Ending on a Depressing Note (YA)

thebloodfiend

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I read this thread from two years back and I've been wondering -- how depressing is too depressing for a novel to end without it seeming soap-opera-ish? I don't want it to seem unfinished or over-dramatic.

What contemporary novels end on a downbeat? And I'm not talking bittersweet. I mean really, really depressing endings with almost no hope in sight. I know Living Dead Girl, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
 

eventidepress

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Well, I know two with depressing endings that did feel soap opera-ish (possibly because they were also a bit too obvious about the "point" they were trying to make, rather than telling a story that felt realistic):

Naughts and Crosses and Forbidden

I did like the ending to Living Dead Girl, even though it was sad...
 

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Ha, I knew it was going to be my thread.
 

thebloodfiend

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Well, I know two with depressing endings that did feel soap opera-ish (possibly because they were also a bit too obvious about the "point" they were trying to make, rather than telling a story that felt realistic):

Naughts and Crosses and Forbidden

I did like the ending to Living Dead Girl, even though it was sad...

I liked Living Dead Girl, too. I didn't care so much for Forbidden. Without spoiling it, I'll just say that it was kind of predictable and over-romanticized. I have not heard of
Naughts and Crosses, though.

Would you say it's the way those endings are written that makes them seem soap-opera-ish or the content within them?
 

GingerGunlock

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Thirteen Reasons Why was kind of a downer the whole way through (though I'm a bad person and can't remember the ending).

Wow. I apparently read few contemporary novels, because I can only think of The Stranger and Rebecca. Hmm.
 

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I think for 13RW, the hope lies with the male MC. That he grows from the experience and if faced with similar choices makes better decisions.

(Also, I wish I could tell you I got an agent with my hopeless ending asked about in the previous thread, although an agent reading it now requested after getting the synopsis including the original ending, which I ended up changing)
 

eventidepress

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I liked Living Dead Girl, too. I didn't care so much for Forbidden. Without spoiling it, I'll just say that it was kind of predictable and over-romanticized. I have not heard of
Naughts and Crosses, though.

Would you say it's the way those endings are written that makes them seem soap-opera-ish or the content within them?

Definitely the way they were written. I feel like those endings could have had a really strong impact, if the content leading up to them hadn't made the ends predictable and over-dramatized...
 

missesdash

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DEAD END by Jason Myers is pretty fucking depressing. It had a really strong romance at it's core so instead of seeing melodramatic, it just felt really tragic.
 

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I think stories that do not have a happy ending are a nice change in what you automatically expect to see going into a story. Not having a picture perfect ending makes it more realistic too.
 

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The Hunger Games trilogy isn't exactly uplifting. Think about who dies and how well the MC gets through the whole thing. Sure, she throws you a bone at the end of the third book, but...yeah. Wasn't enough to make give me the warm-fuzzies.

I don't think downer ending are necessarily soap-operish. A lot of European movies end on a down note, or are dark throughout. I think the important think is that what happens all fits the story, and isn't just a ploy to make readers cry.
 

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I thought "The Fault in Our Stars" had a pretty down ending without being soap opera-y. It was poignant and sad and didn't have much hope that I could see, but fit the tone of the book.

Personally, I recently realized I don't write happy endings. Not that they're sad either, but I apparently don't like for the guy to get the girl or everything to turn up roses. I keeps it real, yo.
 

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Heart of Darkness, Lolita, Virgin Suicides, everything I've read by Kafka...
 

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I don't think you should force a happy or bittersweet ending on your characters if it doesn't fit the story.

I grew up reading Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine, which were YA paranormal authors. Both authors had a habit of ending the books without happy endings but they were bestsellers.

So, do whatever ending your novel requires rather than what you think will make selling your novel easier.
 

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Several agents told me last year (the year before? Whenever that thread that's linked to in the OP happened) that YA novels don't need to end happy, but need to have some element of hope. Does that mean that one without it will be completely unsaleable? As always the answer is no. It just means that you're fighting even harder to get it pubbed (as is. Don't forget, you may just be told that to get it pubbed, you need a different ending and then it's up to you to decide whether you'll do that or not).
 

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I think there has to be some element of hope or at least ambiguity. No matter how small. For example, Noughts & Crosses is pretty awful/depressing - the love interest dies, Romeo & Juliet style, corruption is still rife in their country, the system is still totally messed-up - but there is one small hope or at least potential for hope (the main character's newborn daughter), which I think is more important than "hope." I know that there has been a new trend for depressing or very 'bitter' bittersweet endings and, even though I am an advocate of realistic/honest endings, that trend has bugged me a little. There's 'honest', and then there's leaving things so open that the book feels so unfinished. If you carry the protaganist(s) journey naturally through to the end, I think that however you choose to end it should be fine. Even if that means a completely depressing ending. I think the problem with completely depressing endings is that often they feel quite calculated, like the author has taken a typical nosedive. For instance, I'm thinking of one ending which was bittersweet which I thought could have got away with a more depressing ending (SOME GIRLS ARE by Courtney Summers).
 

thebloodfiend

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There's 'honest', and then there's leaving things so open that the book feels so unfinished.

That's what I'm kind of worried about because the MS in question does end kind of ambiguously, but there's no sequel. At least, from the MC's POV there isn't.

I guess you could say I have a bit of hope in my ending, but I don't know if it's enough. It's quite a downer, but it leaves the possibility that the MC might pull himself together.

I will be checking this book "DEAD END by Jason Myers" out. Sounds like my kind of thing. And thanks for your responses, guys. I didn't even know agents would suggest alt endings if they wanted to rep your MS.
 

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Depressing endings only appear soap opera-ish when there is no need for them to be depressing.

For instance, if everything turns out fine and the MC 'wins' as it were, and then a supporting character dies for no reason, just to give depth or something, that really bothers me. It bothers me in films, too. It's just emotional porn.

However if it had been a situation where all the previous events could only have led to a character's death, and it was clear to the reader that the character had to die, then it's understandable and therefore likely to strike a chord with the readers. I don't think its ever a bad thing to have a depressing ending if that is what the story calls for.

Again, mentioning noughts and crosses, the environment in which the main two character's existed was such that it would have seemed an unlikely ending and a little too fairytale if the story had ended happily. It didn't feel soap opera-ish, it felt like reality.
 

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Okay, okay, it's not contemporary. But seriously, have you read Mockingjay?

Biggest Debbie Effing Downer pretty much ever.
 

Dagrami

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Okay, okay, it's not contemporary. But seriously, have you read Mockingjay?

Biggest Debbie Effing Downer pretty much ever.

Don't read much contemporary myself, but I definitely agree about Mockingjay's ending. It's not really hopeful at all, even with the epilogue. Took me a whooole day to get over it. Then I decided I loved it.

I know a lot of people weren't so keen, though.
 

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Pick a Jodi Picoult novel. There you go.

:roll:

Her books are always such downers! On the same token, even though it's not really considered YA (I've seen some one the YA shelves, but most aren't), pick a Nicholas Sparks book. Geesh.
 

twright

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Don't read much contemporary myself, but I definitely agree about Mockingjay's ending. It's not really hopeful at all, even with the epilogue. Took me a whooole day to get over it. Then I decided I loved it.

I know a lot of people weren't so keen, though.

The thing that really bothered me about the ending of Mockingjay was that it seemed (at least to me) so obviously manipulative by the author. As though the author said to herself 'Oh, this will make people cry and they won't see this coming, so I'll just kill this person off.'

And as I mentioned on another thread, my first impression was 'the author didn't have any idea how to end the series so she pulled this ending out of her butt' mostly because it felt so slammed together at the end.

It just felt like a very unsatisfying ending to me.