The Privilege of the Happy Ending is a 2018 metafictional dark fantasy story by Kij Johnson. It was first published in Clarkesworld.
In medieval England, 6-year-old Ada and her talking chicken Blanche defeat a plague of reptilian wastoures, as the author provides commentary on the backstory and future of minor characters.
The Privilege of the Happy Ending won the 2019 World Fantasy Award—Novella.[1]
Tangent Online praised it as "darkly delightful" and "beautifully written", with Johnson's frequent authorial interjections initially being "jarring", but eventually "eagerly anticipated".[2]