Spoiler Warning for Delirium by Lauren Oliver. If you haven't read it, really, really, don't. If you have...
I read books for exactly one reason: To get to the end. My favorite sentence of a book is the last, without a doubt. It is what makes me scream or cry or smile or -- as with Delirium -- throw a book into the fire.
I have my ending preferences, of course. I will admit I'm a sucker for happy endings, but I'll gladly accept a sad one – as long as it's the RIGHT one. In Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands And Teeth, the ending damn near broke my heart, and yet it was truly the right ending. I accepted it and moved on.
But after Delirium, I cannot simply move on.
If you have not read Delirium (and again I say don't, but MAJOR, ENDING spoiler warning nevertheless) the basic plot is boy-meets-girl, they fall in love, boy dies and girl is left on her own. Tragic, potentially moving, certainly heartbreaking.
But, above all else, completely wrong. It was not supported by the characters, it was not supported by the world built up to that point, and it was not even supported by the plot itself. There are sad endings that are completely supported by the story that prefaces them. They shock you, they wreck you, they can leave you in tears – but they are always right. And then there are stories in which the sad ending is not merely tragic, but a complete betrayal of the characters, the story, and the reader's trust in the author to stay faithful to all of it.
Such a story is Delirium.
When I begin reading a novel – any novel – I am putting a kind of trust in the author's hands. I am giving up my money, my time, and my emotional investment. In return, I expect to be treated honorably. I expect to be given an ending that remains true to the spirit of the story and the characters. I don't like to predict the plot of my endings, but I do expect to be able to feel them before the story concludes. I can feel them because it's where the story is leading me. I create an emotional preparation for the end, and I trust the author to bring me there.
When that ending is taken from me, I must have a reason. I am shocked and my experience of the 3-4 hours I put into that book is based entirely on the ending. So if the ending is shocking, it better be shocking for something more than just shock value. I'm all for artistic freedom. Sometimes that means shock.
But if the ending is not resonant with the rest of the book, it's usually only shocking for one reason: the author is selling out. They are selling out themselves, their readers, and ultimately their artistic integrity for the sake of “literary value” or being a “serious” book. Or worse, they tack on a happy ending to “appeal to [insert choice of a) women b) teens c) children]”. And this doesn't work.
It destroys the story. It destroys the characters. And it destroys my experience of reading the book.
The price? For me, books being thrown across rooms. If an author writes a book I simply do not like, I will give them another chance. I will not speak badly of them or their book unless asked my opinion directly - karma, and all that. But after betrayal? I will never pick up another book by Lauren Oliver again. She has broken the trust I put in her an an author, and that can never be repaired.
(More to the point, I think she's a wicked woman for doing that. I mean, really?)
