We Need More Books Without Happy Endings

I was around four or five when I first watched The Lion King. Even years later, I still remember how deeply it gripped me, how my heart plunged at the demise of Mufasa, how it soared as Simba returned to face his destiny. With every fiber of my being, I rooted for good to overcome evil, and the moment it actually did was pure electricity. That experience became, quite literally, a core memory.

Fast forward to today.

If I watched The Lion King for the first time now, it would be nowhere near the same experience. Why? Because I'm old enough to know that most stories have happy endings. That one understanding saps 90% of the peril and tension from otherwise nail-biting sequences.

Do you remember what it was like to read books when you were young enough not to know that good always wins? That the hero who seems dead never is? When you rooted for the protagonist with genuine doubt as to the outcome?

We may not ever be able to fully recapture our earliest experiences with stories, but there are things that can get us closer. The most obvious of these, in my mind, is to encourage more books without happy endings.

Now in saying this, I am not necessarily calling for scores of books where evil utterly overcomes and the take-home message is that good guys finish last. There are many ways to finish a story without a happily ever after, this being just one. Personally, I like a good bittersweet ending, one that feels both good and bad at the same time in perfect balance. Maybe the day is saved, but at a cost so high, it's difficult to know whether it was worth it. Maybe the hero is true to their values, but isn't rewarded for it. The possibilities are endless.

Another method is to build such empathy for the antagonists that it isn't obvious who to root for. What if both sides feel right? Or wrong? What if the protagonist makes a critical decision that is difficult to categorize as good or bad?

As should be obvious by now, I am not against happy endings. I simply believe that reducing their inevitability makes them shine brighter. Staring into the darkness without nerfing it makes coming out the other side feel earned, cathartic and real. That is the world in which heroes have staying power and make the world a better place.

Just like a certain lion I'm aware of.