History WhamEpisode / Literature

* ''{{Animorphs}}'', Book 23, ''The Pretender'': Tobias learns that Prince Elfangor, the Andalite which gives the five humans their ability to morph, was his father. [[TimeyWimeyBall Sort of]]. All the more gut-wrenching because the entire plot of the book was, up that point, about him possibly finding a home and discovering it was a just a ploy by Visser Three to see if he knew anything. Guess which character is TheWoobie in the series?

* ''Ashes of Victory'' in David Weber's HonorHarrington series upsets ''everybody's'' applecart at the end! First, a "chess fork" assassination attempt forces Honor to choose among the important figures she could possibly save, ultimately handing a government over to corrupt incompetents. Meanwhile, the Soviet/France-during-the-Terror Haven undergoes upheavals even more drastic, from an unexpected quarter.

* The ''{{Wheel of Time}}'' manages to pull this off in several installments, most notably the endings of books 2: Rand revealing himself as the Dragon Reborn by fighting in the sky with Ba'alzamon, 3: the claiming of Callandor and Rand actually declaring himself the Dragon Reborn, 6: the battle at Dumai's Wells and the aftermath where the Aes Sedai swear fealty to Rand, and especially 9: the cleansing of the taint from saidin. Cranked UpToEleven in 12 with The Prophet getting executed by Faile ''in the prologue''; Egwene fending off a huge Seanchan attack on the White Tower, executing nearly the entire Black Ajah in a single day and FINALLY becoming Amyrlin of a united Aes Sedai; Rand killing both Semirhage and Graendal, starting to use the True Power and destroying the Choedan Kal. Robert Jordan was quite good at these.

** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' has the scene in [[spoiler:the graveyard, with Harry tied to a gravestone, Voldemort taking his blood, all sorts of other hideous stuff, him seeing his parents, ''priori incantatem'', the list goes on, but what takes the cake was the first death: Cedric Diggory]]. It started the whole AnyoneCanDie chain reaction. Almost all fans agree that that one chapter set up the DarkerAndEdgier vibe for the rest of the series.

** ''Changes''. There's a very good reason that this is the first book in the series to not have a two-word [[PunnyName Punny Title]]: the entire book, in a very big way, is basically a wham episode. [[spoiler: We find out that Harry has a daughter and that his mentor Ebenezar [=McCoy=] is his maternal grandfather. Harry's office, his car, and his apartment are all completely destroyed, along with almost all of his possessions. The White Council is on the verge of disintegrating; Ramirez and many of the younger Wardens have been imprisoned by the Council, and Luccio and a number of other older Wardens are missing. Harry accepts the position of Winter Knight, Susan dies ''at Harry's hand'', doing so in a way that takes THE ENTIRE FREAKING RED COURT with her, he finally makes a date with Murphy, and the book ends with [[CliffHanger Harry being shot in the chest and falling into a lake, his exact fate unknown]]. Oh, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Harry's duster gets destroyed]]]]. The whole book qualifies as a [[ClusterFBomb Cluster Wham Bomb]].

** ''[[HarryPotterandtheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]] has a good number of them, but special mention goes to the revelation [[spoiler:that Harry himself was a horcrux]].

* ''TheSagaOfDarrenShan'' has three contenders. "Killers of the Dawn" has Steve Leonard revealed to be a half-vapaneze, before he initiates a manhunt of Darren and his companions (while slaughtering his way out of a hospital), and it ends with Mr Crepsley having a HeroicSacrifice where he kills the Lord of the Vampaneze...only for his sacrifice to be rendered pointless when Steve reveals that ''he'' is the Vampaneze Lord. "Lake of Souls" reveals that the future is apparently a [[BadFuture twisted wasteland, filled with monsters, crazed tribespeople, and dragons]], with the implication that it is caused by the war between the vampires and vampaneze and "The Lord of Shadows" has the revelation that no matter who wins the war, either Darren or Steve is destined to become a raging and powerful tyrant, who will destroy their own clan, conquer the world, and turn it into the BadFuture at the same time as Steve invades his and Darren's home town, begins massacring people (including one of their childhood friends), [[MoralEventHorizon murders the infant son of one of Darren's friends]], and reveals that his own son is [[LukeIAmYourFather Darren's nephew]].

** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheSorcerersStone Sorcerer's/Philospher's Stone]]'' starts a series of wham ending right off the bat with the final chapter revealing that [[spoiler:Snape was a red herring, he wasn't trying to kill Harry, he was trying to save his life. Instead, Professor Quirrell, the supposed cowardly sad sack, was in fact the person setting the chain of events off. Oh, and the chapter title, Man with the Two Faces? That's not metaphorical, Quirrell has ''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Voldemort's face coming out of the back of his head!]]'']]
** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' has a couple, [[spoiler:''Hermione'' is petrified, ''Dumbledore'' is kicked out, Ron's little sister Ginny has been taken into the chamber, and Not only is Tom Riddle, who we thought was the hero of the last incident, behind everything, but he's also ''Lord Voldemort.'']]
** ''[[HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' reveals that [[spoiler:Sirius was innocent, and Wormtail was guilty. Oh! And Lupin's a werewolf]].
** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' has the scene in the [[spoiler:graveyard, with Harry tied to a gravestone, Voldemort taking his blood, all sorts of other hideous stuff, him seeing his parents, priori incantatem, the list goes on, and on, but what takes the cake was the first death: Cedric Diggory]]. It started the whole AnyoneCanDie chain reaction. Almost all fans agree that that one chapter set the entire series into the dark stuff.
** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' reveals that [[spoiler:It could have just been Neville instead of Harry because of the prophecy]].

** ''[[HarryPotterandtheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]] has a good number of them, but special mention goes to the revelation [[spoiler:that Harry was a horcrux]].

** ''Changes''. There's a very good reason that this is the first book in the series to not have a two-word PunnyTitle: the entire book, in a very big way, is basically a wham episode. [[spoiler: We find out that Harry has a daughter and that his mentor Ebenezar [=McCoy=] is his maternal grandfather. Harry's office, his car, and his apartment are all completely destroyed, along with almost all of his possessions. The White Council is on the verge of disintegrating; Ramirez and many of the younger Wardens have been imprisoned by the Council, and Luccio and a number of other older Wardens are missing. Harry accepts the position of Winter Knight, Susan dies ''at Harry's hand'', doing so in a way that takes THE ENTIRE FREAKING RED COURT with her, he finally makes a date with Murphy, and the book ends with [[CliffHanger Harry being shot in the chest and falling into a lake, his exact fate unknown]]. Oh, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Harry's duster gets destroyed]].]] The whole book qualifies as a [[ClusterFBomb Cluster Wham Bomb]].

* The ending of the ninth book of the BetsyTheVampireQueen series, ''Undead and Unfinished'', contains a wham that dramatically changes the tone of the series to DarkerAndEdgier.

*** Except that [[WildMassGuessing so many people were discussing the possibility of that from the moment they finished the penultimate book]].

* The eighth book in the PrettyLittleLiars series, Wanted. I will leave it at that.

** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' has a couple, [[spoiler:''Hermione'' is petrified, ''Dumbledore'' is kicked out, Ron's little sister Ginny has been taken into the chamber, and Not only is Tom Riddle, who we thought was the hero of the last incident, behind everything, but he's also ''Lord Voldemort.''

** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets]] has a couple, [[''Hermione'' is petrified, ''Dumbledore'' is kicked out, Ron's little sister Ginny has been taken into the chamber, and Not only is Tom Riddle, who we thought was the hero of the last incident, behind everything, but he's also ''Lord Voldemort.''

** Maybe not. In ''[[HarryPotterandtheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]], we learn [[spoiler:that Harry was a horcrux]]. I mean, come on. He dies. That has GOT to be a Wham Episode. If it isn't, nothing is.
*** Considering that JK Rowling was beating us over the head with it in ''[[HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince The Half-Blood Prince]]'', not really.
*** She wasn't. She was beating horcruxes over the head, maybe a little but, but does anyone ever expect the main character, especially such a beloved one, to die? No.
**** He got better. It barely counts.
** Could also be considered a wham series. I mean, it's impacted the world like nothing else. It has a THEME PARK. A seven book series. THEME. PARK.

** ''TheDarkTower/WizardAndGlass'': You were wondering where Randall Flagg was all this time? Now you do.

** ''TheGunslinger'': Roland betrays Jake and lets him fall to his death. He meets with The Man In Black and learns the true nature of the Tower, as well as the world the book takes place in.
** ''TheWastelands'': The meaning behind the ominous prophecies of Charlie The Choo-Choo become known through Blaine the Mono's FaceHeelTurn, and the book ends on a cliffhanger.
** ''WizardAndGlass'': You were wondering where Randall Flagg was all this time? Now you do.
** ''WolvesOfTheCalla'': Fourth wall? ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall Gone]]''.
** ''SongOfSussannah'': Susannah is pregnant with Roland's child. Fate condemns StephenKing himself to death.
** The TwistEnding of the final book has stirred enough controversy among the fanbase for it to qualify as ItWasHisSled.

** ''[[HarryPotterAndTheSorcerersStone Sorcerer's/Philospher's Stone]]'' starts a series of wham ending right off the bat with the final chapter revealing that [[spoiler:Snape was a red herring, he wasn't trying to kill Harry, he was trying to save his life. Instead, Professor Quirrell, the supposed cowardly sad sack, was in fact the person setting the chain of events off. Oh, and the chapter title, Man with the Two Faces? That's not metaphorical, Quirrell has ''[[HighOctaneNightmateFuel Voldemort's face coming out of the back of his head!]]'']]

** ''[[HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' reveals that [[spoiler:Sirius was innocent, and Wormtail was guilty. Oh! And Lupin's a werewolf]].

* The ending of TomClancy's ''Debt of Honor'': After being sworn in as Vice-President due to his predecessor being forced to resign, Jack Ryan narrowly escapes a terrorist attack that kills that kills almost every major politician in the U.S. Capitol building (including the President, most of Congress, most of the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and every Supreme Court Justice). Ryan is then ''immediately sworn in as President moments later''. Let's just say ''no one'' saw that coming.

* The end of ''Dead Beat'' in ''TheDresdenFiles''. So far the series had been about a OccultDetective. There were always acknowledgements of a BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil, and wizarding politics were often a problem for Harry, but for the first six and a half books of the series Harry was a detective who happened to investigate vampires in addition to mobsters and to carry a staff in addition to a revolver. Then, at the end of book seven, Harry is recruited into [[MutantDraftBoard the Wardens]] because ''over half the organization had been slaughtered by a blitzkreig in their ongoing war with vampires''. Shortly after that, Harry deduces that his {{Monster Of The Week}}s weren't just sorcerers feuding with each other but were fighting over enough power to become {{Physical God}}s. At the end, he points out that his enemies had probably been allied to the vampires all along. Since then, the series has more been about wizarding world problems than his investigation business, even if that's how the story gets started sometimes.