How’d you feel about the ending in Dead Ever After, the final book in the Sookie Stackhouse/TrueBlood series?

A couple of weeks ago I decided to read the Sookie Stackhouse (TrueBlood) books and I finished Dead Ever After, the final book, last night.

I am so mad, what the fuck was that ending?

Harris spent most of the series building this compelling, tension filled relationship with Eric. Sookie never looks at Sam twice. And she chooses to have Sookie end up with Sam?

I was reading on Kindle and didn’t realize the last 10% of the book was Q&A, so literally up until the last paragraph I was plotting in my head how Eric and her would work out.

I know it’s labeled “mystery,” but so much of Sookie’s character growth is through her relationships. Romance is a huge portion of the book, too. And the “rule” in romance is that the main couple gets their happily ever after.

I’m just glad I only spent two weeks reading this. I couldn’t imagine how betrayed I would have felt if I read this in real time over 13 years.

I think most endings of series are anti-climatic because you have your own opinions for how the book should have ended and the author is trying to live up to the fandom’s expectations. But this is the first time I refuse to accept the ending as real and will be writing my own epilogue as my head canon where Eric and Sookie do end up together.

It was also, in my opinion, a poorly written book. It truly felt like she was trying to have this bombastic ending by bringing back all of the old love interests and big bads, and it was like, dear god how many enemies can one person have!

There’s not a lot of discussions out there on this book, the reviews on Good Reads from 2013 were funny and in line with my own. It seems like Harris and the publishing company were trying to call the fandom dramatic after its release. How’d you feel about the ending, especially if you read it upon release? It appears to have had an equivalent negative reaction as the final season of Game of Thrones.