It'd be a great way for him to revisit the story. What if she emerges from some random portal like a Lovecraftian monstrosity after having infinity to think and learn...
I want to know exactly what happened after. You know, if there is an undead family living in that house people would eventually find them 😆. I can see the whole community becoming a Salem's Lot situation.
I literally cannot read that book or listen to it for a second time. Pet Semetary is the most depressing thing I've ever experienced. Bawled my fucking eyes out basically the entire time.
I feel like horror and comedy are both all about the subversion of expectations, so you get some people who are really good at both. Jordan Peele, for instance.
Punchlines are funny because they are a surprise just like a good scare is a surprise. They both work because of tension and built the same way. Released the same way. And you can pee your pants from laughing or being scared, or that's just me!
Pet Semetary always cracks me up… there was a pet cemetery a few blocks from where I grew up, it was super overgrown and in the woods and so freaking cool. That’s also where we found the trash bag full of porno mags lol
He explained in On Writing that the house right down to the high way out front was a place he and his family lived.
The difference was he caught Naomi before she reached the highway when she took off running.
I felt the need for a re-read recently. Got to Wizard and glass, told myself I would skip it, and didn't. Bawling. Told myself I would stop after the Breakers, and didn't. Told myself I would stop before the end of book 7, and didn't. Traumatised myself completely unnecessarily but worth it.
I find the ending pretty hopeful on the reread actually. He has the horn this time. He didn’t last time. Maybe it’s like Groundhog Day and this time it actually WILL be different.
It made me so angry. I was PISSED when I finished the books. I thought it was the stupidest ending ever until I really thought about it and it is truly heartbreaking.
everyone always says this is one of his scary books. I like the book. I like the atmosphere. The deaths are tragic. I like Judds stories. I like they're first trek into the semetary. But I never found the book scary, I was pretty annoyed with Louis tho.
*Revival*
I don’t think it’s even a contest. >!Jamie learns beyond a shadow of a doubt that the afterlife for *everyone*, no exceptions, is a tortuous eternal hellscape ruled over by an insane Elder God that is personally aware of *him* and preparing a special eternal punishment just for him. Sure, he’s alive at the end, but his brother is in a catatonic state, his niece who loved him hates him now, most of his closest friends are all dead or alienated from him, and he has no escape from an eternity of suffering.!<
No one said he couldn’t “finish a book.” They’ve said he doesn’t write endings well. And he’s pretty much agreed with that himself to a certain degree.
So the answer to your question is Stephen King.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/stephen-king-cant-write-good-ending-save-life-knows/
I agreed with King. They’re not his endings, they’re the characters. He doesn’t write them as much as he is told the endings. Makes it even better, imo.
Under the Dome and Tommy knockers are in this vein. Knowing there are aliens that powerful and you can do fuckall to stop them from wrecking your existence?
Definitely my top pick for downer endings. Still, brilliantly written. I was shocked by it, and it took me days to recover. I want to reread this one, but I remember it so vividly even though I haven't read it since release. This story gives Thomas Ligotti a run for his money.
The woman in the jaunt whose husband pushed her into the portal.
The Long Walk, sure Garraty may have won and is still alive but mentally it’s over for him.
Revival just…all of it there is literally no happy ending for the main character or anyone once they are dead.
Technically Roland in the Dark Tower, as Flagg says “death but not for you gunslinger. Never for you. You darkle. You tint. May I be brutally frank? You go on.”
I don’t feel like anyone talks about Ellie Creed. >!if I’m not mistaken, Gage and Rachel both die and I feel like it’s implied in the epilogue that Rachel comes back to kill Louis. It’s been a while since I read it, but wasn’t Ellie not even there when that all went down? She’s the only one out of the 4 of them that survived!<
Yes. Never really knowing what happened to her parents. Raised by people who hated her father before the incidents in the story. 18 and coming back to the Semetary.... it can't have a happy ending.
Yeah, poor Ellie loses everyone in the end, I imagine she ends up in the custody of her grandparents, which are implied to be fairly abusive in their own right throughout the book since their treatment of Rachel during and after Zelda's death is awful and leaves her with lifelong trauma. I would also love a book exploring what happens to Ellie after the events of the book, especially as she is implied to have somewhat of a "shine." Even if Louis did survive until the end of the book, he's trapped in a hell of his own making, and Ellie can never return home. Pet Semetary is horrifically bleak.
Oh good one! I agree that Louis Creed would be up there, but I think your assumptions are on point.
Also, the second pet sematary movie implies that Ellie goes crazy, but obviously that not Kings work.
This was my first thought too. The fact that a child endured it out of curiosity makes it so much worse. He had no way of comprehending what he was in for until it was too late.
Imo I'd say the kid's parents and sibling would have the worst ending in that one. He's already raving mad and ripping out his own eyeballs...his entire family is there watching it happen.
You could say the book version as well. They really have no idea what's waiting for them out there, and it doesn't seem very good, regardless of how much hope he has.
I hear what you guys are saying, but the ending from the short story f$%*ed me up as a kid. I was furious that the movie changed it. That moment, when they see the giant spider thing and you realize 'the mist didn't come into our world, the town fell into theirs' broke me. That ending is why I write, it's where I try to get to in all my stuff. That moment of omg we didn't understand the situation at allllll.
I'm fine if it's just me on this one.
Also, disclaimer: I read it when I was 10-12 and that's how I remember it. I went back to reread it a few years ago and quit 2/3 of the way thru because I realized I don't want to know if I'm misremembering that ending. If that's the case, disregard but don't tell me.
I was gonna post this but didn't want to spoil it. But yeah. We don't even know how many times he's completed his journey and been sent back to the beginning. 19? See the Turtle ain't he keen, all things serve the fucking beam!
I'd say it is likely that it was the 19th time that we saw. But that really hints that the next will be the last. He has the Horn of Eld this time. He did something correctly that he hadn't done before, and I think that was letting Susannah go. Now he needs to not let Jake fall. I think that is the key. He needs to choose love over the Tower.
i would actually love another series where he goes round again but with the Horn of Eld. what would be different? would Cuthbert still be alive?
(can you tell all these people live rent-free in my head...)
I wonder if every new loop he has something new. Like maybe on one loop he didn’t have his guns. Maybe on loop 3 he never met Jake. He has to repeat it thousands of times until he has all the right pieces
Yeah I like to pretend that the turtle dies at the end and in a last ditch effort sends Roland back in time with the remaining of its power with something new in his possession.
i think he would have to find his ka-tet and none of them die by the time he gets to the tower for it to finally stop. i think he will get there eventually but it could take any number of tries, depending on how quickly he learns from each trip around.
My theory is that he won't let Jake fall, choosing love over the Tower. The Drawing doesn't happen and he and Jake make it to the Tower before the Breakers complete their task.
>!But also dealing with 2 fewer fingers, 1 missing toe, the dry twist, down to 1 gun, a bunch more heartache!<. Probably other things I don't recall right now.
It’s a hopeful ending though. I missed it the first time I finished the series, cause honestly I was kind of pissed, but when it starts over, he *has* Cuthbert’s horn. He didn’t in the beginning of the series. It’s like he’s rewarded for doing things the right way during the journey we see. He’s closer. He has his talisman. To me, it means he’ll make it there in true eventually. It’s not an eternal loop. He’s closer to winning for real every time, and he likely comes through a better person each time.
This is literally my worst nightmare. A few years ago I was way too stoned and read an SCP about something similar, and got so freaked out I haven’t smoked weed since.
I know it's not all that dark, but at the end of It, I absolutely hated that The Losers' Club ended up forgetting one another. It's so cruel. I cry like a baby every time I read it.
From what I remember >!he ends up curing himself of the curse but he comes home to his wife and daughter eating the pie and unknowingly cursing themselves!<
Technically he’s still alive at the end, technically or actually but he didn’t die within the pages, and honestly none of us know what effect the pie will have on him. It should put the curse back on him but I think he qualifies for this.
I wouldn't call it the darkest, but I always feel bad for Patty Uris. Just a sweet, "normal" woman who had no real concept about the weight her husband was carrying. It's just a typical night in our home, your husband gets phone call, and everything you built is gone within an hour. The locking of the bathroom door to symbolize how he's unknowingly been locking her out their whole relationship and in her panic and bewilderment about the door she has that sick moment of everything clicking. Pennywise has so many indirect victims.
Father Callahan in Salem's Lot >!loses his fight of faith against Barlow, is branded with the mark of the vampire, and isn't able to ever return to the church!< He doesn't die but he still loses everything.
I'm actually reading through it at the moment. I had to take a break after Wizard and Glass because I really did not enjoy that book and it completely killed my momentum, but I'm gonna work my way through the rest soon.
For the people who have said Roland. Just wanted to say two things.
1) The reader is faced with the same choice as Roland. We are told to stop at a certain point just as Roland is. However, like Roland we keep moving forward because we’ve come to far and we have to see. Just like he does. It is a perfect way for us to share that fate because we have skin in the game just like he does. If we stop/he stops, the ending is different.
2) After we/Roland make a choice, there is hope. There is renewal and there is the horn. It isn’t the same as before. In a way, we have lived the “dark ending” and we get a glimpse of the hope of a new cycle. I believe this is the final journey leading to a well deserved rest.
Still gives me chills… I knew a bit about the novel before due to all the pop culture references, but I didn’t know that… if I’m honest, Louis Creed’s mental breakdown reminded me very much of Bart’s from Roadwork.
Give me hope for finishing that book. I think I've gotten a 1/3 of the way in before, gotten busy with life and just seriously have not been able to see where its going.
David Carver in Desperation. That kid saw some shit and then is told to go back and make his friend his brother. Like he’s not going to be traumatized the fuck up and loaded to the max with PTSD.
>!”Do you know how cruel your God can be, David. How fantastically cruel?”
David waited, saying nothing. Maybe listening, maybe not. Johnny couldn’t tell.
“Sometimes he makes us live.”!<
I'm glad that people mentioned Revival already, that would be my first answer, but since it was already mentioned, I'll go with Kat from a hidden King gem called *The Little Green God of Agony*.
>!Basically, she has a literal god of pain climbing inside of her and ready to turn her whole life into a living nightmare devoid of anything but constant suffering. !<
Everyone who survives in IT.
Forgetting such important people from your childhood is so fucking grim and bleak and real. And that makes it the darkest ending of all.
Paul Sheldon from Misery.
He will be handicapped for life, but his doctors won't give him the "good pills" Annie Wilkes gave him for pain.
He has PTSD. He lives alone with seemingly no family or friends. His only socializing is with his agent, who's eager to make money off his ordeal.
I found his ending sad because it was so mundane (unlike more dramatic endings for other Stephen King characters). He has all the money in the world, but he will be physically and mentally broken forever. The last scene of him hobbling along down the hallway on his walking sticks, then freaking out because he thought his cat was Annie Wilkes, was really miserable.
Haven’t seen this one yet - the kid who gets possessed by his grandma in “Gramma” (collected in Skeleton Crew). It’s legit one of the only stories I’ve ever had trouble falling asleep after.
The lady from the jaunt whose husband pushed her into the portal with no way out.
Says a lot that the best case scenario is that she was vaporized.
I like to think she eventually went absolutely insane , hopefully very quickly, and isn’t even aware anymore
It'd be a great way for him to revisit the story. What if she emerges from some random portal like a Lovecraftian monstrosity after having infinity to think and learn...
In todash space?
Sooooo The Mist?
Longer than you think.
I don't want to spoil anything so I won't put the one I think is the worst so: Louis Creed.
It’s pretty strongly implied that his undead wife kills him though
He wasn't dead when the book ended though. Whatever happened, happened after the last sentence. Also, I forgot. It's been awhile. My apologies.
I want to know exactly what happened after. You know, if there is an undead family living in that house people would eventually find them 😆. I can see the whole community becoming a Salem's Lot situation.
I hope they dig up Biffer, ya know...helluva sniffer!
Ah ok - wasn’t trying to be pendantic just felt he probably wasn’t long for the world by the end of the book lol.
I literally cannot read that book or listen to it for a second time. Pet Semetary is the most depressing thing I've ever experienced. Bawled my fucking eyes out basically the entire time.
it's the only book to ever really give me the creeps. the creeps and it's pretty fucking gross. and like you said...it's a helluva bummer...
It introduced me to the wendigo. I've been fascinated ever since.
Both the X-files and Supernatural have really good Wendigo episodes.
Same here, I find the folklore and legends wicked interesting
Yet I still laugh in parts of it. In all honesty, King could be a hell of a comedy writer.
I feel like horror and comedy are both all about the subversion of expectations, so you get some people who are really good at both. Jordan Peele, for instance.
Punchlines are funny because they are a surprise just like a good scare is a surprise. They both work because of tension and built the same way. Released the same way. And you can pee your pants from laughing or being scared, or that's just me!
Pet Semetary always cracks me up… there was a pet cemetery a few blocks from where I grew up, it was super overgrown and in the woods and so freaking cool. That’s also where we found the trash bag full of porno mags lol
The whole grave robbing scene, falling out of the tree... Total slapstick!
Exactly! There is no damn reason that should be as funny as it is.
Same here. It's even more difficult to read when you have a young child of your own.
He explained in On Writing that the house right down to the high way out front was a place he and his family lived. The difference was he caught Naomi before she reached the highway when she took off running.
Ikr. After I had kids I couldnt look at this book anymore
Actually, his daughter was the sole survivor.
Just put it in the spoiler grayed out stuff
NVM, someone already posted it.
*Revival*?
Roland
I felt the need for a re-read recently. Got to Wizard and glass, told myself I would skip it, and didn't. Bawling. Told myself I would stop after the Breakers, and didn't. Told myself I would stop before the end of book 7, and didn't. Traumatised myself completely unnecessarily but worth it.
like those old chip commercials. once you start you just can't stop. and like herpes, the gift that last forever. or whatever jesus said.
I find the ending pretty hopeful on the reread actually. He has the horn this time. He didn’t last time. Maybe it’s like Groundhog Day and this time it actually WILL be different.
Oof, broke my heart 💔
Same, and now that it's been mentioned it's time for a reread.
Yeah, rereading *The Gunslinger* now
It made me so angry. I was PISSED when I finished the books. I thought it was the stupidest ending ever until I really thought about it and it is truly heartbreaking.
The ending of the Dark Tower made me so angry I threw my book across the room
I finished reading it in the bathtub and I just sat there and stared at the wall until the water was cold. That ending fucks with you
Truly the hardest ending I’ve ever experienced. And the best. Most perfect. The only way that could have ended. That poor poor tragic man.
But the Horn. The Horn gives you hope.
Hello darling...still gives me shivers.
everyone always says this is one of his scary books. I like the book. I like the atmosphere. The deaths are tragic. I like Judds stories. I like they're first trek into the semetary. But I never found the book scary, I was pretty annoyed with Louis tho.
I was annoyed with Louis, but it made me really think about what I would have done in his situation and that is great writing.
Read it once. Screaming nightmares for weeks. Never again.
I know the one you're thinking of!!!
*Revival* I don’t think it’s even a contest. >!Jamie learns beyond a shadow of a doubt that the afterlife for *everyone*, no exceptions, is a tortuous eternal hellscape ruled over by an insane Elder God that is personally aware of *him* and preparing a special eternal punishment just for him. Sure, he’s alive at the end, but his brother is in a catatonic state, his niece who loved him hates him now, most of his closest friends are all dead or alienated from him, and he has no escape from an eternity of suffering.!<
I love this. Revival is my favorite post-2000 King.
I read that book right right after my dad died. I was fucking traumatized all over. I’ll never read it again.
So sorry. Can't imagine how haunting it must have been
It's absolutely fucking Savage and probably his best ending.
AND WHO SAID HE COULDNT FINISH A BOOK!!??
Twats
Yes!
No one said he couldn’t “finish a book.” They’ve said he doesn’t write endings well. And he’s pretty much agreed with that himself to a certain degree. So the answer to your question is Stephen King. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/stephen-king-cant-write-good-ending-save-life-knows/
I thought Geralds Game had a pretty good ending
I agreed with King. They’re not his endings, they’re the characters. He doesn’t write them as much as he is told the endings. Makes it even better, imo.
Under the Dome and Tommy knockers are in this vein. Knowing there are aliens that powerful and you can do fuckall to stop them from wrecking your existence?
Oh yes!
I haven't read this one yet but I just started it because of this thread. Thanks!
It’s a slow build. Stick with it. It’s worth it.
Goddamn right.
This. This is the book that got me back into reading King. One of his best ever
To this day the best king ending there is
This was my answer. The ending still haunts me.
Definitely my top pick for downer endings. Still, brilliantly written. I was shocked by it, and it took me days to recover. I want to reread this one, but I remember it so vividly even though I haven't read it since release. This story gives Thomas Ligotti a run for his money.
The woman in the jaunt whose husband pushed her into the portal. The Long Walk, sure Garraty may have won and is still alive but mentally it’s over for him. Revival just…all of it there is literally no happy ending for the main character or anyone once they are dead. Technically Roland in the Dark Tower, as Flagg says “death but not for you gunslinger. Never for you. You darkle. You tint. May I be brutally frank? You go on.”
Was thinking about Roland too. Cursed forever to repeat his quest until he somehow gets it all right.
I don’t feel like anyone talks about Ellie Creed. >!if I’m not mistaken, Gage and Rachel both die and I feel like it’s implied in the epilogue that Rachel comes back to kill Louis. It’s been a while since I read it, but wasn’t Ellie not even there when that all went down? She’s the only one out of the 4 of them that survived!<
I can't believe l had to scroll this far for Ellie Ceeed. I'd love for SK to revisit her a'la Dr. Sleep.
Yes. Never really knowing what happened to her parents. Raised by people who hated her father before the incidents in the story. 18 and coming back to the Semetary.... it can't have a happy ending.
Yeah, poor Ellie loses everyone in the end, I imagine she ends up in the custody of her grandparents, which are implied to be fairly abusive in their own right throughout the book since their treatment of Rachel during and after Zelda's death is awful and leaves her with lifelong trauma. I would also love a book exploring what happens to Ellie after the events of the book, especially as she is implied to have somewhat of a "shine." Even if Louis did survive until the end of the book, he's trapped in a hell of his own making, and Ellie can never return home. Pet Semetary is horrifically bleak.
With that kids luck she probably got snatched by the Knot
Oh good one! I agree that Louis Creed would be up there, but I think your assumptions are on point. Also, the second pet sematary movie implies that Ellie goes crazy, but obviously that not Kings work.
And is also told as a scary campfire story, so may not even be true in the movie itself.
This is always my answer. Her whole life is annihilated.
It's longer than you think!
This was my first thought too. The fact that a child endured it out of curiosity makes it so much worse. He had no way of comprehending what he was in for until it was too late.
Imo I'd say the kid's parents and sibling would have the worst ending in that one. He's already raving mad and ripping out his own eyeballs...his entire family is there watching it happen.
But the thought of him realizing what he'd done, and that he had no concept of how endless it was...good God.
/r/TIFU
Not the book version of “The Mist” but the movie I think is up there.
I just came to say this! The movie ending of The Mist is freaking brutal!
You could say the book version as well. They really have no idea what's waiting for them out there, and it doesn't seem very good, regardless of how much hope he has.
Watched the movie for the first time a few weeks ago and my god that ending is fucking bleak
I hear what you guys are saying, but the ending from the short story f$%*ed me up as a kid. I was furious that the movie changed it. That moment, when they see the giant spider thing and you realize 'the mist didn't come into our world, the town fell into theirs' broke me. That ending is why I write, it's where I try to get to in all my stuff. That moment of omg we didn't understand the situation at allllll. I'm fine if it's just me on this one. Also, disclaimer: I read it when I was 10-12 and that's how I remember it. I went back to reread it a few years ago and quit 2/3 of the way thru because I realized I don't want to know if I'm misremembering that ending. If that's the case, disregard but don't tell me.
I just read The Mist, really enjoyed it. I read the plot of the movie version on Wikipedia -- OMG. What an awful ending :(
It’s awful, but I think I liked it better.
Having read the book I was not prepared for that at all.
[удалено]
Not for you, Gunslinger. Never for you.
I was gonna post this but didn't want to spoil it. But yeah. We don't even know how many times he's completed his journey and been sent back to the beginning. 19? See the Turtle ain't he keen, all things serve the fucking beam!
I'd say it is likely that it was the 19th time that we saw. But that really hints that the next will be the last. He has the Horn of Eld this time. He did something correctly that he hadn't done before, and I think that was letting Susannah go. Now he needs to not let Jake fall. I think that is the key. He needs to choose love over the Tower.
I agree! White over red!
It’s been like 20 years since TDT ended, I think it’s okay.
Shut the front door! 20 years......
But he has the horn or something at the end. Plus, I like roguelikes.
i would actually love another series where he goes round again but with the Horn of Eld. what would be different? would Cuthbert still be alive? (can you tell all these people live rent-free in my head...)
I wonder if every new loop he has something new. Like maybe on one loop he didn’t have his guns. Maybe on loop 3 he never met Jake. He has to repeat it thousands of times until he has all the right pieces
No, personally I think he won the Horn by letting Susannah leave him. He chose love that once when he hadn't before.
That’s a nice thought. That eventually he’ll be able to stop.
Yeah I like to pretend that the turtle dies at the end and in a last ditch effort sends Roland back in time with the remaining of its power with something new in his possession.
i think he would have to find his ka-tet and none of them die by the time he gets to the tower for it to finally stop. i think he will get there eventually but it could take any number of tries, depending on how quickly he learns from each trip around.
I see it more as a Groudhog Day situation. Every time around the wheel, he gets closer to redemption until he’s finally worthy of ascension.
My theory is that he won't let Jake fall, choosing love over the Tower. The Drawing doesn't happen and he and Jake make it to the Tower before the Breakers complete their task.
>!But also dealing with 2 fewer fingers, 1 missing toe, the dry twist, down to 1 gun, a bunch more heartache!<. Probably other things I don't recall right now.
Not even mentioning the time paradox in the wasteland and near fatal infection in the drawing of the three
100% this one had me nearly catatonic, staring at the wall for an hour after I finished it.
Ka is a wheel
It’s a hopeful ending though. I missed it the first time I finished the series, cause honestly I was kind of pissed, but when it starts over, he *has* Cuthbert’s horn. He didn’t in the beginning of the series. It’s like he’s rewarded for doing things the right way during the journey we see. He’s closer. He has his talisman. To me, it means he’ll make it there in true eventually. It’s not an eternal loop. He’s closer to winning for real every time, and he likely comes through a better person each time.
Has to be Jamie from Revival.
Technically, everyone on Earth that has ever or will exist. I mean, it's a suuuuuuper bummer for everyone.
It’s worse for Jamie, though, because he’s the only one who knows what’s coming.
And as someone else pointed out, Mother is specifically aware of him.
Man, I wish he’d go back to this type of horror. Such a little treat back in, what, 2014? Give Holly a break already!
Tony Glick in Salem’s Lot loses his entire family one by one and ends up institutionalized because his mind completely shatters.
At least he isn’t fully aware since his mind shattered
“Darling,” it said 🫣
Even reading that end in the sunshine a few weeks ago, it still gave me chills. What a book that was.
Ricky in The Jaunt. No contest. His ending lasts a loooooong time, Dad.
This is literally my worst nightmare. A few years ago I was way too stoned and read an SCP about something similar, and got so freaked out I haven’t smoked weed since.
I read the boogeyman high and tied my closet door handles together and put a chair under them. That short ass story took something from me
I know it's not all that dark, but at the end of It, I absolutely hated that The Losers' Club ended up forgetting one another. It's so cruel. I cry like a baby every time I read it.
Have you read *Dreamcatcher*? King throws us the tiniest of bones at the end regarding The Loser's Club. It isn't much, but it gave me some comfort.
I read Dreamcatcher a long time ago, but I don't recall that part! I'm in the middle of a chronological reread, though, so I'll keep an eye out.
what happens?
Imo it's the ending of Thinner for me
Doesn't he die though? I thought he finished the pie after he saw the two plates.
From what I remember >!he ends up curing himself of the curse but he comes home to his wife and daughter eating the pie and unknowingly cursing themselves!<
[He willingly re-curses him self to join them in death.](/spoiler)
The link wasn't working so I did a quick google and you're right! I misremembered lol
Technically he’s still alive at the end, technically or actually but he didn’t die within the pages, and honestly none of us know what effect the pie will have on him. It should put the curse back on him but I think he qualifies for this.
I wouldn't call it the darkest, but I always feel bad for Patty Uris. Just a sweet, "normal" woman who had no real concept about the weight her husband was carrying. It's just a typical night in our home, your husband gets phone call, and everything you built is gone within an hour. The locking of the bathroom door to symbolize how he's unknowingly been locking her out their whole relationship and in her panic and bewilderment about the door she has that sick moment of everything clicking. Pennywise has so many indirect victims.
Oooo this is a good one.
You can spot the Loser's Club listeners in here lol
I rarely have time for podcasts and haven't had a time to listen in like 4 years.
Cujo got me. The mother’s fate, terrible. All that and then it ends the way it does.
Scrolled too far for this
Father Callahan in Salem's Lot >!loses his fight of faith against Barlow, is branded with the mark of the vampire, and isn't able to ever return to the church!< He doesn't die but he still loses everything.
You should read the dark tower series since this comment makes me think you have not yet.
I'm actually reading through it at the moment. I had to take a break after Wizard and Glass because I really did not enjoy that book and it completely killed my momentum, but I'm gonna work my way through the rest soon.
Well, it's time for you to get back in there and remember the face of your father!
Wizard and glass was my least favourite as well and I had to force myself to read it and I'm glad I did. The series is woreth it
For the people who have said Roland. Just wanted to say two things. 1) The reader is faced with the same choice as Roland. We are told to stop at a certain point just as Roland is. However, like Roland we keep moving forward because we’ve come to far and we have to see. Just like he does. It is a perfect way for us to share that fate because we have skin in the game just like he does. If we stop/he stops, the ending is different. 2) After we/Roland make a choice, there is hope. There is renewal and there is the horn. It isn’t the same as before. In a way, we have lived the “dark ending” and we get a glimpse of the hope of a new cycle. I believe this is the final journey leading to a well deserved rest.
I agree, its a messed up ending, but it isn't tragic, its hopeful. Although quite daunting.
Yeah, Roland does a little better each time.
I haven’t read too many yet, but Louis Creed’s ending is pretty grim
*Darling...*
Still gives me chills… I knew a bit about the novel before due to all the pop culture references, but I didn’t know that… if I’m honest, Louis Creed’s mental breakdown reminded me very much of Bart’s from Roadwork.
Louis Creed’s breakdown is so scary because of how slow it goes and how REASONABLE he seems throughout it.
100% agree
Ellie Creed.
Mrs. Michaelson from The Jaunt
Survivor Type comes to mind.
Lady fingers they taste like lady fingers….
"You are what you eat, so I haven't changed a bit!"
creepshow on shudder had an pretty good animated adaptation of this story with Kiefer Sutherland
Ben Mears and Mark. I felt so sorry for them :/
Roland's fate is awful. Second place goes to jamie in revival.
jake in 11/22/63
Give me hope for finishing that book. I think I've gotten a 1/3 of the way in before, gotten busy with life and just seriously have not been able to see where its going.
The ending was beautiful. Seriously.
It’s one of my favorite novels of all time.
Not a book, but Storm of the Century. Man loses his son to an evil warlock. "Give me what I want, and I'll go away"
David Carver in Desperation. That kid saw some shit and then is told to go back and make his friend his brother. Like he’s not going to be traumatized the fuck up and loaded to the max with PTSD.
I just finished this and after the bird killed his dad, I was just… come onnnn?! You left him nothing?! Nobody? Fuck.
>!”Do you know how cruel your God can be, David. How fantastically cruel?” David waited, saying nothing. Maybe listening, maybe not. Johnny couldn’t tell. “Sometimes he makes us live.”!<
Handsdown Roland. There isn't another King character that comes close to such a tragic finale.
Oy.
And now I'm bawling.
If it helps you are not crying alone
Ay ake.
Lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers
Ollie Dinsmore from Under the Dome gets my vote
I'm glad that people mentioned Revival already, that would be my first answer, but since it was already mentioned, I'll go with Kat from a hidden King gem called *The Little Green God of Agony*. >!Basically, she has a literal god of pain climbing inside of her and ready to turn her whole life into a living nightmare devoid of anything but constant suffering. !<
With out saying a spoiler I’d have to say Father Callahan in Salems lot!
Roland. O, discordia!
Everyone who survives in IT. Forgetting such important people from your childhood is so fucking grim and bleak and real. And that makes it the darkest ending of all.
Donna Trenton.
Grim in *Cujo* but Rattlesnakes gives her a better ending.
Jaunt or Revival
The advertising exec dad in cujo. Things probably dont look that great for him at the close of that book.
But it's better at the end of "Rattlesnakes", for him and for Donna.
Jaunt, "Longer than you think dad"
I can't remember the name of the book but the boy who does the disappearing magic act and puts his little brother in the box.
That’s from The TommyKnockers. The boy reappeared safely at the end of the book.
Paul Sheldon from Misery. He will be handicapped for life, but his doctors won't give him the "good pills" Annie Wilkes gave him for pain. He has PTSD. He lives alone with seemingly no family or friends. His only socializing is with his agent, who's eager to make money off his ordeal. I found his ending sad because it was so mundane (unlike more dramatic endings for other Stephen King characters). He has all the money in the world, but he will be physically and mentally broken forever. The last scene of him hobbling along down the hallway on his walking sticks, then freaking out because he thought his cat was Annie Wilkes, was really miserable.
The Mist, Frank Darabont movie ending 😯😯😯
Billy in Thinner
The mom at the end of Cujo.
Percy whitmore.
Roland.
Cujo and Pet Sematary
No fair, no fair!
Ray Garratty…if you assume he lived.
Little Ellie Creed. I always wondered how she did in life. She lost everyone!
David Carver. There’s absolutely no way that poor kid could have anything remotely close to a “normal” life after all that shit
Haven’t seen this one yet - the kid who gets possessed by his grandma in “Gramma” (collected in Skeleton Crew). It’s legit one of the only stories I’ve ever had trouble falling asleep after.