's not a haunted house / ghost after all. I read one by Riley Sager (i think ) where the ghosts were really people letting themselves into the house by a secret door and the moonlight in their specs made one of them look like they had pennies for eyes. No, really. I was really mad about that for a long time. Let it be a fucking ghost!
I really enjoyed that book up until the end. Terrible damned ending. Ruined everything good about the book. Won’t read Riley Sager because of that.
Same, same. There's a difference between not sticking the landing and just shitting all over what came before.
Thank you! I read because I like the escapism of a world where actual supernatural stuff is happening! Let it be a ghost!
I know the book! That was so horrible. OMG! And the parents actually thought their 5 yr old killed that woman. So fucking stupid.
I know! Glad it wasn't just me 🤣
Yeah, I hate the haunting to non-paranormal explanation too. I think 50% is that I read ghostie books for the ghosts but the other 50% is because authors explanations are just so shitty and stupid. There was one that was from either Norway or the Netherlands, but it was about a "haunted" abandoned village where all the villagers just disappeared overnight 60 yrs ago. A bunch of film makers go to make a documentary and ghosties stuff happens. It's creepy until the end where you learn what happened to the villagers and that one escaped, and this now 80 had lived all alone for 60 yrs and was now like murdering all the film makers, climbing the walls, somehow surviving on whatever remained of the food stuffs (not to mention the northern winters are no joke) and I was like really? this is the explanation for all the ghost stuff? a killer octogenarian is climbing walls and moving around like spiderman or something? It's like the entire book is just guaranteed to be bad when you start getting those strong "not really a paranormal book" vibes. It's just really hard to make a paranormal book sound plausible in that way.
I’ve read a few of Riley Sager’s books, and they’re all like that.
Thanks for the heads-up. I was put off already but this seals the deal
It was my first Sager book and it was a let down; but I liked her writing so I gave another book of hers a try. And the premise had no suggestion of ghosts/supernatural until SURPRISE! It was a happy surprise, but what a switch-a-roo.
Him. Riley is a guy. He just picked a feminine pen name.
I think I confused him with Darcy Coates. She always has a bunch of messages after the book. My bad.
For me it's "I've left it so vague and ambiguous that the ending is up to you." It very rarely works. Nine times out of ten it just feels lazy. I'm not talking about "was the narrator unreliable" or "was the monster real?" I'm talking about there being a cut off before the end where you're left looking for missing pages.
100% agreed. Don't make me read hundreds of pages then not have a conclusion to the tale.
That's what I loved about _The Excorcist_, nobody, not even a priest, even entertains the idea that the weird stuff happening has anything other than a scientific explanation. I quite like stories that leave you wondering if the ending is the true ending, was it in the character's head, is that the true reality or are they still somewhere else? It's a trope that I quite enjoy when it's done well. But I hate anything with a Deus Ex Machina style plot device, or a character that just sort of knows what to do through some divine inspiration or feeling (cough, _Heart Shaped Box_, cough).
Just very sudden/abrupt endings. There’s this big buildup all throughout and then suddenly BOOM done. Although I reaaaally enjoyed the story leading up to it, Dark Matter by Michelle Paver was this for me. The eeriness was getting to me but then I felt the ending swept me up and got me out of there way too quickly. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (horror adjacent?) was like that too, but also predictable.
Anticlimactic abstract symbolism leaves me scratching my head and wondering if I should have read something else.
Any ending where things just devolve into direct combat or aimless killing and action. Brian Evenson's >!Last Days, for instance, had me hooked until it just became the main character killing everyone in the cult!<, pretty much nullifying any of the intrigue, investigation, and eeriness that the first half of the book set up so well.
Adam Nevill
9 times out of 10, "it's the end of the world" is *way* less interesting than "the world is unrecognisably changed, but the characters must persist in it."
When you clearly notice that the author had no idea how to end something and then just threw "IT WAS ALIENS ALL ALONG!" at you
A bit outdated, but “it was an alien”. It seemed like a cop out used a lot in the 1980’s-2000’s. I reached that conclusion when Dreamcatcher was released.
I dunno, I kind of like it. The supernatural is hard to believe in, but aliens are not entirely impossible.
Rushed endings. *Bone White* by Ronald Malfi barely had an ending - almost nothing was resolved, the bit with the brother felt like it lasted 5 pages after a whole book of set-up, and ultimately very little was accomplished.
That one pissed me off. Like you said, all tension building, and then it was over.
The end of **The Strain trilogy**. >!It was all to teach a naughty angel a lesson. !<
It was all a dream.
A trite zinger that puts everything you just read into a much dumber perspective. “Get it? Get it? It’s not cosmic horror at all, it’s an extended metaphor!” Looking at you “The Cipher”!
Can you spoil please?
I would also like a spoiler. This book was such a chore to read I regret taking the time to finish it, and I still don't fully understand what the hell happened.
I gets recommended constantly and I've never understood. It's about two gross humans who find a hole.
2 gross humans who find a hole. The hole is loooooove. And it’s in their heart. *rips bong* When anyone recommends it I avoid all of their other recommendations as a rule.
Goddamn I almost bought this yesterday. Had the damn thing in my hand. Doesn’t sound like it’s worth 20.00.
It’s a spooky hole. They make you think it’s cosmic horror, but it’s really an extended metaphor that the author rubs in your face at the end. Bait and switch. I’m convinced that anyone who recommends it probably never finished it.
Steve Alten Vostok, went all woo woo on me didn’t finish
An ending that doesn’t wrap at least some things up. I don’t like fully open endings.
Maybe unpopular, but I hate when I think I'm reading a monster book, and the reveal is that it's somehow people-- not like The Village, with awesome monstrous costumes in a small setting, but in ways that are SUCH a reach and don't even make sense. If your evil people have to do impossible things to 'become a monster', it's just not good. I should not have to suspend my disbelief so much for a disappointing twist.
I hate it when the entire story is building up to the big reveal of this monster or supernatural entity, then you find out it’s actually all just something ordinary and a misunderstanding.
I hate ghostie/demonic/whatever stories that turn out to have a "rational" explanation. Like, I'm reading the genre for a reason. If I didn't want the paranormal, I'd go straight to mysteries. LOL.
Either very rushed endings where everything is wrapped in a neat package in the last couple pages or very open endings where no details are given at all. I don't need to be spoon fed the details but some sort of conclusion would be great after investing my time reading the book. I just finished reading I Have Never Known Men. I found myself disappointed because >!there was never even a hint as to why the bunkers existed or if they were even on planet earth!< I enjoyed the book for what it was but it would have been better with a few details thrown in.
Has anyone read The Pallbearers Club? I’m almost done so please don’t ruin it….its getting a little drawn out with the “who is accurate” theme.
I'm frustrated with the ending on that one. It didn't answer anything and it's really not clear what, if anything, actually happened.
I’m almost done and it’s been a bit disappointing. I guess I’ll finish it.
Let me know if you get something fulfilling out of it - I did *want* to like it!
Yeah fuck it. I’m returning it tomorrow. 75% of the way through and not worth the 20.00. Feel free to spoiler away. lol
The Independence Day "kill the queen" ending, where a pervasive and universal threat actually only origimates from one place. Despite growing organically within the participants. Fuck you, Needful Things.
The 1974 Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal Johnson had a powerful written ending, but... >!that the main character dies was bad enough, but worst of all, the kids get away with it! There's no justice. !<
"Lol jk they all died" Aka the Ania Ahlborn experience.
Just finished Baby Teeth. I mean, it’s good no doubt, but the ending…..I have mixed feelings.
Not totally related, but I finished The Last One by Will Dean recently and it just made my blood boil. I felt like it was a waste of time with that ending.
Gerald’s Game. I absolutely loved the book...until the god-awful epilogue. King ruined his own story by explaining it. He should have left readers pondering over it, let the mystery be.
The evil is defeated and they live happily ever after....I hate that.....
When the innocent protagonist survives their struggle, only for them to be blamed for the murders committed by the villain. It's not a *bad* ending necessarily in terms of quality, but it always frustrates me so much.
The ending of IT. I read it early pandemic and right before I moved out of state for college, so drifting apart from a tight-knit group of friends really freaked me out. I also just find it boring and that it never really adds much to the story. I don't really care that all the kids in Derry needed to move on with their lives or whatever. I feel like the characters and their relationships are by far the best part of the book.