Top Ten Tuesday: After the Ever After

Top Ten Characters You’d Like To Check In With (meaning, the book or series is over and you so just wish you could peek in on the “life” you imagine they are leading years down the line after the story ends).

Janet

Oh, jeepers, I don’t know. I almost ALWAYS want to know more about the characters and how their lives go afterward, but I also feel strongly that the author ends the book where it needs to be, right? The rest of the characters’ lives shouldn’t be spelled out. To do so removes the wonder of the imagination and the glorious possibilities that the characters have when the book closes. Furthermore, telling us how the rest of their lives turn out suggests a lack of trust in the reader on the part of the author (or possibly in the author’s own skill), and suggests that the part of the life that really matters is the end – who such-and-such marries, and how they die/how old they are when they die. Which isn’t what I think matters, ultimately. Not that either of these things are insignificant, but if an authors has invested herself in telling the intimate details of, say, one year in their character’s lives, it feels rather sweeping and dismissive to sum up the rest of their lives in ten pages or so.

It’s also true that I couldn’t possibly choose only ten characters I’d like to know more about.

At the same time I hunger to know more and yet would resent an author “pinning” a character’s life to the metaphorical butterfly board with details; it is enough, for me, that the character continues, imaginatively, after the book ends, full of life and hope.

Yash

1. Tana from The Coldest Girl in Coldtown: I MUST KNOW FOR SURE!!!
2. Adam and Co. from Good Omens: When they’re older, do they look back and laugh about how they averted the apocalypse? Do they have more life-or-death situations they figure out? They’re such a charming group of kids!
3. The Lynburns from The Lynburn Legacy: Ten! And Tomo! They must have their own adventures as Kami watches on proudly– during her off time from university, of course!
4. Seth from More Than This: I know it will ruin the whole literary-ness (that’s a word, right?) of the novel to find out what happens next … BUT DAMMIT I NEED TO KNOW!
5. Eleanor & Park: Yeah, there needs to be a sequel with them in college. I don’t even care if they break up, I just need to know that they still hang out and care about each other.

Nafiza

1. Tiger Lily and Tinkerbell from Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
   In this reimagined tale narrated by Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily becomes the complex and complicated protagonist. This book gutted me in a good way (snerk) but I really want to know what happens next. The ending, oh that ending, ahhhh. I just want some happiness.
2. Kenzie from Small Damages by Beth Kephart
   Okay, this book ends in a good way, on a promise. But…I want to see the promise fulfilled. I want to remain in the world Kephart created because it was so wonderful.
3. Flora from Flora’s Trilogy by Ysabeau S. Wilce
   I can’t believe the third book ended where it did. -_- How can I not want more?
4. Kate from Plain Kate by Erin Bow
   Because, once again, I want some happiness. T . T
5. Gabriel from Outcast by Adrienne Kress
   Surely…that cannot be the end. Right? Please? *resumes weeping*

Steph

Haha, Janet, I agree. Hence the general hatred for the Epilogue from The Deathly Hallows… Why? Can’t you just end, battle won on an hopeful but uncertain note- isn’t that life? Hopeful but uncertain.

1. Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa from Battle Royale. I’m curious if these two survivors of the Battle Royale made it to safety, stayed together, what are they doing now? How are they coping? Haha, I suppose this is kind of a spoiler…
2. I’m totally with Yash and want to know the fate of Seth from More Than This, but I’ll just go ahead and name Patrick Ness’ other work – I want to know about Todd and Viola from the Chaos Walking series. I’d just like to know if things worked out and if they did. Though of course, I can never know because we have a Giver-sque ending which means, it’s up to the reader. Damn you Patrick Ness and all your literary-ness.
3. Wouldn’t it be kinda cool to know how those childhood classics grew up? Alice and Dorothy and Peter. I know there are lots of contemporary adaptations and stuff, and I think this is the draw. We just want to imagine how these very archetypal characters turned out. But it would be interesting if we could just ask the authors themselves what they imagined! In that vein I think it would be fun to see a grown up Coraline or our own classics…. What is Tintin doing now?
4. I’m having a hard time coming up with recent characters because generally we get series and then weird epilogues or I’m so done by the time I get through the third installment that I don’t want to know anymore… OR I’m just waiting for the next book, lol and the end isn’t even nigh yet.