Do you like happy book endings? ​

Growing up, I couldn’t fathom anything beyond a happy ending. I didn’t want to read a book that left me hanging or had me feeling sad. I remember the dread of getting to a certain point in the book, like looking at the time left on a movie, and realizing they couldn’t wrap the plot up satisfactorily in the time remaining.

Note that I said ‘satisfactorily.’ 
 
I have had a few books (Fire with Fire by Charles  E Gannon was one of those!) where I got that feeling (they can’t make it!!) and they did make it… but it was hurried and ended up being jarring. It can feel like a Scooby Doo episode where they catch the monster, and Velma then explains the mysteries. That works for a 20-minute TV show, but it’s not as fulfilling for a novel. I was already invested in reading the whole book! I feel cheated when they cram all the things they never explained into a monologue from a bit character. Feels like cheating.
 
On the opposite end, we have books that don’t finish. I’m not talking about leaving a thread or two open, but rather the entire thing. The "To be Continued" shock! I much prefer series’ with books that are complete by themselves but have a longer/larger plot that spans the series, however long. But I do want to know there’s an end. While I like many of the Dresden Files books, I’m getting tired of the bogeyman ‘Black Council’ figure that has been woven in since book 2 Fool Moon. He does slowly reveal more of it… but twenty books is a long time to wait! 
 
I realized that my first draft of book 2 (Celebrant) in the Son of No Man series had this issue. It wasn’t complete, it was just another step in the larger arc of founding Espar. But I’d done the thing I hated; left all the threads open! It took another draft to fix that, pulling together one of the subplots so it could be completed in that book alone. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say it ends in fire!
 
But even when I finish a series (or the standalones like “Dragon’s Voice”) I didn’t like the “wrapped up like a present” endings. Too Scooby Doo! What I default to is the bittersweet ending. Happy middle ground!
 
While I will wrap up my novels, maybe leaving a thread open for sequels, I tend to have a ‘yes… but’ ending. Yes, they defeated the demon. But the magic has still been hunted to near-extinction. Yes, they have founded the kingdom, but Tohmas’ mind is being destroyed. Or, in the case of a book not yet published: Yes, they won the day and fell into each others’ arms, but they didn’t find the cure.
 
Not perfect and pretty. Will that turn some people off? Probably. I don’t write perfect happy endings it seems. I get close but my need to make it ‘realistic’  (quotes are because I’m still writing fantasy!) still wins out!
 
What kind of ending do you prefer?

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