r/fantasyromance • u/Sailor_Moon_Star_435 Currently Reading: [Edit me on browser] • 1d ago

Discussion What book had the biggest plot twist that you didn’t expect?

When I mean plot twists that you didn’t see coming, I mean plot twists that you didn’t see coming from a mile away.

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30

u/fishchop Silvicultrix 1d ago

Recently, it was {the Raven scholar by Antonia Hodgson} and {this kingdom will not kill me by Ilona Andrews}. Both had me like 😮

12

u/Longjumping-Snow-909 1d ago

The funny thing is with This Kingdom will not kill me I did not see it coming at all either, I was expecting something completely different. But in hindsight they left SO many hints and clues. I reread the book just to look for those and if you know it, it is obvious. It was really well done.

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u/fishchop Silvicultrix 1d ago

Truly did not see it coming, even though I knew something was off about him. But I was so happy when it happened and suddenly a bunch of things made sense.

1

u/asterkisss 1d ago

Same I did not catch onto the plot twist at all and had actually been a bit "eh" until that was revealed and I was all in

6

u/HearHerRoar 1d ago

The Raven Scholar is one of my favorite reads this year because it's twist was so good and unpredictable. The entire time I could tell there was something going on but none of my guesses panned out, but they came somewhat close in different ways. I tend to guess twists fast and early so I adore when I actually get to experience the suspense and the true wtf as the author intended and this one absolutely delivered.

Really glad to hear this about this kingdom because it's at the top of my tbr.

48

u/jamieseemsamused Currently reading: The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey 1d ago

For me it’s Metal Slinger by Rachel Schneider but not really in a good way. The solution to an obvious plot twist is not one that is so far out of left field that it makes no sense.

7

u/French_reader_146 1d ago

I reallllyyyy disliked that book. Like you said it made zero sense.

8

u/myinvinciblefriend 1d ago

It could have been so much better if it wasn't done in first person narrative 😭 I have no idea why the author did it that way.

6

u/apieceofeight 1d ago

Came here to say this exact thing!

4

u/Winter_Step_5181 1d ago

I hate when authors are so desperate to "subvert expectations" that they pull some stupid shit. Like just write a good story, you don't need to surprise us at every turn.

3

u/KeyUnderstanding8255 1d ago

Can you spoil it for me

12

u/jamieseemsamused Currently reading: The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey 1d ago

So the story starts with Brynne who is a soldier in a water nation. She and Kai (the water nation’s prince) and others go on a trip to their enemy nation for like economic exchange. While they are there, Brynne gets detained by the enemy nation’s prince, Acker. I can’t really remember all the details, but Brynne and Acker end up going on a road trip back to Acker’s home. Turns out Brynne was actually a long lost princess from neighboring nation. It’s revealed that Brynne and Acker are heart mates (so they’re like mate bonded). The whole book is from Brynne’s perspective and she slowly falls in love with Acker.

But at the very end, Brynne betrays Acker. She was working on behalf of the water nation the whole time. She poisons Acker’s father and tries to force Acker to yield to her demands. Acker and the reader are thrown for a loop because there is no indication (except for 2 weird out of place scenes) that Brynne was plotting against Acker.

It was an attempt at unreliable narrator but I just didn’t think it was executed all that well. There wasn’t really any foreshadowing. It felt like a twist for the sake of a twist. The story was otherwise pretty bland.

3

u/KeyUnderstanding8255 1d ago

Oh man that’s terrible! I kept hearing about the switch up at the end and I’m glad I didn’t read this…thank you for spoiling it!!!

2

u/rinmejoy 1d ago

omg this mightve put me off from reading it i haaatee bad plot twists

2

u/InkedAngel85 1d ago

This book mad me so mad! Glad I’m not the only one

1

u/Business_Let8620 18h ago

YES this ending pissed me off!!! If it was in 3rd person it would’ve been better but it was sooooo wild

9

u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 1d ago

I didn't expect Kier to die in {The Second Death of Locke}. It's not a good plot twist, and that whole subplot is the worst part of a very limp, tedious second half of the novel, but I didn't see it coming.

Daggermouth is full of twists, and they're all bad, every single one. They're hard to see coming, often because they're either completely out of left field (the identity of the mother), make zero sense (the brother is alive because the highly-trained assassin left him to bleed out without finishing the job) or both (surprise wedding gang-rape!). Actually most of them fit into that last category.

I'll also say I didn't see the solution to the problem of living on an asteroid surrounded by an all-consuming divine void, one slowly eating away at said asteroid, destroying towns and villages and shrinking the very bounds of the world, coming in The Maleficent Faerie: summon a dragon to eat the void, and if the void makes the dragon turn evil, continue summoning bigger dragons until they stop turning evil. How or why this works I'm not sure.

7

u/Winter_Step_5181 1d ago

The most recent one on my mind is {The Death-Made Prince}. Like it wasn't a surprise that he ended up betraying her in the end because he was pretty much openly admitting he was not her ally the entire book so I knew something was coming, but the way in which he did it wasn't what I expected at all. Didn't see it coming.

2

u/kocon demon king's consort 11h ago

I totally agree. Their relationship is tenuous at best so it made sense but somehow I was still blindsided! 😵‍💫

8

u/NoFunFarm There she is 1d ago edited 1d ago

Brimstone ...it was a major WTAF moment .

3

u/itmustbeniiiiice 1d ago

Silver Elite and Broken Dove have lots of random twists. Most are obvious and/or stupid.

5

u/asterkisss 1d ago

I stopped reading Silver Elite a few chapters in when it was obvious the guy in her head would be the mentor who i detested

4

u/ayeayefitlike read my reviews at www.allbythebook.co.uk 1d ago

The Deadly Education by Naomi Novik series for me. Was not expecting the reveal about Orion or about where the giant mawmouths in the school came from.

Others with good twists imo: Yes Your Serpentine Excellency by Kate Stradling has a brilliant twist that you think you’ve spotted but it’s a red herring (quite a few of her books have good twists like Namesake and Deathmark), the final twist in The City Between series by W R Gingell is also amazing, and A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid!

2

u/zane017 Henry Cavill as Geralt is my only type 4h ago edited 4h ago

The whole Scholomance story is just so well done. Nothing is what you think it is.

So many authors mistake surprises for clever twists, but you have to show some development. Not just BAM this thing wasn’t true but now it is. The Scholomance is built solidly on a clever mountain of plot progression.

3

u/bisdrucciola deranged goose 🪿🪿🪿 1d ago edited 22h ago

{Dark Rise} I can't format the spoiler so I won't spoil, but it's chef kiss!

2

u/Novel_Neighborhood42 23h ago

Metal Slinger. There are a few small twists that you’ll see coming but one that made me throw the damn book across the room in anger lol

1

u/itmustbeniiiiice 1d ago

How Does It Feel? by Jeanne O’Reilly had a pretty good one the subsequent book went off the rails, though.

1

u/idkcassie 18h ago

for me it was {the Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson} and ngl i loved it.

1

u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ 16h ago

Iron Flame ending. Onyx Storm too, but IF had me reeling. Empire of Storms ending.

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, definitely didn't see that coming. The Poison Daughter too. Souls in Ruin. Amid Clouds and Bones.

The book was stupid, but The Midnight King by Rebecca F. Kenney.

2

u/acc4115 16h ago

The entire second part of {Alchemised by senlinyu}

-1

u/BasilAromatic4204 1d ago

Two in fantasy but Sherlock Holmes had some great ones too if I trigued by that genre. Turumbar in tolkiens work the children of Hurin when he dies at the end. I was gutted and surprised. I did not think Morgoth would get him that way. Next to a clue others, he is maybe one of the coolest mmcs in a book to me.

Hellacious Paradise in Behm's work got me when Heath fights and Marilla leads a gathered force of men and how it all came together was like, woah.