The Spoiler Reviews

I read the last page of a book first.

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Throughout my life, people have told me to stop doing this; they tell me that it “ruins the book”, but I don’t think so. For many people, that could be true. In my opinion, reading the end of a book first allows you to see all the work that the author puts into their novel.

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Knowing the ending allows you to see the foreshadowing and better understand character motivations. Hypothetically, if you learn a character is the secret murderer—then when reading the book, you are able to see the hints that the author has left along the way. You’re able to see when that character acts suspiciously. If that character throws another under the bus for doing something, you’re able to work out their intentions. I find it exciting to understand this fuller context. If anything, it helps me to understand and track the author’s literary development over the course of the novel.

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As the author writes, they know the plot twists. They know the ending. They understand the feelings and the backstories of every character and make careful choices about how these things will impact character motivations and actions. By having that peek at the end of the book, it’s easier for the reader to see that, too.

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It is my opinion that knowing the destination allows you to understand the journey more. Instead of anxiously waiting to know how the story ends, I’m enjoying how we get there.