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End Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the End Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Anderson, Jodi Lynn: May Bird Andreyev, Leonid: Lazarus

Basye, Dale E.: Precocia Bierce, Ambrose: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Bunin, Ivan: The Gentleman from San Francisco

Christie, Agatha: And Then There Were None Christie, Agatha: Curtain Cook, Eliza: Song of the Worm

Enriquez, Mariana: Alguien camina sobre tu tumba (someone walks over your grave)

Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book Godwin, Tom: The Cold Equations

Hill, Joe: The Black Phone (from the book 20th Century Ghosts) Hurley, Tonya: Ghostgirl Huxley, Aldous: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

Ibbotson, Eva: Dial-a-Ghost

Kedzie, Robert: Shadows from the Wall of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers King, Stephen: Pet Sematary Klune, T.J.: Under the Whispering Door Kraus, Daniel: The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Alchemist Lovecraft, H.P.: Cool Air Lumley, Brian: Necroscope

Márquez, Gabriel García: Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a death foretold) Maugham, Somerset: An Appointment in Samarra McGovern, Kate: Fear of Missing Out Moore, Christopher: A Dirty Job Moreno, Gus: This Thing Between Us Morris, Jonathan: Festival of Death

Ohland, Emma K.: Funeral Girl

Piven, Joshua & David Borgenicht: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook Poe, Edgar Allan: Annabel Lee Poe, Edgar Allan: The Raven Pratchett, Terry: Mort Pratchett, Terry: Pyramids Pushkin, Alexander: The Queen of Spades

Sebold, Alice: The Lovely Bones Shusterman, Neal: Antsy Does Time Shusterman, Neal: Scythe Spark, Muriel: Memento Mori Stine, R.L.: Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel Stone, Jon: The Monster at the End of this Book Stoppard, Tom: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Stroud, Jonathan: Lockwood and Co. series

von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang: Erlkönig Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse-Five

Webb, Catherine: Mirror Dreams Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray Wolff, Tobias: Bullet in the Brain

Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

Anderson, Jodi Lynn: May Bird

"Shy, precocious May Bird wants nothing more than to be accepted. One day she falls through a lake into the Ever After, a world of ghosts. As she journeys through fantastic lands, she gathers an unusual group of new friends who join together to overcome the chillingly evil Bo Cleevil and find their way home."

Andreyev, Leonid: Lazarus

The story picks up where the biblical story leaves off-- what happens to Lazarus after he is brought back to life? There's no attempt at a description that's gonna give the story justice, it is something you need to experience for yourself. Link: https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Laza841.shtml

Basye, Dale E.: Precocia

"Dale E. Basye sends Milton and Marlo to Precocia, the circle reserved for kids who grow up too fast, for their latest hilarious escapade in Heck.

When Bea "Elsa" Bubb, the Principal of Darkness, tells Milton and Marlo Fauster they've gotten too big for their britches, she sends them to Precocia, the circle of Heck for smartypants kids who grow up too fast. There, the children learn adult jobs. William the Kid teaches bill collection. Mozart teaches commercial jingles. And all the students are forced to act, dress, and talk like little adults. Soon, the Fausters realize that Precocia's vice principals Napoleon and Cleopatra want more than to hasten adulthood--they seem to want to eliminate childhood altogether. Can Milton and Marlo figure out their plan in time to stop it?"

Includes depictions of a horrifying alternate reality where people want to age and wither as fast as possible!

Bierce, Ambrose: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

We learn that a man is about to be hanged by a Union captain in the middle of a bridge over raging water in Northern Alabama. After learning how he ended up there, the man is awakened by the cold current of the river, having lost consciousness after the noose broke and he fell from the bridge. His executioners are firing at him from the bridge, he suffers a gunshot wound, comes up for air, dives back under, only to see a cannonball land within two yards. He thinks he's doomed, but then seems to be ejected from the river onto a bank, out of sight and firing range. But then he hears gunshots, escapes through the forest, taking backroads to return to his home. He seems to greet his wife, but then feels a sharp blow on his neck, sees a blinking white light, and all falls to silence and darkness. The end of the story reveals that Farquhar's broken body is still swinging from the side of Owl Creek Bridge, where he died, after all.

Bunin, Ivan: The Gentleman from San Francisco

A 58-year-old American from San Francisco, having acquired a great fortune, sets off with his wife and daughter on a world tour. After a luxurious cruise, they arrive in Naples, where he is dismayed by the unusually bad winter weather and finds that the city does not meet his expectations. They then go to Capri, where he abruptly dies in the lobby of his fancy hotel, causing a stir among the rich clientele. The second half of the story is concerned with the change in the once-deferential staff's attitude towards the gentleman, and in the dehumanizing way in which his body is treated as it makes its journey out of Italy.

The Gentleman From San Francisco is a great reminder that death can come anytime, anyplace. The Gentleman could be anyone, which is why I believe the character remains unnamed throughout the story.

Christie, Agatha: And Then There Were None

Undoubtedly Christie's scariest mystery, the novel represents a countdown for ten murderers on an island, as one by one they all die according to the dictates of a creepy nursery rhyme.

Christie, Agatha: Curtain

"Arthritic and immobilized, Poirot calls on his old friend Captain Hastings to join him at Styles to be the eyes and ears that will feed observations to Poirot's still razor sharp mind. Though aware of the criminal's identity, Poirot will not reveal it to the frustrated Hastings, and dubs the nameless personage 'X'. Already responsible for several murders, X, Poirot warns, is ready to strike again, and the partners must work swiftly to prevent imminent murder."

It's a book that was meant to be published posthumously whats more End-like than that?

Spoilers: The main villain tricks and manipulates people into killing each other(An End avatar, perhaps?). 'X' is so good that he almost makes Hastings into a murderer and makes Poirot into one. Poirot also dies in this one.

Cook, Eliza: Song of the Worm

Banger worm poem. https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/song-worm

Enriquez, Mariana: Alguien camina sobre tu tumba (someone walks over your grave)

This book brings together a series of very particular travel chronicles around the world. The author travels countries and continents to visit something very specific and perhaps unusual: cemeteries. Famous and history-laden cemeteries such as Montparnasse in Paris, Highgate in London or the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and other hidden, decrepit, remote or secretly beautiful graves of famous people -Elvis' in Memphis, Marx in London- extravagant epitaphs, mourning sculptures, sensual angels and an inexhaustible string of legends and stories.

Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book

It tells the story of the boy Nobody "Bod" Owens, who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered.

***

The boy gets raised by ghosts.

Godwin, Tom: The Cold Equations

The story of a pilot who finds a girl stowed away on his spaceship, which is delivering lifesaving medicine to a distant frontier world. The fuel had been carefully measured out, the weight precisely calculated -- and none of it accounted for the stowaway.

Hill, Joe: The Black Phone (from the book 20th Century Ghosts)

Thirteen-year-old Finney is kidnapped by a man named The Grabber. Trapped in a basement room, the boy's only hope may lie in a mysterious disconnected black phone hanging on the basement wall. The phone rings at night with the whispers of the kidnapper's previous (and now dead) victims.

Hurley, Tonya: Ghostgirl

The book is about high school senior Charlotte Usher, a young teenager who dreams of becoming popular in school, but before she gets the chance of that or asking her crush Damen out, she dies from choking on a gummy bear. What follows is a Tim Burton-esque story in which Charlotte is admitted to Dead Ed (a special education class for newly dead teens who have unresolved issues they must confront before they can move on), befriends a goth girl who can see ghosts, Scarlet, and comes to terms with her own death.

Huxley, Aldous: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan A Hollywood millionaire with a terror of death, whose personal physician happens to be working on a theory of longevity - these are the elements of Aldous Huxley's caustic and entertaining satire on man's desire to live indefinitely. With his customary wit and intellectual sophistication, Huxley pursues his characters in their quest for the eternal, finishing on a note of horror.

Ibbotson, Eva: Dial-a-Ghost

The Dial-a-Ghost Agency finds good homes for ghosts. And Fulton and Frieda Snodde-Brittle are looking for a few frightening ghosts to "accidentally" scare their young cousin and heir, Oliver, to death. The ladies at the Dial-a-Ghost Agency have the perfect match: the Shriekers, two bloodstained and bickering horrors. But thanks to a mix-up at the agency, the Wilkinsons, a kind family of ghosts, arrive instead. Can they put a stop to the Snodde-Brittles' schemes before it's too late?

Kedzie, Robert: Shadows from the Wall of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers

The book warns of the dangers of once-commonly used arsenic-pigmented wallpaper. The book also contains 86 samples of said wallpaper. Due to the dangerous amount of arsenic in the work, only five of the original 100 copies have survived. Most copies were destroyed by the recipient libraries. Doesn't even need to be a Leitner to kill you.

King, Stephen: Pet Sematary

Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago, moves to a house near the small town of Ludlow, Maine along with his wife Rachel, their two young children, Ellie and Gage, and Ellie's cat, Winston Churchill ("Church"). Their neighbor, an elderly man named Jud Crandall, warns Louis and Rachel about the highway that runs past their house; it's used by trucks from a nearby chemical plant that often pass by at high speeds. A few weeks after the Creeds move in, Jud takes the family on a walk in the woods behind their home. There, a well-tended path leads to a pet cemetery (misspelled "sematary") where the town's children bury their deceased animals.

After Church is run over while the kids are visiting their grandparents with Rachel for Thanksgiving, Jud leads Louis beyond the deadfall to an ancient burial ground that was once used by the Mi'kmaqs, a Native American tribe. Following Jud's instructions, Louis buries the cat and constructs a cairn. The following afternoon, the cat returns home. However, while he used to be vibrant and lively, he now acts ornery and "a little dead", in Louis's words.

Before long, the Creed family suffers an unfathomable tragedy, and Louis is forced to confront the enormity of his grief and ask himself just how far he's willing to go to make his family whole again. In that quest, Louis will discover the truth of Judd's chilling advice: "Sometimes, dead is better."

***

The premise of this book is that there is a place out in the woods that if you bury a dead animal, it will come back to life - but it comes back Wrong. And if you were to do it to a person, something else would come back, in their body, in their place; something eldritch and evil. I'm sure someone else has already done a better submission of it with a more fleshed out synopsis but I actually want to nominate it because of this thing Stephen King does where he makes your blood run cold by dropping, in the middle of a completely innocent paragraph, "And now Gage, who had less than two months to live, laughed shrilly and joyously." It's chilling and inevitable and you don't have any way to stop it.

This book deals with death in a lot of ways, some of them positive and healthy but most of them /definitively not/. It's very Leitner because of how it makes you think about death conceptually from a lot of different angles, but in the end appreciate its finality. Because the alternative is worse.

***

When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son-and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly car. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth-more terrifying than death itself-and hideously more powerful. The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.

Klune, T.J.: Under the Whispering Door

Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.

Kraus, Daniel: The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch

Synopsis: May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down on the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected.

His second life will be nothing like his first.

Zebulon’s new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there, he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.

Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption?

Propaganda: As stated in the synopsis, Zebulon is killed and, for no apparent reason, comes back to life. It is more like in death, though; he is essentially a very-slowly-rotting corpse who walks. He discovers that he has the power to look at people in the eyes and show them their last moments, which traumatizes them. Finally, in both books Zebulon is surrounded by and responsible for many deaths.

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Alchemist

The story is recounted by the protagonist, Count Antoine de C, in the first person. Hundreds of years ago, Antoine's noble ancestor was responsible for the death of a dark wizard, Michel Mauvais. The wizard's son, Charles le Sorcier, swore revenge on not only him but all his descendants, cursing them to die on reaching the age of 32.

The protagonist recounts how his ancestors all died in some mysterious way around the age of 32. The line has dwindled and the castle has been left to fall into disrepair, tower by tower. Finally, Antoine is the only one left, with one poor servant, Pierre, who raised him, and a tiny section of the castle with a single tower is still usable. Antoine has reached adulthood, and his 32nd year is approaching.

His servant eventually dies, leaving him completely alone, and he begins exploring the ruined parts of the castle. He finds a trapdoor in one of the oldest parts. Below, he discovers a passage with a locked door at the end. Just as he turns to leave, he hears a noise behind him and sees that the door is open and someone is standing in it. The man attempts to kill him but Antoine kills him first. His dying words reveal that he is none other than Charles, who actually managed to successfully fabricate the elixir of life, enabling him to personally fulfill the curse generation after generation.

Lovecraft, H.P.: Cool Air

The short story revolves around an unnamed writer who moves into a dodgy apartment building in New York. Over time, he befriends his mysterious upstairs tenant, an old, reclusive physician who never leaves his room, which he keeps at a perpetual 55-56°. In spite of this newfound friendship, the narrator nevertheless finds something unsettling about the peculiar old man, who has a rather disconcerting obsession with the subject of death...

To say much more would spoil the plot twist. The story can be read online here: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ca.aspx

Lumley, Brian: Necroscope

“DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES…

Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.

In the Balkan mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge.

The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, part of a super-secret Soviet spy agency. Dragosani is an avid pupil, eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the awful skills of the necromancer, gives him the ability to rip secrets from the mind and bodies of the dead.

Dragosani works not for Ferenczy's freedom but world domination. He will rule the world with knowledge taken from the dead.

His only opponent: Harry Koegh, champion of the dead and the living.

To protect Harry, the dead will do anything--even rise from their graves!"

Main character power is communicating with the dead very End-coded

Márquez, Gabriel García: Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a death foretold)

A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion.

Maugham, Somerset: An Appointment in Samarra

It's literally only a paragraph long, just read it

McGovern, Kate: Fear of Missing Out

Everyone has a fear of missing out on something―a party, a basketball game, a hangout after school. But what if it’s life that you’ll be missing out on?

When Astrid learns that her cancer has returned, she hears about a radical technology called cryopreservation that may allow her to have her body frozen until a future time when―and if―a cure is available. With her boyfriend, Mohit, and her best friend, Chloe, Astrid goes on a road trip in search of that possibility. To see if it’s real. To see if it’s worth it. For fear of missing out on everything.

Moore, Christopher: A Dirty Job

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.

It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's got to do it.

Moreno, Gus: This Thing Between Us

It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.

It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago's world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room…

The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape—not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.

Morris, Jonathan: Festival of Death

Synopsis: "The Beautiful Death. The ultimate theme-park ride. For twenty galactic credits, you can find out what it's like to be dead.

But something has gone wrong. Visitors expecting a sightseeing tour of the afterlife have been transformed into mindless zombies, set on a killing rampage.

The TARDIS arrives in the aftermath of the disaster and, to the Doctor's baffled delight, he is immediately congratulated for saving the population from certain and terrible destruction. The only problem is, he hasn't actually done it yet.

Aided and abetted by a drug-addled hippie lizard, a hard-hitting investigative reporter and a suicidal ship's computer, the Doctor has no choice but to travel back in time and discover exactly how he became a hero.

And then he finds out. He did it by sacrificing his life."

Why it's End: A theme park ride that simulates the experience of being dead. Wow. And something went wrong? Crazy. But yeah, there's a lot to do with death and fate in here -- the Doctor is apparently fated to die at the end of his adventure, the crew of the ship being fated to die

Ohland, Emma K.: Funeral Girl

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Richter feels conflicted about the funeral home her parents run--especially because she has the ability to summon ghosts. With one touch of any body that passes through Richter Funeral Home, she can awaken the spirit of the departed. With one more touch, she makes the spirit disappear, to a fate that remains mysterious to Georgia. To cope with her deep anxiety about death, she does her best to fulfill the final wishes of the deceased whose ghosts she briefly revives.

Then her classmate Milo's body arrives at Richter--and his spirit wants help with unfinished business, forcing Georgia to reckon with her relationship to grief and mortality.

Piven, Joshua & David Borgenicht: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook

A handy little manual that shows all the ways that you can survive the worst possible situations. And now that you have the Leitner edition, you'll be putting those skills to good use almost constantly, as every deadly thing described in those pages begins to manifest in your life.

Poe, Edgar Allan: Annabel Lee

Like a lot of the Edgar Allan Poems, this is heavily concerned with the death of young love, and a desire to be reunited in the tomb. Link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Raven

"The Raven" A narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Published originally in January 1845, the poem has a musical quality with stylized language and a supernatural atmosphere. It speaks of a mysterious talking raven's visit to a distraught lover, depicting the man's slow fall into madness. The lover is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of "Pallas", the raven seems to have a purpose of further instigating his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". This poem makes good use of a number of folk and classical references.

Pratchett, Terry: Mort

"‘YOU CANNOT INTERFERE WITH FATE. WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE WHO SHOULD LIVE AND WHO SHOULD DIE?’

Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job.

Death is the Grim Reaper of the Discworld, a black-robed skeleton with a scythe who ushers souls into the next world. He is also fond of cats and endlessly baffled by humanity. Soon Death is yearning to experience what humanity really has to offer, but to do that, he’ll need to hire some help.

It’s an offer Mort can’t refuse. As Death’s apprentice he’ll have free board, use of the company horse – and being dead isn’t compulsory. It’s a dream job – until Mort falls in love with Death’s daughter, Ysabell, and discovers that your boss can be a killer on your love life . . ."

Pratchett, Terry: Pyramids

"Being trained by the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork did not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate. He inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi rather earlier than he expected (his father wasn’t too happy about it either), but that was only the beginning of his problems..."

A prince taught in the school of assassins goes to claim the throne of Djelibeybi. A country that is extremely End-coded culturally, and in reality ruled not by its kings but by Dios who is an End avatar if there ever was one.

Pushkin, Alexander: The Queen of Spades

Hermann, an officer in the Imperial Russian Army, constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night a friend tells him a story about how his grandmother, a countess, lost a fortune at faro, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.

Herman gains access to the countess' (now 87 years old) home through an acquaintance, Lizaveta, and there Hermann accosts the countess, demanding the secret. She tells him that story was a joke, but Hermann persists and threatens her with a pistol. She dies of fright. Lizaveta helps him flee the crime scene.

At the countess' funeral Hermann is terrified to see the countess open her eyes in the coffin and look at him. Later that night, her ghost appears to him and names the secret three cards (three, seven, and ace). It tells him he must play just once each night and then orders him to marry Lizaveta. Hermann takes his entire savings to gamble at faro for high stakes. On the first night, he bets it all on the three and wins. On the second night, he wins on the seven. On the third night, he bets on the ace—but when the cards are shown, he finds he has bet on the Queen of Spades, not the ace, and he loses everything. When the Queen appears to wink at him, he is astonished by her remarkable resemblance to the old countess, and flees in terror.

In the end Hermann goes mad and is committed to an asylum. He answers no questions, but merely mutters with unusual rapidity: "Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!"

This story has the end's favoured motifs: gambling, death, dreams, ghosts. Hermann tried to cheat fate but failed.

Rulfo, Juan: Pedro Páramo

A masterpiece of the surreal, this stunning novel from Mexico depicts a man’s strange quest for his heritage. Beseeched by his dying mother to locate his father, Pedro Páramo, whom they fled from years ago, Juan Preciado sets out for Comala. Comala is a town alive with whispers and shadows—a place seemingly populated only by memory and hallucinations. Built on the tyranny of the Páramo family, its barren and broken-down streets echo the voices of tormented spirits sharing the secrets of the past.

Sebold, Alice: The Lovely Bones

It tells the story of a young girl named Susie Salmon who is brutally murdered. From her unique perspective in the afterlife, Susie watches as her family and friends struggle to cope with her death and unravel the mystery surrounding it.

Shusterman, Neal: Antsy Does Time

Fueled by friendship and sympathy, Antsy Bonano signs a month of his life over to his dying classmate Gunnar Umlaut. Soon everyone at school follows suit, giving new meaning to the idea of living on borrowed time. But does Gunnar really have six months to live, or is news of his imminent death greatly exaggerated? When a family member suffers a heart attack after donating two years to Gunnar, Antsy wonders if he has tempted fate by playing God...

Shusterman, Neal: Scythe

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a Scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Spark, Muriel: Memento Mori

In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone reminds each: "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled, and many an old unsavory secret is dusted off.

Stine, R.L.: Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel

Choose Your Own Adventure books are inherently End-coded; your choices drive your fate along, and no matter what you choose, you will eventually reach an ending. I think that goes double for a CYOA book about murderous ghosts.

Stone, Jon: The Monster at the End of this Book

Grover spends the story dreading what lurks at the end of the book, much like many of us spend our life dreading its end. Grover tries in vain to stop us from bringing him closer to the book's conclusion, but for him the pages pass as inevitably as time does for us. At the end of the actual book the monster turns out to be Grover all along, but in the Leitner version Grover's fear would turn out to be justified.

Stoppard, Tom: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

"Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters, bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a tragic but inevitable end."

Two guys hanging around till the only relevant thing about them, their death, happens. And they will keep dying forever.

Stroud, Jonathan: Lockwood and Co. series

Death permeates the alternate British society of the Lockwood and Co. series. Beginning five decades before the events of the first book, the existence of ghosts became undeniable as an epidemic of deadly hauntings began. Dubbed “The Problem”, it has only gotten worse with time, with the number, strength and range of the hauntings continuing to escalate. Only children are able to detect these dangerous visitors from the other side, who can kill with a single touch. This psychic Talent fades to nothing as they age, leaving adults basically helpless when it comes to detecting and avoiding ghosts until it's too late. As adults hide inside during the night curfew, children as young as 8 are forced to act as Night Watch or as Agents who risk their lives to fight off ghosts. Mortality rates are high and those who do survive often go on to become supervisors of younger Agents, forced into the position of sending children into mortal danger and being powerless to help them. This is a society dealing with basically the aftermath of an End Ritual and/or being in an End Domain, where death and the fear of death is the major driving force for most people. This fixation on death isn’t just only fear for some; there is also a thriving black market for Sources - objects (usually human remains) that a ghost is tied to and allows them passage into the living world from the Other Side.

MASSIVE spoilers for the final book. Seriously, don’t look if you plan on reading this series (which you absolutely should and also check out the incredibly well done TV adaptation):

*Turns out that the origin of this ghost epidemic was caused by the actions of the supposed “Hero” of The Problem, Marissa Fittes, who was the first one to figure out and codify (and profit from) most defences against ghosts. Her expeditions to the Other Side caused the dead to stir and make their way to the land of the living. She was obsessed with the potential properties of ectoplasm, the substance that ghosts are made of and what makes them so deadly, including immortality. Her frequent incursions into the Other Side to harvest and utilise ectoplasm, continued to greatly escalate The Problem, which only served to increase her wealth and fame as the head of the prestigious Fittes Agency. Despite these constant trips to the realm of the dead rapidly ageing her, her experiments with ectoplasm allowed her spirit to possess the body of her granddaughter on her so-called deathbed. Now posing as her granddaughter, she continues her quest for immortality, escalating The Problem even further, which only increases her fame, fortune and power, giving her more resources to exploit both the dead and the living for her personal gain.

von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang: Erlkönig

A haunting poem about an anxious young boy who is being carried at night by his father on horseback. To where is not spelled out; the German word Hof has a rather broad meaning of "yard", "courtyard", "farm", or (royal) "court". The opening line tells that the time is late and that it is windy.

As the poem unfolds, the son claims to see and hear the "Erlkönig" (Erl-King, lit. 'alder-king'). His father claims to not see or hear the creature, and he attempts to comfort his son, asserting natural explanations for what the child sees – a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows.

The Erl-King attempts to lure the child into joining him, promising amusement, rich clothes, and the attentions of his daughters. Finally, the Erl-King declares that he will take the child by force. The boy shrieks that he has been attacked, spurring the father to ride faster to the Hof. Upon reaching the destination, the child is already dead.

Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse-Five

Mostly it's about the non-linearity and the time-fuckery, especially experiencing death well before it actually happens.

Webb, Catherine: Mirror Dreams

"Every dream you've ever had, and every dream yet to come, exists in the Kingdoms of the Void. Every nightmare, too. Because there has to be balance; it's the rules. But the Lords of Nightkeep aren't big on rules; only Conquest, Fear, and Eternal Darkness for All. It takes a powerful wizard like Laenan Kite to keep them in check. But Kite has other worries, and Nightkeep is growing strong. Its Lords hunger for power. And they've turned their gaze towards earth."

Dreams are extremely End-coded and this book takes place in the dreamland. Also certain revelations about one of the characters make this even more End related.

Spoilers: Renna a dreamer turns out to be in a coma in the real world facing the very real possibility that she will get taken off life support.

Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Upon seeing his own striking portrait Dorian Gray is bewitched and offers his soul if only the painting will age while he remains eternally youthful. Believing himself incorruptible, Dorian indulges in a life of pleasure and excess. But what has become of his portrait?

Wolff, Tobias: Bullet in the Brain

The story is about an angry and bitter book critic trapped at a bank during a robbery; when he ridicules the robbers, they shoot him fatally in the head. The rest of the story takes in place in the last few moments before he dies.

Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

This book is narrated by death. Not a god of death, not some kind of herald of it, the abstract concept of death itself. And death permeates the entire story. The book begins with our protagonist, a young girl living smack-dab in the middle of Nazi Germany name Leisel Meminger watching her younger brother Werner die on their way to their new foster home, and it only gets worse from there. Leisel continually strives to save herself and others from the inevitable destruction and end that awaits them, predominantly, of course, by stealing books, but also eventually by harboring a Jewish man named Max Vandenburg, and it is consistently not enough. I'll spare you most of the details in the hopes of you reading it yourself, but the book ends with our protagonist's home being bombed and the deaths of her foster parents and the boy she loves. Leisel herself dies of old age decades later, and death's final words to her (and arguably to the readers themselves) are "I am haunted by humans".

#leitner tournament #reading list #end poll

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perfectdisastcr · 4 years ago

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💗 i would like a list of all 3 million potential pairings please 🙈

my god, i would love to take the time out of my day to give that to you, and just know that we can ship literally anybody and everybody because that’s all we ever do in the first place and you know how much i love doing that with you too. my favorite writing partner everybody, bre is hands down the best partner in the whole world, and i’m lucky enough to be able to have her at all. she’s mine and i’m never going to let her go because i love her so much! she’s literally the best thing to ever happen to me and i know i wouldn’t be here through the shitty times and all without her! everybody better go follow her right now and send her all the love i swear to god, because she’s the only person on this hell site that shows me the attention that i deserve! also that list of potential pairings is below the cut, and don’t say i didn’t warn you. 👀

send 💗 if you’re open to the possibility of a romantic ship eventually happening between our muses

all these characters are up for shipping with all your characters:

alex gardiner (paul rudd) alexander hamilton (lin-manuel miranda) alex mullner (brant daughterty) alice liddell (madelyn cline) alisha khara (jameela jamil) annie abel (luna blaise/anya chalotra) antonia moreno (victoria justice) apollonia levine (anastasia karanikolaou) arthur pendragon (niall horan) ashley spinelli (ursula corbero) aspen rhodes (sofia black-d'elia) astrid porter (karlie kloss) audrey ramirez (selena gomez) august khalil (rami malek) axel turner (charlie weber/skeet ulrich) aziz hassan (riz ahmed) bailee rose (jenny boyd) bambi prince (lachlan watson) barbie roberts (kate upton) barley lightfoot (michael clifford) beatriz velasco (camila cabello/diane guerrero) beau hester (froy gutierrez) beck collins (joe keery) bellatrix lestrange (carmela zumbado) belle dubois (margaret qualley) belle summers (candice king) berliouz bonfamille (alex fitzalan) bernard davenport (gavin leatherwood) billie groves (kiana lede/emmy raver-lampman) billy hargrove (dacre montgomery) bindi culver (meg donnelly/rachel mcadams) bo-peep ‘bo’ patterson (amanda seyfried) brady gardiner (nathaniel buzolic) brielle stewart (alexandra daddario) bronwyn pierson (madelaine petsch) buzz lightyear (paul mescal/chris pine) calliope jung (phillipa soo) camille aguilar (jeanine mason) carl fredricksen (tye sheridan) celeste quintana (rosalia/maite perroni) chandler armstrong (iwan rheon) cinderella tremaine (lily james) clementine ahn (jamie chung) cliff egan (stephen amell) colleen lowell (jodie comer) connor catrell (thomas doherty) copper slade (nick jonas) cordelia goodwin (ryan destiny/candice patton) coriander thompson (dacre montgomery/chris evans) cornelius robinson (simon baker) cruella de vil (melanie martinez) cyrus quinney (owen joyner) daisy vaughn (isabella gomez/aimee carrero) dakota atkins (amber midthunder) dale monks (keiynan lonsdale) dalton davis (harris dickinson) daniela ‘dani’ costello (becky g/eva longoria) dash parr (jaden smith) delilah diaz (camila cabello/diane guerrero) delphine washington (antonia thomas) delta montgomery (manu gavassi) denver koch (thomas elms) devon montgomery (iain de caestecker) diego hargreeves (david castaneda) dorcas meadowes (ariela barer) dory blau (julia louise-dreyfus) duke blaise (ashley graham & matthew daddario — reincarnated) duncan traeger (zac efron) edmund whittaker (richard madden) edwin orwell (nicholas galitzine) elena flores (jenna ortega) eleonora moretti (benedetta gargari) eleven (millie bobby brown) elio montgomery (noah schnapp/brendon urie) elisabeth ‘elsa’ andersson (candice king) elliott murdoch (kj apa) eloise thompson (taylor hill/zoey deutch) elwood leith (sam claflin) emerson wheaton (beau mirchoff) emily sondheim (eve fraser) emmy silverstein (nat wolff/michiel huisman) ericka ‘ricki’ santos (danna paola) esmeralda guybertaut (priyanka chopra) everest sorenson (adam driver) ezekiel ‘zeke’ bauer (neels visser) fa mulan (awkwafina) felix dawson (lukas gage) ferris rockwell (joshua bassett) five hargreeves (aidan gallagher/rob raco/john mulaney) florence prata (barbie ferreira) flynn rider (jacob elordi/steven r mcqueen) frank castle (jon bernthal) gabrielle dupres (louriza tronco) genevieve rizzo (troian bellisario) gill moorish (harrison ford) godwin vivar (diego boneta) grainger anslow (justin hartley) grant wesley (keanu reeves) griffin price (liam hemsworth) guinevere ‘gwen’ flores (ester exposito/ana de armas) gulliver kennedy (robert sheehan) gunner mccoy (miles heizer) halston krogen (nick robinson) hamish duke (thomas elms) harper graves (sydney sweeney) harry potter (alberto rosende) harvey wolff (joaquin phoenix) hawke bradbury (brenton thwaites) helen parr (megan thee stallion/kerry washington) hendrix palmer (mark fischbach) henley howell (dylan everett/paul wesley) henrik nilsen (herman tommeraas/chris evans) hercules sabri (aubrey joseph) hermione granger (quintessa swindell) holden krogen (jack falahee) holly la stella (olivia holt) honey lemon (irene ferreiro) hudson reid (jaeden lieberher/paul mescal/james mcavoy) irving reid (matty healy) isobel evans (lily cowles) jacoba ‘cobi’ abernathy (geraldine viswanathan) jake bennett (joe jonas) jake breckenridge (landon liboiron) james potter (noah centineo) james ‘sully’ sullivan (hozier) jane porter (zoe sugg) jasmine agrabah (naomi scott) jessica jones (krysten ritter) jim hopper (david harbour) johanna ‘jo’ gardiner (carlson young) josefine olive (lili reinhart/maika monroe) joseph ‘joey’ carnegie (chris o'dowd) juliette russo (camila mendes) juno nicks (gideon adlon/linda cardellini) justin miller (michael b. jordan) keaton green (charlie plummer/austin butler/alexander skarsgard) keifer fry (nathan parsons) kennedy sutherland (florence pugh) khalid farid (mena massoud) kiernan jost (jack barakat) kiki penn (natalie alyn lind) kim possible (karen gillan) kit dempsey (aaron taylor-johnson/michael sheen) kristoff bjorgman (ben hardy) kuzco inca (tommy martinez) lady alvarez (camila cabello/diane guerrero) lake montgomery (jace norman/casey deidrick/jeff goldblum) lazarus (sean teale/tom ellis) lennox wells (billie piper) leonardo ‘leo’ light (armie hammer) levi wesley (gerard butler) liam wheaton (lucas lynngaard tonnesen/dominic sherwood) lilac montgomery (sophia lillis/deborah ann woll) lila pitts (ritu arya) lilo pelekai (courtney eaton) lola carver (carla gugino) macy merritt (kylie jenner) madeline hawkins (rowan blanchard/kaylee bryant) madison bloomfield (gwyneth paltrow) maggie wheaton (virginia gardner) maria deluca (heather hemmens) mariana de la cruz (victoria justice/salma hayek) marianne darden (elizabeth olsen) marisol torres (alexa demie/salma hayek) marlene phan (brianne tju) matilda franks (brooke markham) matthew murdock (charlie cox) max tian (chloe bennet) mckenzie whitman (danielle rose russell) megara creon (ashley moore) melanie carter (brenna d'amico/zooey deschanel) melody burns-newman (camren bicondova) mercutio bellini (giancarlo commare) merida dunbroch (bree kish) michael ‘goob’ yagoobian (dylan o’brien/andrew scott) mickey hader (shawn mendes) miguel rivera (diego tinoco) mike wheeler (finn wolfhard) mildred ‘millie’ brantwood (stella maeve) milo martinez (itzan escamilla/tyler posey) milo thatch (jason ralph) minerva ‘minnie’ winslett (jenna coleman) mischa locklear (jenny slate) moana motunui (auli'i cravalho) molly wheaton (saoirse monica jackson/kristen bell/kristin chenoweth) monet bugg (annie murphy) mordecai ‘cai’ baird (joseph morgan) murray bauman (brett gelman) nadja (natasia demetriou) naomi phillips (hunter king) natalie fuller (krysten ritter) nate gardiner (tom holland/thomas hayes/joe keery/adam scott) nemo fisher (nick robinson) nick novak (jon bernthal) nick wilde (jake johnson) nina baxter (laura harrier) nolan van ness (louis hynes/benjamin wadsworth) nymphadora tonks (kennedy walsh) odessa barnes (inanna sarkis) osbourne russo (oliver jackson-cohen) otis richardson (finn jones) owen monroe (zachary levi) paloma katz (brittany o'grady) paxton gardiner (douglas booth) pearl turner (maia mitchell/aubrey plaza) penny proud (sarah jeffery) perdita ryan (alisha boe/zoe kravitz) perrie wheaton (ariela barer/jessica alba) peter pan (rudy pankow) peter pettigrew (alex lawther) phil mcdermot (leo howard/dylan o’brien) phineas flynn-fletcher (michael provost) piper donahue (millie bobby brown/katherine langford/felicity jones) pippa mei (amy okuda) pollux isola (camila mendes) portia sadler (hayden panettiere) prairie gallagher (lucy boynton) quaid ‘q’ wright (jake gylenhaal) quinton saunders (jamie dornan) rain montgomery (nick jonas) ramona montgomery-wallis (lana condor/ashley park) reed knightley (arthur darvill) reign fentworth (madison bailey/vanessa morgan) reno thames (joshua bassett) richie tozier (finn wolfhard/bill hader) river montgomery (jack griffo/tyler blackburn) robin buckley (maya hawke) roger holtz (ben platt) roger radcliffe (aaron tveit) romy reyes (carmela zumbado) ronald ‘mac’ mcdonald (rob mcelhenney) roosevelt banks (spence moore II) rowan burke (andy biersack) roxanne sutton (lady gaga) rush mccoy (cody fern) russell montgomery (ian harding/hugh jackman) russell montgomery II (jack dylan grazer/timothee chalamet/adam brody) sable rosales (catherine bascoy) saint fentworth (reece king) sally finklestein (marina ruy barbosa) salvador ‘sal’ mendoza (jorge blanco) samson gardiner (cole sprouse) sandy diamandis (christina hendricks) sawyer bell (penn badgley) seamus kennedy (aria shanghasemi/michael sheen) seb seif (zeeko zaki) selena hada (camila cabello/diane guerrero) severus snape (rob raco) shawn taggart (ben barnes) shay strauss (chris wood) shia zoheir (rami malek) shiloh young (devery jacobs) shiri madani (inbar lavi) simba king (john boyega) sloane shapiro (diana silvers/linda cardellini) sofia ramirez (camila cabello/camila mendes/morena baccarin/fluvia lacerda) stefani vidal (louriza tronco) stella romero (adria arjona) steve harrington (joe keery) stevie wagner (anne hathaway/jennifer garner) sutton reiser (katherine langford/kat dennings) tandy hawthorne (giorgia whigham) tanner cohen (ross lynch) tarrant ‘mad hatter’ hightopp (hale appleman) tarryn fischer (giorgia whigham/perry mattfeld) tatum barton (ben schwartz) teddy flood (james marsden) tex navarro (bad bunny) thad abraham (dylan sprouse/chris evans) the handler (kate walsh) thomas gardiner (felix mallard/paul rudd) tierney kennedy (maisie williams) timothy ‘tigger’ trigger (jeremy allen white) tinker bell (sabrina carpenter) tj lieberman (armie hammer) tommy burns (will poulter) topher larkin (alexander hogh andersen) trey turner (jonathan daviss) ursula celia (normani/lizzo) vaughn abel (max greenfield) veronica lodge (camila mendes) vidia viento (emma dumont) vivica lang (madison pettis/tessa thompson) wanda cowell (brenda song) warren wentz (robert pattinson) wendell langston (link neal) wilbur robinson (david mazouz) winnie knox (sophie turner/jessica chastain) wren green (alexander calvert) wynona winstead (sarah hyland/cristin milioti) xander talbot (g-eazy) york pemberton (heather baron-gracie) yusef barlas (zayn malik) zack abrams (alex fitzalan) ziggy (taron egerton) zoey matthews (olivia munn)

#outoftrash #ncwperspective

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