What If?

EVERY fiction series/book had multiple endings?

Design: Ragini

By: Naisha

2nd year, BA(Hons.) Journalism

What if instead of siding with Dauntless, Tris decides to join the Erudite faction to overthrow Jeanine Matthews from within?

Tris makes a bold choice: instead of fighting Erudite, she joins them, recognizing their power as a tool for change. Rising through the ranks, she gains Jeanine Matthews' trust, all while secretly gathering allies. Tris begins to challenge the cold, controlling nature of Erudite from within, slowly turning the faction against Jeanine. When the moment is right, Tris exposes Jeanine’s manipulations and leads a successful coup. With Jeanine gone, Tris guides Erudite toward using their knowledge to unite, not control, gradually breaking down the rigid faction system.

Like the daunting example above, the storyline would branch into different alternatives at key points in the story. Some would take place at the very end, leaving readers at the edge of their seats waiting for the plot twist, and some would occur right in the middle of the story, opening a whole new realm of possibilities. 

And the fun twist? Readers would have been able to collect all editions and make their own collection!

Imagine having editions of books with multiple possibilities and a chance to re-read your favorite books from various perspectives. Readers could go about guessing what exactly could the ending be in each version and pick up little hints dropped along the way. 

This would also create more engagement in the reader community, sparking more conversations. 

⭐Maybe authors could have also taken input from fans about what endings are better, or what endings to incorporate! 

⭐Maybe digital books can have readers choose their own endings by offering choices in the book, kind of like Goosebumps does.

Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

What could be the drawbacks to this?

Writers would have a terrible writers’ block trying to come up with so many possibilities! 

Maybe it would also take away from the originality of a very popular series/book- what if multiple endings of Harry Potter lead to it not being as special anymore?

Regardless of a few inevitable weaknesses of this concept, I find this idea absolutely intriguing! 

Maybe you could be the writer to bring this to life?