Don't You Hate It When . . . ?

Potential Spoilers for Bruce Coville's Unicorn Chronicles
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Don’t you just hate it when you come to the end of a good book only to discover it’s not the end? It’s one thing if you know you are reading a book that is part of a series. It’s quite another thing if you didn’t know this or if you were under the impression the book you were reading was going to wrap everything up.

This happened to me recently with a Bruce Coville book. Let me say right now, I love Bruce Coville’s books. I’ve enjoyed everyone I’ve read. And I love his Full Cast Audio productions. However, if he’d been within slapping distance last week, I probably would have slapped him. When I first started working on my MLS one of the first classes I took was a class in children’s literature. That year Bruce Coville was the keynote speaker at the USM Children’s Book Festival and we are all assigned several of his books to read. I started The Unicorn Chronicles and absolutely loved them. The Unicorn Chronicles is the story of Cara Dianna Hunter who is a human child descended from the queen of the unicorns, Amelia Flickerfoot, also known as the Wander or Ivy Morris when in human form. Cara and the unicorns, along with a host of other creatures are involved with a dispute with Beloved (from who Cara is also descended), a centuries old woman who hates unicorns. Beloved established The Hunters in order to hunt unicorns into oblivion. Cara’s adventures take her from earth to Luster, the land of the unicorns.

Of course, when I started the series there were only two books. And it’s been a long wait for book three, Dark Whispers. Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that this third book would wrap up the story all nice and neat. Can’t think why I had that impression. As I’ve looked back over the notices I had read about the release of this new book, nothing indicated that it was the end of the story. I guess it was just wishful thinking on my part – not because I am tired of the story line – far from it – but maybe because I wanted the characters to reach closure. I like the characters. I want them to have a happy ending. But, I guess that’s a story for another time. I wasn’t expecting a cliff hanger, hence why I would have slapped Bruce if he’d been close. (I exaggerate; I’m not really the violent type.) At least, since I was listening to the story on audio while driving, I wasn’t able to toss the book across the room in frustration and run the risk of hitting an innocent bystander. (I’ve been known to toss a book or two – if really moved one way or the other.) I do have to admit that Coville wrote a great cliff hanger.

The good thing is that my son, Ryan, who only heard bits and pieces of the story, asked me to get him a copy of the first book. Now he’s looking forward to reading the whole series.

So, what cliffhangers really drove you over the edge?