History BittersweetEnding / Literature

* ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'' ends with [[TheTheocracy the Heavenly Kingdom's]] offense blunted by a temporary alliance, saving Austin, San Anonio and Houston from fundamentalist rule. While it's lost its trump card and the strategic initiative, the Kingdom still holds most of north and east Texas, including Plano and Manny's former home of Dallas, and bigger foreign players like Canada and the United Christian States look to get involved. Manny and Sasha are deeply traumatised by the events of the book, with Manny leaving to live on [[MobileCity Rolling Fuck]] while Sasha takes a job with [[BombThrowingAnarchists Jim]]. Roland, meanwhile, has lost his memory of the entire book due to a BungledSuicide and abandons what few human connections he'd made during the book and goes back to living as a hermit in Arizona. As stated by Manny in the epilogue, Texas isn't going to stop bleeding any time soon.

* ''Literature/MurderAtColefaxManor'' has a potential ending where the player stops the deadly cult responsible for the murders, but the player has no evidence to prove what really happened, and so are unable to get any of the praise deserved for the duty they performed. [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse It is also not made clear if Colefax's innocent maid, Gladys Prismall, managed to escape the manor in time, although she logically died along with the rest of the staff.]]]]

* ''Literature/UntilWeMeetAgain'': At the end, Cassandra and Lawrence have managed to avert Lawrence's murder by having Lawrence's EvilUncle arrested before he can kill him. However, they also discover that the anomaly that allowed them to see each other will only last to the next full moon. When it closes, Cassandra and Lawrence are separated for good, but Cassandra discovers Lawrence lived a long, happy life and was an accomplished poet. Of course, Travis was still [[Retgone [=Retgoned=]]] by Cassandra inadvertently keeping Lawrence from driving his drunk ancestor home from a party.

* ''Literature/MoDaoZuShi'' lets the protagonists finally earn their happy ending together after years of loss, misunderstanding, and suffering. However, the same can't be said for some of the supporting characters: where is consumed with guilt for trusting his friend (who turned out to be the BigBad) and falls into depression, and another -- after realizing how much their turbulent relationship has been causing pain for them -- decides to let his friend go than tie him down to an old promise they made of fighting side-by-side.
** On the other hand, some of the other supporting characters get a more uplifting ending, such as reconciling with their personal grudges, rediscovering their origins, choosing to forge a new path for themselves. Additionally, there's still a tinge of bittersweet in the resolution of the overall story with the fact that the rest of the world doesn't learn any valuable lessons from what happened, such as thinking twice before believing what lies others tell them or immediately ostracizing those who don't fit in with the norm.

* The first book in the ''Literature/FarsalaTrilogy'', with an emphasis on bitter. The trilogy as a whole has one, too, though there the emphasis leans more toward sweet.
* In the ''Literature/FairyOak'' series Telli must leave the village she loves so much, as her contract has expired. Also, it may seem like Shirley and Tommy are an adorable couple, until you remember what happens with people that spend too much time next to the Infinite Power, and what would them having a child mean.
* In Creator/DaleBrown's novel ''Fatal Terrain'', the Chinese threat to Taiwan is defeated, though not before many Taiwanese die, Guam gets nuked and Brad Elliott pulls off a HeroicSacrifice. In ''Battle Born'' the extremist Korean military leader is killed, stopping a war between China and Korea, although it costs one main character's life and China is still very much capable of marching in should it desire.

* In Marti Steussy's s-f novel ''Forest of the Night'', the main character fulfills her childhood dream in the end. But by then, her mentor is dead, as is the [[IllBoy disabled native child]] whom she'd befriended. She's had to dump her boyfriend, because it's clear he'll never fully understand her. And she's become [[KnightInSourArmor generally disillusioned]].

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': ''Sunrise''. Hollyleaf is presumed dead, and almost everyone's lives have been ruined (it's implied that Leafpool is suicidal), but the prophecy still hasn't been completely fulfilled, and there's going to be another series. From Jayfeather's point of view, the continuation of the series preventing this ending from being final apparantly makes all of this less sad.

* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'': Kvothe saves the village of Trebon from the rampaging Draccus, finds the titular name of the wind, avoids being expelled from The University and is actually promoted up the ranks, and beards his rival Ambrose yet again while his fame rises. However, in doing so he had to destroy the denner resin he was hoping would provide for his future, the villagers of Trebon bury the remains of the Draccus (costing him and every other researcher the chance for a unique study), and, worse, because he CannotSpitItOut to Denna he winds up becoming something of her UnluckyChildhoodFriend. Not to mention the seething hatred Ambrose has for him is cranked up yet another notch (and it was already at murderous levels). He himself sums it up best: "Oh, it's just the same thing you've heard [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife a hundred times before]]. Prince Gallant kills the dragon, but loses the treasure and the girl." From the way the FramingDevice is set up, it's implied that his whole adventuring career has been this way.

* ''Literature/TheLincolnLawyer'' by Creator/MichaelConnelly. Upside, Mickey Haller's old client Jesus Menendez is exonerated of the rape and murder of a prostitute and the truly monstrous rich kid who actually did it goes down for the crime. Downside, Mickey is penalized with temporary disbarment for breach of professional ethics, and Menendez has been infected with HIV by PrisonRape and sues Mickey for malpractice (since he'd originally convinced the innocent Menendez to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty). The "downside" half was left out of the 2011 FilmOfTheBook.

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': ''Sunrise''. Hollyleaf is presumed dead, and almost everyone's lives have been ruined (it's implied that Leafpool is suicidal), but the prophecy still hasen't been completely fulfilled, and there's going to be another series. From Jayfeather's point of view, the continuation of the series preventing this ending from being final apparantly makes all of this less sad.

* ''Literature/{{Dreamspeaker}}'': All three of the main characters are dead (Peter and Mr. Thomas from suicide, and the shaman from old age.), but they're now all together in the afterlife.

* In ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'', Smerdyakov finishes his GambitRoulette by [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself]], Dmitri is convicted of a crime he didn't commit when everyone thought he would be acquitted; a subplot character the reader begins to empathize with dies of disease, and his poor father goes insane with grief; and Ivan has gone insane because [[CassandraTruth no one believes him even though he's telling the truth]]. It's not all bad though; arrangements have been made to break Dmitri out of prison so he can flee to America with his love Grushenka, and Ivan has a possibility for recovery. Alyosha gives a speech about how [[AnAesop Life Goes On And We Should Cherish It]]. Dostoevsky did [[AuthorExistenceFailure intend to write a sequel]], but we'll never know.

** ''Literature/TheDarkHalf'': Thad Beaumont defeats his EnemyWithout, George Stark... but it's implied he can't just live happily ever after with his friends and family because some of them get alienated after seeing him together with Stark and getting a sense that they were NotSoDifferent.

* ''Literature/TheMagicians'' ends with [[BigBad Martin Chatwin]] slain and Fillory freed from his madness... but Alice had to sacrifice her life and humanity to accomplish it; Penny was maimed, broken and left incapable of magic, and leaves the story by vanishing into the Neitherlands; and Quentin is left horribly traumatized by the experience, knowing that everything that happened was [[NiceJobBreakingItHero all his fault]]. With the other Physical Kids having disbanded in despair and scattered across the Neitherlands, he seeks a mundane life in New York until he finally learns to stop blaming everyone and everything else in life for his problems; then, he is reunited with his friends, who have decided to do something responsible and rule Fillory in the hopes of making it a better place. Accepting magic back into his life, [[RayOfHopeEnding Quentin takes flight to join them]]...

** ''The Warrior in the Woods'': Although the Warrior is gone, and he has no idea if she's alive or dead, he vows to protect the village in her place. However, he also knows the time is coming when the village will be forced to leave to find somewhere safer to live. He doesn't know how long he can keep protecting them, or what the future holds for them, but he'll do what he can because he's able to do it, and because there's no-one else to do it.

* In ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', the title heroes (plus d'Artagnan) win out against Milady 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. The following books are little better: d'Artagnan is utterly shafted by the Queen and stuck as a minor officer for over 30 years, it takes him restoring the King of England to his throne before he's given any respect. He eventually dies to a cannonade after opening the box that held his marchel baton, the thing he was working for since the first book. Athos' son with Milady comes back and tries to murder them all, until Athos is forced to stab him and leave his body at sea. His second son, a bastard with one Aramis' mistress, eventually [[SuicideByCop rushes into battle to die]] because the love of his life is the willing mistress of his king. Athos dies of grief from this. Porthos and Aramis however come off rather well for the most part, with Porthos marrying his mistress and her dieing soon after, leaving him with a modest fortune which he builds to near [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] levels of wealth, though he is the first to die via mountain crushing. Aramis is eventually forced to flee to Spain after his attempt to replace the King of France with his GoodTwin, but other then the massive guilt of causing the death of Porthos, he's remarkably well off, becoming the Superior General of the Jesuits, and ambassador of Spain to France.

** In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Literature/{{Ravenor}}'' series, the title character finally brings the BigBad Molotch and ''two other'' Big Bads to justice, effectively saving the entire Imperium of Man. However, by the time it's all over, his entire retinue has reached the emotional breaking point. Pretty much all of Ravenor's remaining followers are either arrested, leave, or disappear with only one member loyally staying by his side. The last book ends with Ravenor himself having to appear before his peers in order to answer for his actions as a rogue inquisitor. The dialogue implies that Gregor Eisenhorn has either [[MoralEventHorizon turned to Chaos]], become a [[KnightTemplar dangerous radical]] or suffered a FateWorseThanDeath.

* ''Literature/OutboundFlight''. Some things, like the destruction of the Outbound Flight on the cover and the fact that only a few people survived, are known from Creator/TimothyZahn's previous novel set years later, ''Survivor's Quest''. We also know that the survivors and their children hate and distrust the Jedi who lead the Flight, none of those Jedi survived, and a lightsaber and one charric, the signature weapon of the Chiss, were found in a certain part of the wreckage. You find that the one most sympathetic Jedi on board, the one who was almost able to avoid all that, did a HeroicSacrifice to save the survivors, which wouldn't have been necessary if they'd just ''stayed put'', and didn't think twice about it. And the Chiss -- who happened to be Thrawn's less-genius brother -- helped, and no one even knew what they did. It's borderline Downer Ending.

** 'Literature/{{Stardust}}'' has a VERY bittersweet ending. Not what TheFilmOfTheBook tells you. The ending is as follows: Tristran and Yvaine can't have children, but [[HappilyMarried live together happily]], until he eventually dies of old age. Yvaine [[MayflyDecemberRomance lives on more or less perpetually]] without him, trapped on Earth away from her family. Bittersweet was the ''point'' of Neil's ending. It's what made the book meaningful. Avoiding it did make the movie more enjoyable though.

** ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': The good guys win. Aragorn takes his rightful place as king and marries Arwen. Sauron is defeated permanently, and the Ring destroyed... but this also destroys the power of the Three Rings that has sustained Lothlórien and Rivendell, and the Elves leave. Frodo, unable to bear the weight of all he lost to save the world, leaves with them, as does Gandalf, and magic begins to go out of the world. The bittersweetness is distilled through Sam's perspective - he becomes a husband and father, yet loses his much beloved master just as his homeland is beginning to be made right. "I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."