If the opening lines of a book are meant to hook you, what about its closing lines? They’re meant to tie up the story, but finding the right words to do so can be challenging.
The best book endings always finish on a high note. You want the last sentences to engrave themselves on your readers’ minds—to make them think of your story even hours after they’ve read it.
The Best Book Endings
The best endings will leave you sad but satisfied. They make exploring the world and characters of a book worth the effort. Done badly, they leave a tinge of bitterness to a reading experience that you would otherwise have cherished.
Writers have attempted to craft the perfect ending. It’s led to many last lines that have since become legendary in the literary world. Here are just a few of them.
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
This last line has been much debated as to its meaning. Some consider it a metaphor for the American dream while others think it is about the futility of human experience. You may never know what Fitzgerald meant by it, but you can’t deny it is a sentence that has haunted readers ever since.
2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
“I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”
In Huck’s rough speech, Twain sums up the quest of a developing nation’s desire for independence and to keep pushing on to the unknown. In this sense, Huck is a representation of American freedom.
3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”
While the story first presents Marlow’s trip to the Congo as journeying to the heart of the darkness, we see a symbolic reversal in the end. To Marlow’s now embittered eyes, London has become the heart of darkness itself, representing the evils of European ideology.
4. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
“Are there any questions?”
This entire book is a question itself—one about power, religion, control, women’s rights, and other issues that Atwood forces the reader to think about. It isn’t even clear what happens to the protagonist. And so when the last line asks “Are there any questions?”, readers are more than likely to scream “Yes!”
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
“A last note from your narrator: I am haunted by humans.”
When you consider that this line is uttered by Death itself, it becomes much more evocative. After all, how could an endless thing such as Death understand such fleeting things as humans?
6. 1984 by George Orwell
“He loved Big Brother.”
In just a short sentence, Orwell crushes the already flagging hope for resistance in his book. Tortured and re-educated, the protagonist gives up, accepts the rule of Big Brother, and goes back to the status quo.
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
“I wish you all a long and happy life.”
Short but heavy in meaning, it is heartbreaking how a 14-year-old girl’s ghost is able to wish the reader a long and happy life—one that was denied her.
8. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”
A grand opening line such as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” needs an equally sweeping ending. As he dies, the speaker tells that giving his life for those he loves is the best thing he’s done and that he accepts his death without regrets.
9. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
“And so farewell from your little droog. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lip-music brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal.”
If you’ve read the book, then you know Burgess’ protagonist is a thug whose life is dominated by violence, most of it his own doing. However, the last line suggests maybe, just maybe, he’s about to walk on a better path.
10. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
“In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.”
As you follow the journey of a father and son in a ruined America, you become familiar with the hopelessness experienced by those still surviving. The book’s last words tell you an often ignored truth: that Mother Nature will keep on living long after humanity wipes itself out.
11. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
“‘It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ Mrs Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.“
Sometimes implication is far more powerful than demonstration. Here, Jackson simply stops writing and lets the reader imagine the horrors that are about to follow.
12. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“After all, tomorrow is another day.”
Short and blithely optimistic, Gone With the Wind’s last line perfectly sums up Scarlet O’Hara’s willful character who never gives up despite repeated failures. It’s since become part of our vernacular.
13. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
Perfect and good are mutually exclusive things. No one is perfect and pretending to be so is just lying to yourself and the world. It’s a lesson one of the characters understands, and one he’s willing to teach the family he’s served for a long time.
14. Animal Farm by George Orwell
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Throughout the novel, the animals struggle to distinguish themselves from humans by creating a utopia for themselves. But no change is made and their leaders become what they hate. It’s a searing message of how power corrupts.
15. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”
Throughout the book, you read about Charlotte’s creative ways of saving a pig she isn’t required to help. Even her impending death didn’t stop her from helping Wilbur out. The last sentences perfectly sum up her character, immortalizing her in many readers’ minds.
Unforgettable Book Endings
You will always mourn the loss of a good story. Having invested much of your time and emotions in reading, it can be hard to let go of a story once you’ve reached the last page.
But while it can be sad, good endings lessen the bitterness of finishing a good story. They justify the journey you took from start to finish, leaving you satisfied and comforted. Especially when the last few lines are so well constructed that they bring out the essence of the entire book in just a few lines.
What other books did you enjoy with their endings? Share them in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- 25 Great Book Opening Lines That Will Hook You from the Start
- 15 of the Most Shocking Cliffhangers in TV History
- 6 Types of Endings and How You Can Write Them Effectively
Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
