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{{trope}}
* [[
** ''[[
*** But considering all the terrible things that magic can do, this may not be such a bad thing after all.
** ''[[
*** Another example from ''The Silmarillion'' is the romance between the mortal Man Beren and Elven beauty Luthien. The good news is that Luthien becomes mortal, allowing her to follow Beren when he dies (Men and Elves have ''very'' different fates after death). The bad news is that Luthien becomes mortal, and thereby passes out of the world and is lost to her people.
**** In ''[[The Hobbit (
*** Even the happy ending for Arwen and Aragorn is somewhat tainted, since now Arwen is mortal but still can't quite understand what death is and that it's not always horrible. Imagine living thousands of years and suddenly being faced by a single century. So when Aragorn is dying and tells her that they'll meet again she's freaking out, and spends the rest of her life moping in an abandoned Elf forest.
**** "She laid herself to sleep upon Cerin Amroth, and there is her green grave." Sounds more like suicide...
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** Or it's because of the fact that how long the mermaid stays as a soulless spirit is explicitly tied to [[Anvilicious|whether little children are good and obey their parents or not.]]
** [[An Aesop]] notwithstanding, that is the whole ''point'' of the mermaid tale: don't throw away everything for love, especially if the person you love doesn't even know you exist.
* In [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''[[
** Though in the sequel trilogy, ''The Tawny Man'', things get better. There's still Bittersweet qualities, but it is overall a happy ending despite the characters that died on the way.
* Susan Cooper's ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' ends with the good guys winning, but with everyone but Will [[Laser
* [[Philip Pullman]]'s ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' ends with The Authority destroyed and his Regent, Metatron, eliminated... but in the process, Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are trapped in the space between worlds for eternity, and Will and Lyra are separated into their own worlds because moving between worlds results in the end of Dust.
** Lyra and Will would've been able to stay together, but people who stay in a non-native world lead shorter lives than they would in their native world, typically dying only a few short years after traveling of disease. Truly unfair.
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* In ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', Smerdyakov finishes his [[Xanatos Roulette]] by [[Driven to Suicide|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 [[Cassandra Truth|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 [[An Aesop|Life Goes On And We Should Cherish It]].
** To be fair, Dostoevsky did [[Author Existence Failure|intend to write a sequel.]]
* The prequel Kingpriest trilogy of ''[[Dragonlance]]''. Sure, the [[Balance Between Good and Evil|Balance]] is restored, the [[Holier Than Thou|Kingpriest]] gets his comeuppance, and the ''Peripas Mishakas'', the [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|setting's Bible]] is saved, but somehow this doesn't make up for the gods having to [[The End of the World
* The true ending of [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series: ''The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.''
** ''[[Under the Dome]]'': The heroes' plan works, and (most of) the main characters get out alive. Unfortunately, they are pretty much the only people who survive. Almost the entire population of Chester's Mill is dead. To top it all off, the box used to generate the dome is still around, and there's no guarantee that it won't be used somewhere else on Earth or in the wider Universe in the future.
** Oh hell, way more than half of King's stuff qualifies for this. ''[[The Green Mile]]'', ''Bag of Bones'', ''[[The Shining]]'', all these and more. It'd probably be easier to find a Stephen King story that's either a [[Happy Ending]] or a full [[Downer Ending]]. The lists would be a helluva lot shorter for sure.
* At the end of the ''[[
** Oh, Cassie survives, since Jake knows she's never been a warrior at heart and doesn't take her on the rescue mission. Despite Jake's suggestion of marriage in #53, they drifted apart afterwards and Cassie is dating someone else. That's both official couples torpedoed, since Rachel is dead.
*** Tobias has Rachel's ashes, and unless he traps himself in a morph that lives longer than a red-tailed hawk, he may get to be [[Together in Death]] with her soon afterward. The ''Animorphs'' universe apparently has ''some sort'' of afterlife, as Rachel's spirit got to talk to the Elemist for a few moments before continuing on its ghostly way to [[Ascend to
* Brooks' ''[[World War Z]]'': We make it, but the whales don't. Also, the death count's stratospheric.
* "Bittersweet" is probably the most optimistic you'll ever get from George R. R. Martin. He has, in fact, said he'll be shooting for bittersweet at the end of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''.
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** Amazingly enough, he's managed to stay just optimistic enough to make every book in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' have a [[Bittersweet Ending]]. Even ''A Feast For Crows'', which holds some sort of record for being the darkest book in an already rather dark series.
** Read practically any of his short stories and you'll probably find it has a bittersweet ending. Even ''The Ice Dragon'', which was reprinted as a children's book.
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Stardust (
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[
** ''[[
** Come to think of it, [[Coraline (
* The end of the Drizzt Do'Urden novel ''The Legacy'' has Drizzt and his friends fighting off the drow and [[Heroic Sacrifice|Artemis Entreri... and Wulfgar dying]] to save his friends from a demon, the brave dwarven priest who was going to officiate his and Catti-brie's wedding being crushed to death, and a threat of an army of drow coming upon Mithral Hall. Yay?
** ''The Hunter's Blades'' trilogy finishes with Mithral Hall holding out against the newly-founded Kingdom of Dark Arrows long enough and bloodily enough that King Obould decides to halt his advance. Gerti Frostdottir, the frost giant priestess, decides to sever her ties with the orc king. Drizzt and Catti-brie finally get horizontal and then get married. The Companions of the Hall have once again come through alive and mostly well. But the orcs have gained a large foothold in the Silver Marches, Pikel Bouldershoulder has lost an arm; Wulfgar's wife, an allied human mage, several of Drizzt's new friends, dozens if not hundreds of elven warriors, hundreds of humans (including civilians), and hundreds if not thousands of dwarven soldiers are dead; as well as many, many orks but well, they had it coming, and Wulfgar's daughter has been kidnapped. On top of it all, Lady Alustriel, the figurehead of the Silver Marches, is leaning on her people to let the orcs stay, as dislodging them would be far too costly to be worth it.
** Salvatore seems to be leaning heavily towards a [[Bittersweet Ending]] these days, likely because of the crap the campaign setting goes through. So while in ''The Orc King'' the Kingdom of Dark Arrows and Mithral Hall become uneasy allies and Wulfgar's daughter is found, Wulfgar leaves the [[True Companions]] for Icewind Dale, giving his daughter back to her blood mother. In ''The Pirate King'', the city of Luskan is all but destroyed in a war to dislodge its hidden
*** On top of that Cadderly's spirit can't move on, because he has to continue circling the ruins of Spirit Soaring to renew the spell that prevents the Ghost King from coming back. Good times, huh?
*** Oh, and its stated flatout that Mielikki's garden is a "private" afterlife, so no [[Together in Death]] for Drizzt. Ouch.
* [[Forgotten Realms]]' ''Starlight and Shadows'' trilogy: Most participants who managed to stay alive [[Character Development|grew wiser]]. Part of damages from the Times of Troubles is repaired. Liriel survives and finds some friends, but Fyodor is dead and not to be resurrected. Products of drow radiation magic works on surface without deterioration - mixed blessing at best (though may be Weave repair).
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer
** Abnett's earlier ''40k'' series ''[[Eisenhorn]]'' ends with the title character having defeated the [[Big Bad]]'s apocalyptic plan, but with most of his companions dead in the process and the rest going their own way.
*** Not to mention the fact that dialogue in the ''[[Ravenor]]'' implies that Gregor Eisenhorn has either [[Moral Event Horizon|turned to Chaos]], become a [[Knight Templar|dangerous radical]] or suffered a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].
** Pretty much ''every single book'' in [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[
* [[Lloyd Alexander]] examples:
** ''[[Prydain Chronicles|The Chronicles of Prydain]]'' end with Taran essentially making the opposite of Frodo's decision in ''[[The Lord of the Rings
*** In other words, Taran gets Samwise's ending (without the Ringbearer tag).
** The ''Westmark Trilogy'' ends with the country retaken, the people finally given a democracy, and [[Official Couple]] Theo and Mickle married after years and two books of waiting; but with half the supporting cast dead including all of Florian's "children" besides Theo and the companions going into semi-volunary exile.
** "The First Two Lives of Lukas Kasha" ends with the main character saving the day, learning his lesson and being very violently torn from all the friends he's made over the course of the book including [[Will They or Won't They?|the girl he may or may not have fallen in love with]], along with any influence he may have had over that world. Instead, he is sent back to his home where everyone thinks he's a worthless layabout and no one believes he was almost a king, and a good one at that. He leaves the town in order to spend his entire life searching for a way to get back into Abidon.
** "The Rope Trick" ends with the characters very narrowly escaping the bad guy's clutches, the main character finally accomplishing the thing she's been trying to do all novel, and entering a land of peace. The bitter part? None of them know if they're alive, dead, or nonexistent. Lloyd Alexander is quite fond of these.
* Joe Abercrombie's ''[[The First Law]]''. The [[Big Bad]] is defeated and his army routed. Jezal is king. West is a Marshall. Dogman is a respected leader in the North. Glokta is both Arch-Lector and married to Ardee. Logen has settled his score with Bethod. Ferro gains new powers to enable her to take her revenge. On the other hand, Bayaz is revealed to be a megalomaniac dictator no better than Kahlul. Jezal is a puppet utterly cowed by Bayaz. West is slowly dying from exposure to the Seed. Logen may or may not be dead by Black Dow's hands. Lastly, Adua is left utterly in ruins and afflicted by the sickness brought on by the Seed.
* In Ray Nelson's short story ''Eight O Clock In The Morning'', the protagonist, through a mixture of resourcefulness and sheer determination, manages to lead humanity to rebel against the man-eating lizard men who had taken over the world... and used their mind control powers to keep anyone from even realizing it. However, he never actually gets to see this, as the command that gives the story its title kills him the next day.
* The conclusion of [[Garth Nix]]'s ''Abhorsen'': Hedge is dead, Orannis is bound anew, and most of the main characters, plus the innocents they were trying to protect, survive. However, Lirael loses her hand, Nick will have to struggle against the Free Magic still in his blood for the rest of his life, and the Disreputable Dog is dead. Or is it? This ''is'' one of the Seven we're talking about here...
* ''[[The Name of the Wind]]'': 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 Tannen 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 [[Cannot Spit It Out]] to Denna he winds up becoming something of her [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]. 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 [[
* ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'' ends with Nathaniel redeemed, Bartimaeus freed, and the commoners gaining a greater voice in their own government. Of course, it also ends with Nathaniel ''dying'' [[Redemption Equals Death|at the moment of his redemption]] and Kitty's budding friendship/morethanfriendship cut off, leaving her alone and aged from the effects of Ptolemy's Gate.
** 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, and the unmentioned fact that the Americans will become the next great empire based on magic and subjugation of demons, bringing the whole bloody cycle around yet again.
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* Scott Lynch:
** ''The Lies of Locke Lamora'': Locke successfully takes revenge on the Grey King, but he is left with only one of his friends still alive, and he has to leave Camorr forever. Locke himself sums it up: "So this is what winning feels like....it can go **** itself."
** The sequel ''Red Seas Under Red Skies'': Sure, Locke and Jean have brought down the Archon and gotten away from Tal Verrar, and the pirates aren't going to be hunted down and killed, but in the meantime Jean's girlfriend is dead, they failed in the robbery they came for in the first
* This is about the best you can hope for with anything by [[Harry Turtledove]]. If it's not a straight-out [[Downer Ending]], it typically goes like this: There's an overall victory for the good guys, but the world is irreperably changed, a lot of good people died or have their lives ruined, and a lot of bad guys are no worse off.
** [[Justified Trope]]: most of what Turtledove writes is alternative history fiction, which is generally presented in such a way as to be as "[[Sliding Scale
*** I have to say, the
*** Subverted, however, to a considerable extent, in ''The Guns of the South'': {{spoiler|the Afrikaner extremists see their attempt to convert the Confederacy into a future ally of apartheid South Africa fail, General Lee's plan to free the slaves wins passage through the Confederate Congress, and Nate Caudell and Mollie get married with a pretty decent chance of a life happy ever after. The book ends on a definitively upbeat note, with Lee acknowledging the homage of his freedwoman servant and getting ready to start another day as President of the Confederate States.}}
* Pretty much every book in the ''[[
** By ''Storm from Shadows'' they stop being bittersweet and start being [[Downer Ending
*** The corner has been turned as of ''Mission of Honor.'' {{spoiler|Oyster Bay has finally had its trigger pulled (with nearly every major shipyard in the Manticore system destroyed as a result), and the war with the Sollies has finally started.... but on the other hand, the RMN has proven itself capable of kicking the Sollie navy's ass without trying, and Manticore and Haven have (finally!) made peace (as well as agreeing to a military alliance that will probably take the starch out of the SLN's impending attack of Manticore)}}.
* The ending of Patricia Bray's ''Chronicles of Josan'' trilogy. Josan, whose soul has been forced into the body of the prince (and later emperor) Lucius, discovers that the body will die in the strain between two souls. He sets things up so he can banish himself, as the interloper, but Lucius takes over the body at the last second to banish himself instead of Josan, having come to the conclusion that Josan is the better leader of the two of them, and more fit for the office of emperor.
* Cormac McCarthy's ''The Road''. The father dies, completely uncertain and afraid of his son's future in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's believed to have been a worthwhile sacrifice, however, as his son was finally able to find some place safe to be raised by decent people. The ending is then given even more bittersweetness as the epilogue implies that humanity will never be able to recover from the catastrophe that befell the earth, and will eventually die out completely. Still, given McCarthy's usual [[Kill
* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer
** The ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' itself has a very bittersweet
* At the end of [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* One of the [[Trope Codifier
* Pretty much all of Black Flame's ''[[Friday the
* The final volume of the ''Konrad'' [[Warhammer Fantasy]] novels features Konrad defeating the Skaven plot to take over the Empire, and screwing with his adversary's plans. Unfortunately for Konrad, said enemy escapes, and he is forced to behead his first love; for bonus points, it's implied he may not survive what he's getting into at the end. By this point, most if not all of his friends and allies are dead. Of course, this is from a ''[[Crapsack World|Games Workshop]]'' universe, so it should come as no surprise that this is actually the ''most'' optimistic part of the novel.
* ''[[Outbound Flight]]''. Some things, like the destruction of the Outbound Flight on the cover and the fact that only a few people survived, are [[Foregone Conclusion|known]] from [[Timothy Zahn]]'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.
** But actually read the novel knowing about this, and you find that the one most sympathetic Jedi on board, the one who was almost able to avoid all that, did a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] 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]].
* ''[[Fire Bringer]]'' by David Clement-Davies ends with many of Rannoch's friends being killed off in the final battle, though the evil is defeated and Rannoch becomes Lord of the Herd. Then the epilogue ends with his wife dead, the herd forgetting him, and him wandering off to die of old age. Cheery, isn't it?
** In a similar vein ''The Sight'', (also by David Clement-Davis) ends with a ''huge'' amount of the main characters dead, Larka dying, even though she tried to save herself whilst [[Taking You
* [[
* Reginald Hill's ''[[Dalziel and Pascoe]]'' novels do this fairly frequently.
** In ''Bones and Silence,'' Peter and Ellie Pascoe finally figure out who intends to commit suicide. Peter can't stop her.
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** Similarly, Dalziel and Pascoe entirely botch the [[Serial Killer]] case in ''Dialogues of the Dead'', and the murderer is now dating Hat Bowler...
** ''Death's Jest-Book'' ends on a note of profound gloom: one major player commits suicide; the young male prostitute Wield befriends is killed; and Franny Roote is shot multiple times and nearly dies. To top things off, the murderer from ''Dialogues of the Dead'' dies of brain cancer, leaving Hat Bowler distraught.
* The book version of ''[[The Princess Bride (
* The ''[[Dragon Keeper]]'' trilogy ends with Ping finding the Dragon Haven, and Kai being revelaed as a dragon of five colours - meaning that he's the next rightful leader of the group of dragons there. However Ping leaves, due to her not belonging there/the other dragons not wanting her there, and she's blinded for flight away so that she will never be able/allowed to find the Dragon Haven again. It's not all bad though, since Ping meets up with Jun and decides to go and live with him, and Kai gave her on of his scales, so that when there's a "Dragon Moon" (a full moon), Ping can dream of him.
* In [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Turn Coat'', Morgan has not been executed for a crime he did not commit; he died heroically, and killing the villain. So, they merely [[Malicious Slander|say]] that he and the villain were in league. Thomas is alive but seems to be reverting back to the native nastiness of a [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]]. Harry has learned that Luccio never really loved him. The White Council refuses to admit to the existence of the Black Council. So Ebenezer and Harry decide to conspire behind their backs, and will be executed if caught. Although Harry peptalks the rest of the [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolves]] into carrying on, Kirby is still dead.
** The next novel, ''Changes'', is worse: {{spoiler|The Red Vampires are wiped out (thereby finally facing justice for millenia of torture and enslavement), allowing the people they have enslaved and terrorized to finally forge their own destiny without living in fear. But, in order to accomplish this, Harry not only has to kill his love interest with his own hands to turn the [[Powered
** Some of the earlier ones aren't exactly uplifting. By the end of ''Death Masks'', the Denarians' plot has been foiled, but Susan has left town again, and Harry comes to accept that they will never be together. He even puts away the pictures and engagement ring he'd kept on his mantle for three years. At the end of ''White Night'', the current antagonists in the White Court have been eliminated in the coup, but Lash (the reformed shadow of a fallen angel) sacrificed herself to shield Harry from a psychic attack.
** The end of ''Ghost Story'': {{spoiler|Turns out that he was [[Not Quite Dead]]...but that means he's ''still'' the Winter Knight.}}
* In Nick Kyme's ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (
* End of Polish novel ''Wroniec'' (title doesn't have an equivalent in English, but it's something similar to raven and crow) yeah, main character saves his
* In Piers Anthony's ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]] Book 5: Being a Green Mother'', Orb almost destroys the world in a fit of rage after she finds out Natasha is "Ah, Satan" backwards, but then saves the world by fulfilling her prophecy and marrying Evil/Satan so that Chronos will reverse time to before she got mad. But then it turns out [[Stockholm Syndrome|she ends up falling in love with him]] in the later books.
** Uh, no. It was made pretty clear in Being A Green Mother that she loved him anyway. "God help me, for I do love Satan", remember? It's Bittersweet because they're separated and it's not until book 6 that we find out how it really ends for them.
* ''The Lovely Bones'' ends with everyone finally moving on from Susie's death and Harvey dead. However, he's never caught and brought to justice for the numerous murders he
* ''[[Push (
* ''[[The Time
* Some of [[Dale Brown]]'s novels do this. In ''Fatal Terrain'' the Chinese threat to Taiwan is defeated, though not before many Taiwanese die, {{spoiler|Guam gets nuked}} and {{spoiler|Brad Elliott}} pulls off a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. 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.
* The Keys to the Kingdom ends with Arthur as the {{spoiler|New Architect}} with {{spoiler|all of The House destroyed, including almost all of the denizens except for a choice few, as well as his mother. Arthur is split off from the New Architect, but it lied to about being mortal again, and will probably result in [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]].}}
* ''The Divide Trilogy'' by Elizabeth Kay ends with the eponymous Divide closing - ''forever'', and Felix and Beytony both being split into two copies of themselves (one pair of them in each world) as a result of being across the Divide when it shut. Although each pair manages to find out what's happened, Magic-world Felix will never see his parents again, but learns that his heart condition is perminantly healed. On the other hand, Human-world Betony will never see her [[Taken for Granite|recently un-petrified]] parents, and (apart from her eyes) looks like a regular human, whereas Human-world Felix will probably never learn if his heart condition is permanently healed.
* The original short story version of ''The Midnight Meat Train'' can be interpreted as having one by a sufficiently twisted reader. Sure, the protagonist has gone insane, had his tongue torn out, and is forced to kill people for the immortals who secretly rule New York... but he finally loves the city.
* ''[[
* ''[[Les Misérables]]''. Jean Valjean dies, but reunited with Cosette and with an angel waiting to take his soul to heaven.
* Dragon Slippers- the war is ended and the evil princess killed, but so are dragons Shardas and {{spoiler|velika}} but {{spoiler|they get better}}. as well as several others.
** but it does end with a ray of hope.
* ''[[The Last Unicorn (
* Arthur C. Clarke, ''Childhood's End.'' Full stop.
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Voldemort and his Death Eaters have been destroyed or scattered, and Harry is free of his burden. On the other hand, many wonderful people have died. The bittersweet tone is [[Babies Ever After|rather]] [[Happily Ever After|ruined]] by the epilogue, however.
* The first book in the [[Farsala Trilogy]], with an emphasis on bitter. The trilogy as a whole has one, too, though there the emphasis leans more toward sweet.
* ''[[The Golden Oecumene
* ''[[Snot Stew]]'': Toby survives his brutal mauling, but his tail is gone, and the book ends with him reconciling with his sister while crying over the loss.
* Yagu, the Blue Wolf: the titular character gets rescued by his master, but in the process most of his former pack -including his sister- gets killed.
* Christopher Moore, a writer who (ostensibly) sticks to the humor genre, has a few bittersweet endings to his novels.
** ''Bite Me'', the continuation of ''Bloodsucking Fiends'' and ''You Suck,'' ends with {{spoiler|the vampire hordes destroyed, Abby and Tommy saved from their eventual deaths as third-generation vampires, and the three vampire lords dead... but Tommy can't handle being a vampire, and Jody doesn't want to return to being human, and so Jody leaves him, presumably forever.}}
** ''[[Lamb:
* ''Tiger Moon'' by Antonia Michaelis ends with Lalit/Lagan rescuing Safia/Raka, having been encouraged by the (true) story of Farhad and Nittish, who attempted to rescue her. In the attempt though, Farhad is killed, and Nittish is turned to stone after being exposed to tears. However, Farhad gets reincarnated as a good and prosperous man (and is implied to be reincarnated by Krishna himself), and Nittish's soul leaves the statue, entering into the body of a strong young tiger who died and whose soul had already moved on, getting to finally be a normal tiger again.
* Lots and lots of [[Poul Anderson]]'s stories. '''Especially''' the Dominic Flandry stories from the [[Technic History]] series
{{quote|
* ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'': 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 deaths, destroying the island, and proving that [[Humans Are
* [[Monster Blood Tattoo]]: Rossamund and the majority of his friends survive all the adventures, but he can never see any of them again.
* [[The Tomorrow Series]]: At the end, the war is over... {{spoiler|but Australia's lost a lot of territory to the invaders, and several of Ellie's [[True Companions]] are dead. }}Then you get to the sequel series...and [[It Got Worse]].
* ''[[Lady: My Life
* [[Horus Heresy|Mechanicum]] is either this or a [[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, and the [[The Dragon|machine]] that has been stalking the main characters is defeated. [[It Got Worse|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.
* ''[[Malevil]]'' has a complex mother of a Bittersweet Ending in part to a [[Distant Finale]] spanning the following three years. La Roque and Malevil are working together, they're prepared and capable of thwarting invasion, the harvests are bountiful, everything is going exceptionally well for two years. Until...
** [[The Hero Dies]]: Emmanuel falls ill and dies of appendicitis. Unfortunately, Emmanuel turns out to be the [[Living Emotional Crutch]] for ''three people''.
** [[Together in Death]]: Evelyne kills herself in grief.
** [[Dropped a Bridge
** [[Drunk
* ''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 [[All Just a Dream]], Laura lives on in Ice-Land.}}
* ''The Land of Oblivion'' - Jesse is dead but [[Died Happily Ever After|he has a happy afterlife...]] [[Inferred Holocaust|for now]].
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** [[The 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.
* In the [[Black Magician Trilogy]], they defeat the Ichani but [[Heroic Sacrifice|Akkarin, Sonea's love interest, dies giving Sonea all his power]].
* In Marti Steussy's s-f novel ''Forest of the Night'', the main character fulfills her childhood dream in the end. {{spoiler|But by then, her [[The Obi
* The ending of the series as a whole was actually pretty happy, but a number of the installments in [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s [[Books of Swords]] series were bittersweet at best. Most notably, ''Mindsword's Story'' was almost just a [[Downer Ending]]. Yes, the threat posed by the Mindsword has been repelled, at least for the moment, but it has hardly been defeated altogether. In fact, Vilkata is still at large and in possession of the Mindsword. Murat, [[Tragic Villain|who started the book with the best of intentions]] is dead along with his son, who really was innocent. On top of which, Princess Kristin is crippled and still in love with Murat, insisting that Mark is no longer her husband. At the end, Mark has won, but he's left standing there in the rain.
** ''The Third Book of Swords'', the conclusion to the earlier trilogy, also has a somewhat bittersweet ending. Yes, Vilkata is defeated, and Mark gets to be a prince, so it's a basically happy ending. But even though the gods were, frankly, [[Jerkass Gods|jerks]], it's still rather [[End of an Age|melancholy to see them die]]. And not every single one of them was evil; Aphrodite's death was particularly poignant, precisely because she had come to sympathize with mortals.
** The ending of the ''Empire Of The East'' trilogy, set in an earlier period in the same universe, is happy except for one key point: [[Big Good|Ardneh]] [[Thanatos Gambit|dies]].
* Although the Sentinels beat the Big Bad, ''[[Wearing the Cape]]'' ends with a {{spoiler|state funeral for ''close to half the team}}.''
* ''[[
* ''[[Number the Stars]]'': Ellen and the other Danish Jews escaped to safety, and after a [[Time Skip]] Denmark is liberated from the Nazis. However, {{spoiler|Peter}} dies and is buried in an unknown grave, instead of {{spoiler|with Lise}}. Also, Lise's death before the story becomes bittersweet once it's revealed that she was part of [[La Résistance]] and was actually run down by a Nazi car.
* [[Kurt Vonnegut]] wrote many of these:
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** ''[[The Sirens of Titan]]'': {{spoiler|Rumfoord dies (or rather, disappears in space) without making amends with Salo, and Malachi Constant dies. Salo does, however, create illusions that make Malachi's final moments happy.}}
** ''[[Mother Night]]'': {{spoiler|Campbell's status as a double agent is confirmed, therefore clearing his charges for crimes against humanity... but he chooses to hang himself for "crimes against himself".}}
* ''[[
* The [[Elenium]] ends with the death of [[Eldritch Abomination|Azash]] and Sparhawk returning home to his wife and daughter, but along the way we have the deaths of [[Sacrificial Lion|Kurik]] and [[Alas, Poor Villain|Martel]], an entire nation left with no government or diety to watch over it, and an entire pantheon of gods who have retreated from interacting with mortals after realizing that they can be killed just like Azash.
* The last book from the [[Inheritance Cycle]] ends in a way that many fans (mostly those who like romance) will NOT like. In the end, even though {{spoiler|Eragon manages to defeat Galbatorix and all ends well in Alagaesia, he end up having to leave the place. Even after Arya and Eragon all but say they loved each other they still end up apart in the end because of their duties(which brings the question: why did Islanzadí died? That made no sense and spoiled her daughter's romance). As if that wasn't enough, poor Nasuada was left alone by Murtagh, when he leaves for his soul-healling trip.}} It can't be called a very happy ending, BUT the fans may yet hope for a fifth book (the author said he's likely to write it one day) that may contain a bit more of romance.
* ''[[The Cornersville Trace Mythos
* The ending to ''[[Stravaganza]]: City of Masks'' is bittersweet. Lucien has stravagated to Bellezza and is held hostage by the sinister [[Evil Is One Big Happy Family|Di Chimici]] while his real body is still in the real world in a coma. Lucien's parents can't wake him up so they take his unconscious body to the hospital, where his body is put on a life-support machine. He doesn't recover as he can't return because he needs a Bellezzan book to return home and because of the Di Chimici holding him prisoner, so the doctors switch off the life-support machine and his real body dies, leaving Lucien [[Trapped in Another World|unable to ever return home]]. The Di Chimicis' [[Evil Plan|evil plans]] are thwarted, however.
* ''[[Winnie the Pooh|The House at Pooh Corner]]'' ends with a fairly sad note, as Christopher Robin is going to leave Hundred Acre Woods. The final chapter is about his farewell. While the ending remains true to the fairly lighthearted tone of the series, what Christopher is saying remains very poignant - he's growing up and can't be a child anymore.
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[[Category:Bittersweet Ending]]
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