8 Answers2026-03-06
Talking about the ending of this book without giving away major plot points is kind of like trying to describe water without getting wet. The climax of the book centers around a crucial choice the main character makes regarding her identity and her power. As for the ‘mermaid’ part of the title American Mermaid, it becomes a real, terrifying thing in the story. The way the story resolves is very bitter but also, in its own strange way, hopeful. The book is definitely a subversion of the typical ‘fantasy coming-of-age’ story and it grounds the consequences of the main character’s actions in very real, very psychological space. I felt exhausted but satisfied at the end of the book. It didn’t end in a nice, tied up bow. In fact, the ending is very much not a happy-ever-after where the main character can just go back to her normal life. Instead, the book is more interested in asking the question of what normal would even look like for someone who is fundamentally and magically different from everyone else.
9 Answers2025-12-04
For me, the ending of the film focuses most on the butler, Perrier, as his ‘death’ is the central event that kick-starts the chaos of the rest of the film. Seeing him get up from the floor, absolutely fine, and be handed an ‘A’ by Twain was the perfect end to his character’s journey as he was playing a part the whole time. His transformation from ‘dead’ butler to much-respected employee of the household, receiving accolades from all, is the final visual joke to emphasize the highly theatrical nature of the film. He takes a bow. In a small moment, all of the film’s key themes are sum up perfectly: nothing is as it seems and everything is all part of the show.
9 Answers2025-06-26
I read the ending so very differently to this. I thought it was a great subversion of the typical 'girl reporter solves cold case' story. She doesn't get to write the big scoop and get the promotion. Instead her fixations ruin her career and ruin her relationship with her closest friend.
The real ending to the book is that some mysteries are better left buried. They may not be solved but that doesn’t mean that the truth isn’t important. It’s just that uncovering it can cause so much pain and in the end not bring any healing to past wounds. A very powerful scene at the end with the main character’s uncle is heartbreakingly devastating. They both know a secret that will be taken to their grave.
It argues that closure is a myth we perpetuate in novels and true crime podcasts. In reality, life is messy and unclear. The solving of the crime within this novel was largely an afterthought, and the true subject of the book is the ways in which that traumatic event continued to affect the community long after it happened.
12 Answers2026-04-16
As a written episode, the series finale lacked central conflict. The central question of the episode for the majority of the audience was what was going to happen with the characters after graduation. This question was fairly internal and didn’t pose too much conflict to the characters. To address this, they created a plot with Ricky but it was introduced with no prior setup and as a result, it wasn’t connected to anything else in the episode. The result was that there was no narrative engine driving the episode. Instead, the episode was presented as a series of announcements regarding the futures of each of the main characters. The episode felt very static and very talky. It wasn’t a final story, it was a farewell tour.
6 Answers2025-08-28
Am I the only one who noticed the ‘copycat’ killer’s MO mirrored his own past commits? I noticed this almost immediately. It was a huge red flag for me. In retrospect, it makes sense that the copycat’s MO would mirror Byung-soo’s past commits. The copycat was a fictional stand-in for Byung-soo to grapple with his past crimes. The ending is brilliant and the way the writer masked this obvious reveal as a plot hole rather than stellar character development is pure genius.
8 Answers2025-12-08
For me, the best part of the book was the side character development, particularly the best friend of the main character. The best friend enabled the main character to be unhealthy for the vast majority of the book, and then in the end had a heart-wrenching argument with the main character where the best friend finally said, “I can’t follow you there.” The best friend then chose to go home and get healthy instead of sticking by his or her sick friend. Their goodbye was really the emotional climax of the book and completely different from the somewhat satisfying conclusion of the main plot.
5 Answers2026-05-03
Reading it as an extreme case of dissociation, Bateman is not connected to his actions. Instead he treats them to her as he would review a product. In the end the author is showing that this is not a personal matter of Bateman’s but rather a cultural one. Thus his lawyer’s dissociation from his confession is representative of everyone’s dissociation from the extreme evil that they facilitate in order to earn a living. The final tone is devoid of emotion and thus there is no need for explanation as there would be if there were a shared reality. Instead there are only competing simulations. And of course, in this simulation, there is plenty of ultra-violence.
12 Answers2025-10-22
This is the tragedy of a wasted talent, and a very poisoned gift. Because Conway was a clever man, extremely creative and a very skilled artist. He spent all his time devising a clever plan for revenge instead of devoting himself to his art. How cleverly he managed to pull off the plan is incredible, and how he managed to devise it is too. But the reason he did it is so, so sad. Conway had the talent to write a brilliant finale to his own life, but instead he chose to write a bitter and spiteful one. A very melancholic solution to a mystery, most end with the protagonist having to resort to making some pretty tough decisions, but this is on a whole different level.
6 Answers2025-06-23
Ugh, I basically skimmered the last 50 pages of this book or so. The middle was drivel to me, pages and pages of our protagonist worrying about his own anxiety, and by the end of it, I just wanted to be done reading. The huge monologue of the villain explaining everything was so very, very cliché. And the protagonist’s reaction to it was kind of bizarre and passive, too. I don’t know whether I just needed to be going slower to catch certain things, but as it was, I just wasn’t gripped by the rest of the book. The atmosphere was consistently, deeply wonderful throughout, but the way the plot resolved itself was kind of a letdown after all that effort. Often the journey of a mystery is far more engrossing than the solution of it all. For me, this was definitely one of them. A+ for atmosphere, B- for solution.
12 Answers2025-12-05
Structurally speaking, this is a circular narrative. The story begins with our protagonist failing to recognize the obvious, and ends with him recognizing something even more obvious, the love and support of his family, but this time he appreciates it. The final scene is almost a complete reversal of the first, shot for shot, but from a completely different perspective.
In the same kitchen, the same morning noises fill the air, but this time our hero is aware of them. The mystery was of minor importance to the film as a whole, what was important was our hero’s journey and the internal changes he went through. The final shot is of a beam of sunlight on the tablecloth. Simple. Yet at the same time, powerful and meaningful. It proves that the greatest mysteries are right before our very eyes, hidden in plain sight. We just have to have the time and awareness to notice them.