"First sentences are doors to worlds," author Ursula K. Le Guin famously said. And while this may be true, it's the final lines that often stay with us long after we've finished reading.
Some of the best final lines are disruptive, like cannons suddenly firing one last expletive before leaving us with silence. Great final lines will sometimes leave us cursing the author, and other times make us close the book with a deep sense of satisfaction that everything has been neatly packaged up. While some authors will throw readers off with a discerning change of tone or curveball, others use the final passage to reflect on the events of the book, often with a nod to the future.
