By Chance by Martin Corrick. The genre is realistic fiction or literary fiction, but it’s written with a bit of whimsy and mystery that sort of reminds me of magical realism. Most of the book is a character study of the shy, thoughtful protagonist. It alternates between his his quiet married life in the past and a trip to a distant island in the present. And then- wham. You learn a secret from the character’s past that seems to come out of nowhere, and to go completely against character, but also seems pretty much inevitable. I loved this book.
The Paper Men by William Golding also has an ending that makes a lot of sense. It’s basically about these two insufferable men making each other miserable and chasing each other all over Europe, but somehow I enjoyed it? The ending was sudden and shocking, but logical.
In Bruges is a movie, but it’s also a pretty striking example of an ending that just… works. It’s sort of a blend between comedy and tragedy. One thing that tickles me about this movie is that every little detail is important later on, even things that seem totally insignificant. Not in an annoying, Lost conspiracy theory kind of way, but in a satisfying way that shows the writers did their homework. The whole thing has this dry, dark sort of humor to it, and at the end everything perfectly comes together. As a warning, this movie has violence, a ton of swearing (link obviously NSFW), drug use, and just about everything else that earns a movie an R rating. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the storytelling is just so awesome that this is one of my favorites.