Story for the Week
Cliffhangers in a television series give me something to look forward to in a new season. Most shows re-air the cliffhanger episode prior to the start of the new season, so it refreshes your memory on how the previous season ended. Cliffhangers in movies…not really appreciated, but again, I can rewatch a movie before the next “episode” comes out (think Avengers: Infinity War leading into Avengers: End Game).
A common question from authors (I’ve seen a lot of this on Twitter and Facebook recently) is whether readers enjoy series or cliffhangers. Series are a maybe. I will venture into a series if I know the author or if the series is complete and I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it, usually something I’ve seen as a movie first (Divergent, The Hunger Games). If the series isn’t complete when I pick up the first book, it must be a stand-alone, or I won’t even start it. A good author weaves in reminders about characters that carry from one book to the next.
Cliffhangers in books? That question gets a resounding “No!”
The most prolific authors release about two books each year. If I finish a book with a cliffhanger ending, I’ll read 20 books or more before I get to the next book. Unlike a television series or a movie where I can rewatch something in an hour or two, I’m not going to reread an entire book before I read the next in a series. Even though I highlight books so I can write the reviews, I write reviews within a week or two. Six months later, I won’t remember the level of detail I need leading up to the cliffhanger, and I am not willing to reread all my highlights like I’m studying for a test. 😉
Worse than a cliffhanger for me? (Yes, there is something worse than a cliffhanger.) A movie or book that leaves a story completely open-ended. 🤨
My brother-in-law Rodolfo is a big fan of movies, and one of his favorites is the Oscar-winning film Lost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. If you’ve never seen it, Murray plays a lonely movie star named Bob, and Johansson plays a newlywed named Charlotte. They randomly meet in Tokyo, both with a lot of time on their hands, and they become friends while exploring Tokyo together.
Then 18-year-old Johansson and 53-year-old Murray play an unlikely pair with great chemistry. No romance, almost a father/adult daughter friendship, I enjoyed watching their meanderings around Tokyo. Bob has been in the city before, and Charlotte experiences it for the first time through his eyes. It was truly amazing.
And then at the end of the movie, they go their separate ways. Sad and bittersweet, it’s a reality of life. We see the pair talking, and then Bob leans in and whispers something in Charlotte’s ear. I asked Rodolfo what he said, and he responded that no one knows. Neither actor has ever told anyone. I was beside myself! 🤣 I needed to know! But he wasn’t kidding. Neither actor even told Sofia Coppola, who directed the film. Rodolfo asked me, “So you didn’t like it?” I literally shouted, “I really liked it…until the end!” I really didn’t like the end. I still don’t like the end.
Just recently, I heard people at work talking about Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts (Amanda), Ethan Hawke (Clay), Mahershala Ali (G.H.), and Myha’la (Ruth). One of my colleagues said it kind of scared the crap out of her thinking it could really happen. So one evening while I was folding laundry waiting for Corinne to come home from a school event, I decided to start it. When she came home 40 minutes later, I gave her a synopsis of what had happened so far, and she decided to watch with me, so I started it over at about 11 p.m. I was that engrossed in the movie.
A brief description: Amanda books a weekend getaway in a remote, upscale rental home for the couple and their two teenage children. Late at night, a well-dressed black man and his daughter knock on the door claiming to be the owners of the house escaping a widespread blackout in the city a couple hours away. Clay is welcoming, but Amanda is suspicious, and G.H. and Ruth’s race is definitely a factor for her despite their formal dress. The power is out, the Internet is out, cell service is out, and G.H.’s only “proof” that he owns the house is the key to the liquor cabinet, which it takes several tries to find on the keyring.
G.H. asks if he and Ruth can stay in the furnished basement and offers a partial refund for their stay. Things are tense. When a strange sonic boom occurs and animals start appearing in droves on the outskirts of the woods over the next several days, things get even more interesting.
I won’t tell you what happens in the rest of the movie because I really did get pulled into it. Some of you might still want to watch it. But Corinne and I both sat in the living room at 1:30 in the morning thinking that was two-and-a-half hours of our lives we wouldn’t get back. It wasn’t a bad ending. It was…not an ending. I have since seen a quote by Rumaan Alam, the author of the book on which the movie is based, and he said that the movie “respects you enough as a viewer” to not provide the answer.
I WANT THE ANSWER!!! 😁
The book reviewed below felt a lot like that. I want my books to have a clear ending. I don’t even require a happy ending. I just need an ending. Otherwise it feels like….
🤐
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for Innocent or Guilty? by A.M. Taylor
330 pages
Publisher: Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter
Publication Date: September 28, 2019
I originally received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher’s Description
Is the right person behind bars?
One morning ten years ago, the town of Twin Rivers changed forever when the body of Tyler Washington was found in the woods. Son of the mayor, star of the high school basketball team—his death struck right at the heart of this tight-knit community.
For Olivia Hall, Tyler’s death heralded the start of her own personal nightmare—her twin brother, Ethan, was arrested for Tyler’s murder. Ten years later, Ethan is still in jail. Olivia is convinced he is innocent, and now, a true crime podcast has taken up his case.
As the podcast digs deeper, secrets, lies and shocking revelations are all uncovered. For the first time, Olivia dares to hope that Ethan may be set free. But if he didn’t kill Tyler, who did? And how far will they go to keep their secrets safe?
************
Told in a “Now/Then” format of alternating chapters, we follow the story of Olivia Hunt and her twin brother Ethan, who she has spent the past 10 years trying to get out of jail where he is serving a sentence for a murder that Olivia is convinced he didn’t commit. The “Now” chapters take us chronologically forward, and the “Then” chapters take us chronologically backward. So we see the “Then” chapters from the conviction back to the murder. It’s an interesting way to see the timeline, and I found it very effective in holding my interest.
I think I suspected almost everyone over the course of the story, including Ethan. As we learn more and more about Tyler’s personality, we realize that everyone had a motive to kill him at some point. The question is just who wanted it the most and why did they want to take down Ethan in the process.
There were some editing issues that were bothersome and a bit of a distraction. At the beginning of the book, everyone’s speech was languorous. That’s not a word you often read once in a book, and this one has it four times in the first 20%. Come up with another adjective. The other thing that really drove me nuts was that the author didn’t seem to like to use the word “sitting.” Instead, there are phrases like “we were sat…” and “Ethan and I are sat…” and “he had been sat…” when it should just be “we were sitting.”
This is definitely worth picking up. What knocked it down to a 4 for me is outlined in the spoiler below.
***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS***
I will say that I briefly suspected the identity of the killer, but the author does a great job of throwing out red herrings. That said, I didn’t like the final chapter because it could have two endings with very different results. Did Ethan tell his lawyer (Olivia’s boss) the truth and get Olivia to confess to him to get himself off by convicting his sister, or is Olivia’s boss going to protect their secret? We don’t really know the answer to that, and I really didn’t like being left hanging.
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