Spoiler alert!!

I pre-read the endings of books.

Yup, that’s right, with many of the books I read, I flip to the back of the book to get a sense of the ending, often before I’ve finished the first 50 pages. Sometimes it’s the last chapter, sometimes only the last page or two, but book endings get read out of turn fairly often with me. While there are many of you who I’m sure are gasping in horror right now, I find this practice to be comforting, sound and in no way affects my enjoyment of the book overall. In fact, I find that it enhances my enjoyment of the book. For those of you who haven’t closed your browsers in disgust by now, allow me to explain.

I get book anxiety. I consider the characters in many of the books I read to be as real to me as the wonderful patrons that visit the South Branch. Book characters may not be flesh-and-blood, but they invade my heart and mind nonetheless and I feel engaged and empathetic towards these author creations. This makes for a wonderfully enriching reading experience, but it has a downside. When I start getting attached to a character, I start to worry for them as they enter into trials, tribulations or (often in my case) dangerous magical encounters. Because I’ve grown attached to them, I feel like I need at least some sense of assurance that they can come out of the situation OK (or if they don’t give myself time to prepare and/or grieve). For those who read to find out the ending, this may sound like utter blasphemy. But for someone who enjoys reading classics in which the endings are generally known in advance, having a sense of the ending of a story doesn’t preclude my enjoyment of it.

Most people don’t read Romeo and Juliet in high school only to be surprised by the fact that the two lovers die in the end. But it’s still read in schools because Shakespeare’s language, plot structure and other elements of the play still hold up despite knowing the ending. The same goes for re-reading a favorite book. Knowing the ending allows the mind to free up and notice elements of the book that may not have been noticed before because of preoccupation with the plot. The same ideas apply to me, even just reading a book once. Knowing the ending frees up my mind to enjoy the plot’s movement forward and possibly notice other elements in the book that I might have missed because I was so stressed about this character making it or missing clues in a mystery because I’m too busy trying to figure out who the killer is. While it may not work for everyone, in the end, I end up appreciating the author’s work more once my anxiety has been eased somewhat. For me, the joy’s in the ride, not necessarily the destination.

For the longest time, I thought I was the only one who disrupted the “natural” order of books. I encounter so many people who are protective against hearing spoilers and would never even conceive of looking at the last pages of a book prior to reading all that had come before. But then I had one of many wonderful bookish conversations with our blogger-in-residence Arabella and discovered that, no, I’m not the only one who does this. There are others who have book anxiety and simply need to know that a particular character makes it through until the end, or an animal comes through unscathed (a phenomenon so common, in fact, that there is an entire website devoted to knowing whether or not an animal dies in the movies) or even just to clarify a point that was suggested at the beginning and isn’t making sense partway through the book. So if you’re like me (and Arabella) and you sometimes just need to know that a character is OK, here are some (spoiler-free) suggestions where I’ve definitely taken a peek at the end.

Death Descends on Saturn Villa by M. R. C. Kasasian

This is the 3rd installment in Kasasian’s Gower St. Detective series and I’ve enjoyed them all. Kasasian has created a delightful tongue-in-cheek Sherlockian-type London with a strong but flawed heroine (my favorite kind!) and a curmudgeonly misanthropic but brilliant anti-hero. The effect is engaging, entertaining and occasionally hilarious. However, this book had an introduction that completely threw me for a loop, compelling me to double-check the ending. My fears allayed, I ended up enjoying this book a fair amount because Kasasian changed the format a bit from the previous two books, keeping the series from getting stale.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Despite the fact that when I read this book I knew full well that a sequel was coming out (it came out in March- woo hoo!), I still needed to flip to the end of this book to see how the characters fared. This book is well-structured with peaks and valleys of action and excitement while still creating characters with depth. Oh, and Deliliah Bard is another of those amazing female characters.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

When the Lynburn family returns to the small English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, the sleepy state of the town gets wildly disrupted with magic and Kami Glass finds out that her “imaginary friend” is actually a flesh-and-blood person. This is one of those books that, even after I peeked at the ending, I still couldn’t believe it and despite knowing it, the reasoning behind it took me by surprise.

The Clasp by Sloane Crosley

Crosley’s biting wit, usually demonstrated in essay form, is used this time in a novel that’s a modern take on Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace.” While I didn’t find the characters so well drawn and empathetic as to be nail biting as many of the other books I read, the action in the novel came together so quickly, I almost didn’t have time to flip to the end, but I still felt I needed to get a sense of the ending in order to appreciate the characters and the plot more.

As we have said before in different ways, all readers have the utmost right to read whatever they choose. But this not only applies to reading material, but also to the way a reader chooses to read books. Whether you like to take a sampling from the beginning, middle and end of a book so you know what you’re getting into, or you just like to flip to a few pages to ease your mind or if you hold the ending of a book as sacrosanct, never to be arrived upon until its appointed time, you have the right to read however you choose. I will always respect a reader’s right to be surprised just as much as I respect the right of the reader to take a sneak peek. Till next week, dear readers, I’m off to spoil another ending for myself…