History BittersweetEnding / Literature

* Lots and lots of PoulAnderson's stories. ''Especially'' the Dominic Flandry stories; Flandry succeeds, but [[CartwrightCurse loses any woman he truly loves]], feels guilty about hurting the feelings of the others, and in one story is troubled by the contrast between a number of honest, decent rebels, who are at best going to be locked up for the rest of their lives, and the decadent Emperor. And the prequel novel had a back-cover blurb which summed up:

* In the BlackMagicianTrilogy, they defeat the Ichani but [[HeroicSacrifice Akkarin, Sonea's love interest, dies giving Sonea all his power]].

** VastFieldsOfOrdinary: The main character learns that no matter where you go your problems will haunt you until you confront them, which he didn't completely comprehend until his ex-Whatever committed suicide by running his car into a tree. Various things that weren't a side effect of this and the author trying to make this as bittersweet as possible, his best friend Lisa goes back to California but visits often, his perfect boyfriend stays in town to take care of his grandma and they mutually break up because the main character has to go to college where he makes new friends and finally starts being happy with what life throws at him.

** VastFieldsOfOrdinary: The main character learns that no matter where you go your problems will haunt you until you confront them, which he didn't completely comprehend until his ex-Whatever committed suicide by running his car into a tree. Various things that weren't a side effect of this and the author trying to make this as bittersweet as possible, his best friend Lisa goes back to California but visits often, his perfect boyfriend stays in town to take care of his grandma and they mutually break up because the main character has to go to college where he makes new friends and finally starts being happy with what life throws at him.

** What They Always Tell Us: The main character's love interest goes to a university in New York, his friend Henry moves away, but he gains a new friend in his older brother's ex-girlfriend and hopes to keep a long distance relationship with his boyfriend and he finally has a happy friendship with his brother.
** Vast Fields of Ordinary: The main character learns that no matter where you go your problems will haunt you until you confront them, which he didn't completely comprehend until his ex-Whatever committed suicide by running his car into a tree. Various things that weren't a side effect of this and the author trying to make this as bittersweet as possible, his best friend Lisa goes back to California but visits often, his perfect boyfriend stays in town to take care of his grandma and they mutually break up because the main character has to go to college where he makes new friends and finally starts being happy with what life throws at him.

* ''The Land of Oblivion'' - Jesse is dead but [[DiedHappilyEverAfter he has a happy afterlife...]] [[InferredHolocaust for now]].

** The next novel, ''Changes'', is worse: [[spoiler: The Red Vampires are wiped out, but in order to do so Harry had to kill his love interest with his own hands in a Powered by a Forsaken Child ritual. And then someone shoots him.]]

* In ''{{The Three Musketeers}}'', The titular heroes (plus d'Artagnan) win out against Milday and Richelieu, but at the cost of the death of Madame Bonacieux, d'Artagnan's love interest, not to mention how the trial of Milady has soiled the soldier's life for his three friends, leaving him alone within the Musketeers by book's end.

* {{Metro2033}}: The missiles that will finally free the Metro inhabitants from horrible [[MindRape mindraping]] are about to be launched any second now...Wait? [[SympatheticPOV They only wanted peace?]] Oh no, [[TearJerker they're all looking at me like I'm going to save them...]]

* ''Laura and the Silver Wolf'' ("Laura und der Silberwolf") : Two girls, Laura and Eileen share a room in a leukemia ward. [[spoiler: Laura doesn't make it, but Eileen does. And if it wasn't AllJustADream, Laura lives on in Ice-Land.]]

** ''[[PrydainChronicles The Chronicles of Prydain]]'' end with Taran essentially making the opposite of Frodo's decision in ''{{Lord of the Rings}}''. While his friends and companions go off to a paradise across the sea to spend eternity in happiness, Taran chooses to remain behind to attempt to restore Prydain. Sure he gets to be High King as part of the deal, but that doesn't take the sting out of never seeing your friends again. At least Princess Eilonwy decides to stay with him too. The ending gets extra bitter points as Taran tries to rebuild Prydain because he made promises to comrades, [[HeroicSacrifice often over their graves]], to finish their work for them. His WorldOfCardboardSpeech to the other companions, explaining why he cannot go with them, drives home for everyone just how much it cost to win peace for Prydain.

** ''[[LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal]]'' ends with [[ForegoneConclusion Joshua dead]], despite Biff's best efforts to save him. Biff [[spoiler:hunts down and murders Judas, then falls into despair and takes his own life.]] Happily, though, [[spoiler:he and Maggie are resurrected to live happily ever after (except that, of course, Maggie will always love Joshua more.]]

** ''TheGraveyardBook'' is heavily inspired by RudyardKipling's ''[[TheJungleBook Jungle Books]]'', which also have bittersweet endings. In ''TheJungleBook'' Mowgli succeeds in killing Shere Khan but manages to alienate both the wolf pack and the human village in the process. In ''TheSecondJungleBook'' Mowgli is reunited with his human mother but is forced to give up his life in the jungle.

* NeilGaiman's ''TheGraveyardBook'' also ends on a bittersweet note, with Bod defeating the bad guys so that he is safely able to leave the graveyard and join the outside world. However, doing so means that he [[TheMagicGoesAway can no longer see or hear the dead which he grew up with]], including his adoptive parents, and must join a world utterly unfamiliar to him. He's also rejected by his childhood friend Scarlett, the only living person who he had a connection to, who ends up afraid of him and decides that she would rather forget his existence.

* ''Laura and the Silver Wolf'' ("Laura und der Silberwolf") : Two girls, Laura and Eileen share a room in a leukemia ward. [[spoiler: Laura doesn't make it, but Eileen does. and If it wasn't AllJustADream, Laura livel on in Ice-Land]]

** DrunkWithPower: Colin replaces Emmanuel as leader of Malevil...and bungles it badly. He becomes a paranoid tyrant and sours relations with La Roque. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath He gets killed in a bandit raid, attempting the crazy heroics he was known for in the hope of salvaging his reputation]].

* [[HorusHeresy Mechanicum]] is either this or a [[DownerEnding Downer Ending]]. Through the efforts of the loyalist adepts, the Dark Mechanicum have been dealt serious blows, Dhalia has found her place as a guard of the dragon ([[YourMilageMayVary Though, wether this is a good thing or not...]]), and the [[TheDragon machine]] that has been stalking the main characters is defeated. [[ItGotWorse On the other hand]], the ''Legio Tempestus'' is annihilated, only two of the Knights of Taranis remain, ''billions'' of lives have been lost, with ''many'' more still to come, along with limitless knowledge and the bright future it could have given mankind with it, and the ''Book of the Dragon'' has been stolen, probably to cause doom and gloom in a galaxy full of it already.

* ''LadyMyLifeAsABitch'' ends with the main character stuck as a dog likely forever and forced to flee from her former family...but she now has two fellow dogs as close friends, so at least she won't be completely alone in her new life, and may even come to enjoy it with their help. On the other hand, the man who accidentally caused all this is still at large, and will most likely end up accidentally turning others into dogs further down the line...

* TheTomorrowSeries: At the end, the war is over...[[spoiler: but Australia's lost a lot of territory to the invaders, and several of Ellie's {{Nakama}} are dead. ]]Then you get to the sequel series...and ItGotWorse.

* TheTomorrowSeries: At the end, the war is over...[[spoiler: but Australia's lost a lot of territory to the invaders, and several of Ellie's {{Nakama}} are dead. Then you get to the sequel series...and ItGotWorse.

* MonsterBloodTattoo: Rossamund and the majority of his friends survive all the adventures, but he can never see any of them again.

** Not to mention that the new government that replaced the wizards (whom Kitty helped to overthrow) was hinted to be just as petty and corrupt as the previous one.

* Metro2033: The missiles that will finally free the inhabitants from horrible [[MindRape mindraping]] are about to be launched any second now...Wait? [[SympatheticPOV They only wanted peace?]] Oh no, [[TearJerker they're all looking at me like I'm going to save them...]]

* Metrol2033: The missiles that will finally free the inhabitants from horrible [[MindRape mindraping]] are about to be launched any second now...Wait? [[SympatheticPOV They only wanted peace?]] Oh no, [[TearJerker they're all looking at me like I'm going to save them...]]

* LordOfTheFlies: Way to go Ralph! You've managed to get the Navy to rescue you and the other survivors on the island!! ...So does this mean we can forget about Simon's and Piggy's deathes, destroying the island, and proving that HumansAreBastards?

-->Though through this and his succeeding adventures he will struggle gloriously and win (usually) mighty victories, Dominic Flandry is essentially a tragic figure: a man who knows too much, who knows that battle, scheme, and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Long Night approaches. The Terran Empire is dying...