Basically any Cormac McCarthy ending. I love every aspect of his novels other than the ending. They blow. It's really frustrating if your a fan.
Why? Is it the ambiguity? I had a long argument with my roomie over this point, and my position was that the endings are good because the ambiguity works, and his position is that ambiguity is never a viable artistic choice for an ending. I've only read The Road and No Country For Old Men by McCarthy, but I think their themes are similar and the endings work very well.
Yes, that had to be one of the Worst Endings Ever. I haev a love/hate relationship with Koontz. His books are so easy to read I often pick them up when I'm on holiday (most backpackers etc will have at least one Koontz novel on their shelf) and often end up feeling perplexed and disappointed. Except in Watchers. Best Koontz novel to date ^^
I haven't read any other Ellen Hopkins books so I can't speak for any more than Impulse but I personally didn't think the end was horrible. It was incredibly depressing and not at all how I hoped it to end, but it wasn't bad. Well in my opinion anyway The book that comes to mind right now is actually the book I just finished, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. It's not a horrible horrible ending, but its disappointing. The whole book is this terrible struggle for love, and dreams, and survival, and the truth, that's really gripping and leads you to expect some climatic ending that's either truly truly tragic, or wonderfully bittersweet. However she ends it with this weird inbetween thing that leaves the characters and readers questioning if the whole story/struggle was even worth it while making half of the charcters look bad in the process...a very disappointing end in my opinion...I have yet to decide if I'm going to read the companion.
I didn't like the ending for the Twilight books either. As much as I protested I was sucked into them, but the last book was just irritating. I think if she had died it would have made for a better story. Edward would surely have killed himself, giving it a Romeo and Juliet-ish feel. It was just too glittery... like Edward. And creepy, was I the only one who read the part with Jacob and the kid and thought wtf? eeww!
Ok, I won't mention Alexander McCall Smith's "The Sunday Philosophy Club" then. Oops, too late. Although a whodunnit in which the denouement is physically impossible and contradicts the facts we've been given is a bit of a downer. Which leads me to Ngaio Marsh's "A man lay dead", which I did enjoy reading but the denouement was plain silly, more suited to a comedy whodunnit like Jonathan Creek.
