So, today’s question is in two parts.
1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?
2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?
I adore books with complicated plots and unexpected endings. Nothing is better to me than a twist that makes me go “Oh my God” out loud. My favorite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo, which has enough twists and turns to last me a lifetime. I like being surprised. I suppose this comes from a childhood of reading and rereading a Miss Marple collection.
However, I tend to read so many books with twists and turns that it’s hard to pin down a favorite or least favorite. I might just go all the way back to middle school and say The Giver, which is only touching and poignant based on how you read the last scene. Or, there’s the gut-punching hope at the end of Son of a Witch, when Liir returns home to find… oh, I can’t tell you, that’s cheating you out of a great ending. My least favorite, though, is Dead Until Dark, which was just a sub-par local murder mystery with vampires on top. What was far more surprising to me was Sookie’s extremely cavalier attitude towards her vampire boyfriend murdering people for her.
What are your favorite twists and turns?
The Literary Omnivore 
The classic one for me is Rebecca, although it’s so well known now that probably very few people read it not knowing the twist.
I loved the Count of Monte Cristo! I had a whole saga with it. I was reading the library copy, a 19th century copy in three volumes, but it was falling apart and I had to take it back so they could mend it. Then I thought I would buy one of the two volume paperback copies, so I went to the French language bookshop, bought the new volumes, took them home…and noticed the second one had a bunch of pages missing. I took it back to the shop where the assistant said, ‘you should really check this kind of thing before you buy.’ The nerve! She was selling it – shouldn’t she have checked! Anyway, great book.
I’ve never read it! Goodness, I think I have to now.
Elle a été très mechante! I’m so sorry about that shop girl, but it was a fabulous book.
The Count of Monte Cristo…I feel like I should have read it but I don’t think I did. I know it’s on my shelf, I must find it.
Oh, it’s so wonderful! You’ll love it.