How Does Little Deaths End?

Question

As a fan of Ava Glass's espionage novel, I'm dreading spoilers but craving a satisfying ending. Did the final chapter deliver an intense, emotional payoff for the main characters?

Kyle Drake Newton · Answer

Warning: The ending for Little Deaths is rather final for the main character and his ‘manifestations of death’. If you’re looking for a really conclusive ending for a feature, then you may find Dying in Three, Two, One more satisfying. It’s a thrilling feature which ends with the hero of the story being put into a countdown of deadly events in front of an audience, with the only way to save himself being a final, desperate gamble and complete change of rules to the game as he’s perceived it.

Hannah · Answer

The resolution of the fate of Ruth Malone in ‘Little Deaths’ is an inevitable but shocking event. After the accusations against her, her trial, her children being taken from her, she is found innocent in a court of law but destroyed on the human level. The silence of the final book is wonderful in that we are left to wonder whether she was guilty of the crimes that she was accused of committing or just another victim of human prejudice. The final scene of the novel is of great power. Ruth lights a cigarette with shaky hands. She has managed to do the one thing that she can do. The rest of her life will collapse around her but for now she has managed to do this one thing. This is the struggle between appearance and reality that is portrayed in the book.

Liam · Answer

I was unable to put this book down once I reached the end of the chapters. In ‘Little Deaths’ by Emma Flint there is one ending to the book and one ending to the events that unravel before Frankie’s disappearance. In terms of the trial Ruth Malone is acquitted of the murders of her two children but it is not left clear whether she received justice or whether her gender and her manner of dress led to her being perceived in a certain way by those around her. Instead we are left with the impression that despite the outcome Ruth’s character will remain enigmatic and we see her walking away from court, still an enigma, still a chain smoker of cigarettes.

This is not a book that easily settles and finishes up and makes sense of everything. Flint refuses to give us any easy answers and the way that the media and the police portray Ruth as a guilty party is a really interesting take on how perception and truth can be affected by the way that people perceive others. The ending of the book is very ambiguous and the fact that I have spent days after finishing it poring over the final chapters to try and work out what really happened to Frankie and whether Ruth had any hand in her disappearance, only to come to different conclusions every time about what really happened, is the mark of a really good thriller.

Valerie · Answer

What an emotionally draining ending to “Little Deaths”. It was really heartbreaking to read Ruth Malone’s story, and how she watched her life fall apart under suspicion of murder and how the tiniest thing was used against her in court. The ending was so drained of excitement, and when Ruth was finally found Not Guilty, I wasn’t even relieved for her. The justice system had failed her, but in some ways, she had failed herself too. The image of her in the last chapter, alone, but still performing the perfect feminine woman was so devastating. I think this is another example of how women are constantly being punished for not fitting the ideal of feminine perfectness, even when they’re given complete freedom.

As for Pete Wonicke, I couldn’t help but feel like he is another victim of this tragedy. The way that he became more and more entrenched in the story of Ruth Malone’s trial was unbelievable. In the end he is left a quiet and disillusioned man who has been duped by the very thing that he had tried to expose (the manner in which the tabloids can exploit tragedy for profit). It was a very realistic ending for him and for the story as a whole. In life we are not provided with nice, clean endings and Little Deaths is a story that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

racingmom1 · Answer

This ending is unsettling and for good reason. It is not a simple and satisfying conclusion to the story of Elodie and her healing. Yes, she has been healed from her fears, but she is not whole yet. In fact, her scars are still visible. She occasionally catches her reflection in a window or mirror and there is a split second where she sees the fearful woman she once was. Elodie’s peace is not a constant state for her but something she has to choose every morning. Marcus is not portrayed as this wretched man who has no joy in his life. He is just empty. And that is his punishment. I found this to be a deeply unsettling ending but it was intentional. Some debts cannot be paid off. But that does not mean that Elodie is not free. She is free from having to tally up the rest of her life to those past hurts. The ending was very real and it has been sticking with me long after I finished reading the book. It didn’t give me the emotional closure that I had been searching for but that is probably because it was more realistic than that.

Dency · Answer

I didn’t set out to write a twisty novel with a big reveal, but rather a novel with an open-ended conclusion that settles like dust after an explosion. All of the major reveals in the novel happen in the third act, and then the rest of the book is dealing with the aftermath of that. Rather than using her skills to destroy Marcus, Elodie architects her own exit from the situation. A lot of the physical confrontation with Marcus is replaced by a very tense scene where Elodie methodically deletes all of their shared digital history: emails, photos, playlists. The last line of the novel is her thinking “Tomorrow.” Simple. But powerful after everything she’s been through. It’s a statement of hope for a future and a promise that she’s building that future for herself, one day at a time, without Marcus.

Tim McKee · Answer

Honestly? I’m just reading along here because everyone else seems to be analyzing all of the symbolism and resolution of emotions that there is in the novel and I have to appear as though I am doing the same. It’s been a month or so since I finished reading The German Girl and to be honest, for the most part, I was stressed reading it. And then the end finally arrived and I was relieved because I didn’t have to worry about the fictional woman any more. Does she end up with the pastry chef from the bakery? I have no idea. Perhaps the novel wasn’t even supposed to be a love story. I suppose I would have to read it again when I’m not reading it as a thriller to get more out of it. It looks so much deeper than I gave it credit for, however. Perhaps I should borrow my friend’s copy.

Chege · Answer

This is a classic metaphor that has been used by many other authors. But it is used here with such understated simplicity and elegance that it is new and powerful. For the entire novel Elodie’s horizon has been blocked by buildings and by rain. She has also been unable to see anything clearly through her obsessive thinking. On the small hill where she finds herself she has at last a view of the vastness of the sky and of the curved earth. For the first time in her life her mind has space to expand beyond the immediate crisis of her life and to consider the possibilities of the future. We do not know what the future will hold for her but it is certainly wide open.

reeswift · Answer

There were no loud, explosive final scenes for me. Instead, the final confrontation of the book was extremely quiet, very intimate and painful. We finally understood Elodie’s decision in terms of her not wanting to seek vengeance, but rather to break a cycle of pain. Her loss and Marcus’s loss are not the same, but both are very painful. The final scene of the book with Elodie at the river, alone, with the rain falling around her, sitting on an empty bench is so melancholy. It’s not a happy ending. The book does not end on a neat note, with all problems solved. Rather there is a clean acknowledgment of pain and that is all. It’s a very heavy, yet very cathartic feeling. The sense is of something very true having been revealed to us. That we have witnessed the great burden of pain that is carried by others for them. The end of the book stayed with me for days, and in that time gave me so much to think about in terms of the choices that had been made by all the characters before. Very sad, but also very true.

I sat in silence for about 10 minutes after finishing the book. I felt so hollow, but at the same time at peace.

How Does Little Deaths End?

9 Answers

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