Have you ever read a book that after finishing it, you wished you could rewrite the ending? I have. More times than I can count. I’ve often wondered if this is because I’m a writer or if this is something that happens to a lot of people when they read books.
Take the Wren series by Sherwood Smith for instance. I loved this fabulous series when I was younger, but I always felt that Wren and Prince Conner would have been a perfect match. I read the whole series just waiting for the moment when they would finally “discover” each other. It never happened, and I was left feeling just a little bit cheated because of it. Still loved the series though.
Then there was the Emily of New Moon series--my absolute favorite series of books when I was young. However, you wait so long through that series to see Teddy and Emily fall in love and get together that when they finally do--the story ends so fast you don't even get to see the wedding. Come on, we readers should at least get the pay off of attending the wedding and basking in the glow for one chapter! After all, Teddy had put so much time and effort into his engagement with Ilse before it was broken, he should have done even more for Emily, his true love. Am I right? What can I say, I'm a die hard, hopeless romantic.
The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts was another book I loved growing up. I wanted that book to have a sequel so bad, as a kid, I could almost taste it. What happened to the four kids after they went away to school to learn how to use their powers? What adventures did the four of them have growing up together? The world will never know.
So what about all of you? What are the books you wish had ended differently? How would you have liked them to end instead? I want to hear all about it in comments.
3 comments:
I can't think of books that I have read off hand that I wanted to change the ending, though I do know they exist, but the first thing I thought of was the movie production of The Sound Of Music. Year after year I would watch that movie during Easter break and go to bed wishing that Rolf had seen the error of his ways and apologized to Liesl. I wanted him to find her and tell her that he would follow her anywhere. After all, she was 16 going on 17 and needed someone who was 17 going on 18 to care for her. Sigh.
Oh, this happens to me all the time. I agree with the Wren series. I also wanted House of the Scorpion to end differently (I wanted him to die - it would have been the perfect ironic ending). I wanted Harry Potter to die...
Basically I k eep being fatalistic, I guess.
It's not so much that I would have changed the ending, but the epilogue of Harry Potter 7 was completely unnecessary in my opinion--I would have simply cut it. As for other books, I've never really thought about different endings. Now that this post is in my mind I'll probably start going through books in my mind and thinking about it though!
Post a Comment