What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

So this entire query will likely result in SPOILERS...I apologise in advance...


Examples (spoilers):
So Valjean dies at the end of Les Misérables and Phantom at the end of The Phantom of the Opera and if I kept going through the classics (especially) or tragedy (i.e. Shakespeare) I could come up with dozens more.

But I'm curious--what about other (contemporarily written) books (can be historical, mystery, fantasy, etc.) have "major character" deaths? I can think of a mystery series where a major character died (Will Trent) several books into the series...or something like The Lovely Bones where character is dead...

Just curious -- books when you become attached to a major character (or major secondary character) and then they die and the book keeps going. (In some ways I am a little less interested in series, as by their nature, they are more likely to have deaths in the course of the books, but am open to ideas.)

Well, there's The Princess Bride, but he's only mostly dead.

Speaking of William Goldman, from one of his memoirs I believe David Baldacci's Absolute Power would count, but I haven't read it myself.

There was a Shadowrun RPG tie-in novel that killed off its protagonist and switched over to a new main character, but I've forgotten the title and I don't recommend it in any case. What really annoyed me was that the character was a dwarf, so significantly shorter than a human, but he was magically disguised to look like a human, so his illusionary self was taller than his real self. Then in the battle where he dies he's killed with a head shot. Except anyone who shot the illusion in the head would miss the dwarf by a good two feet. Feh.

The Wings of a Falcon is the first one I thought of.

What Dreams May Come is all about a major character's death, and what comes after.

Don't want to give anything away, but (view spoiler)[death of a major character also plays a major part (hide spoiler)] in Bridge to Terabithia.

There are multiple surprise deaths of major and secondary characters in the Harry Potter series as well.

The Good Husband

Flora

Me before you by Jojo Moyes. The book doesn't really continue but there is a prequel, I believe.

Also, not quite the same but

I've read Harry Potter, thanks--definitely agree about some major character deaths there.

Joseph -- read What Dreams May Come; isn't that what the movie was based on with Robin Williams, also? (Title from Shakespeare's Hamlet, of course)

Wings of a Falcon sounds interesting--can it be read as a stand alone? (It looks like it is book 3)?

Jenna wrote: "Joseph -- read What Dreams May Come; isn't that what the movie was based on with Robin Williams, also? (Title from Shakespeare's Hamlet, of course)"

Yep. Great movie, even better book.

Absolute Power, Flora, Good Husband all sounds interesting...thanks!

Every book by Nicholas Sparks seems to have this premise, or maybe it's just the few I've read! Also The Fault in Our Stars for sure.

Jenna wrote: "Wings of a Falcon sounds interesting--can it be read as a stand alone? (It looks like it is book 3)?"

Yes -- it's set in the same world as the others, but there's minimal overlap. I read it years before I read any of her other books.

Stephen King can be pretty heartless about killing off main characters. The Tommyknockers is an example, so is The Running Man (different ending to the movie!)

George R. R. Martin is also pretty notorious for it in the Game of Thrones series.

Mind of Winter
Nude Men
Vapor
Watership Down

Just found a list on TV Tropes - look in the Literature section: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...

Which reminds me: 1984 and The Great Gatsby also fall into this category.

Thanks for the other suggestions, all; appreciate it.

Melissa--you're right, Nicholas Sparks does do that...I should have thought of him.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Lie Down in Darkness begins with the reader finding out about a death, then backtracks so we get to know the dead woman and a bit about her life story and how she died.

Do you want the death to be a surprise?

The Game of Thrones books
Lonesome Dove
Black Hawk Down

Lobster girl wrote Do you want the death to be a surprise?

I'm equivocal -- in the sense that it's not quite the same thing if you know the character has some wasting disease from page 1 (a la La Dame aux Camélias or Scènes de la vie de bohème...it certainly can be...

A Game of Thrones is pretty much defined by your request. You've probably seen the picture of the hardbacks with all the deaths marked by post it flags.

I meant to say Lonesome Dove up above

The Mayor of Casterbridge has about 3 deaths spread out over the book.

Jenna wrote: "So Valjean dies at the end of Les Misérables and Phantom at the end of The Phantom of the Opera and if I kept going through the classics (especially) or tragedy (i.e. Sha..."

Oi. How do you guys help us with blocking your reveals with spoilers covers, huh?

One of Ours
The Radetzky March

You need to read the Book Of Time. Great Book! I think you will love it! http://amzn.to/27RRgPv

Well, I chucked the sequel to North and South across the room when a major character died, and never finished the trilogy, despite loving the first book. I was that angry.

There is a significant character death in The Fellowship of the Ring that is unexpected, and one at the end that maybe is.

a song of ice and fire (A Game of Thrones) should come with a body bag

Recently finished Brown On Resolution and there's an MC death in that but its sort of at the end.

Great (somewhat unknown) book by the author of the Hornblower series btw...

I would say the Scarpetta series, it takes a few books for a character death, but there are a few...(although I don't think anyone would mourn a certain male or female death by the latest installments) Postmortem, but things aren't always what they seem.

Perhaps the Robin Cook books (medical mysteries). There is usually a death somewhere, often of a family member.

Dracula certainly has some MC deaths.

If you don't mind graphic novel/comic book format The Walking Dead, Compendium 1 would certainly fit your request.

In the fantasy genre, perhaps the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey or the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind?

Have you read Game of Thrones and the subsequent books? Spoiler: everybody dies

Melissa: spoiler: everybody dies! LOL.

I've tried...but have really had difficulty getting into it. don't know why.

Forgot about Radeztky March, which I read years ago.

Yes, North and South fits -- I read that when I was in high school...

Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven? by Erica Orloff comes to mind for a main character that dies.

Pedro Páramo. Narrator dies. Keeps narrating.

Lis wrote: "Pedro Páramo. Narrator dies. Keeps narrating."

I kinda like that approach. It reminds me of the movie classic Sunset Blvd. Sometime ago I even started a listopia list of books with Dead Narrators https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Quite a recent book - when (view spoiler)[Georgia (hide spoiler)] dies in Feed.

The Magic Mountain - at least 2 characters that I remember. This book is a big time commitment....great though.

Howards End. Two major secondary characters, from what I remember.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth; made me wish I hadn't read any of the series.

The Blue Hour

Sometimes I use the goodreads tragedy section to look for these kind of books. https://www.goodreads.com/genres/tragedy

My suggestion is The Time Traveler's Wife

I'll have to follow this post. I like books that I don't feel like the characters are always safe in. It's hard to find them.

From the book's cover you might guess that this book includes a main character death but it came as kind of a spoiler to me. It made it one of the saddest books I've ever read.

The Go-Between

That reminds me! Wool Omnibus - there's a few protagonists in this collection, so I won't spoil it by telling you which ;)

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx - from the description: "The circumstances of Molly Marx’s death may be suspicious, but she hasn’t lost her joie de vivre. Newly arrived in the hereafter, aka the Duration, Molly, thirty-five years old, is delighted to discover that she can still keep tabs on those she left behind..."

It's on my to read list, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Deep Water

The Harry Potter series has several significant character deaths.

Bearing the Body

Taking Chances