Last night I was reading a romantic suspense novel. The main female character was dating a male character who I couldn’t stand. I suspected that he would turn out to be the bad guy. I didn’t care one way or another. What worried me was that she might fall in love with him, or start a long-term relationship with him. I didn’t want to read that story, so I flipped to the end of the book and read the last few pages, just to be sure that it wasn’t.
I do that often. Any time the plot of a story threatens to go in a direction I don’t want, I look at the ending. I don’t want to waste my time reading books that will piss me off. I’d rather know the ending so that I can bail, if necessary, before I get too invested. Knowing the ending rarely seems to affect my enjoyment of the story. I can still enjoy the journey even though I know the destination.
Do you ever skip to the end of a book to make sure you’re going to like the ending?
We’ve probably talked about this, so you won’t be surprised that the answer is almost never. I do occasionally flip to the end to confirm guesses if I’ve decided to cut bait on a book, but even that’s rare.
In all our years of chitchats about reading, it would be very strange if we had never talked about this! But I couldn’t remember if you were a “cheater” like me or not 🙂 If I bail on a book, I almost always either read the ending or find a plot synopsis online. I also read plot synopses to decide if I want to continue with a series that I’m feeling so-so about.