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After the “insanely readable” (Stephen King) and “perfectly told” (Malcolm Gladwell) New York Times bestseller The Plot comes Jean Hanff Korelitz’s equally captivating new novel: The Sequel. Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business—that is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller? But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Something has gone wrong, and someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly... about Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far, and worked too hard, to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story—and she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.
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3.5
Cover 3; characters 4; Plot 4; Pace 3; Intrigue 3; Logic 3; worldbuilding 4; Writing 4; Enjoyment 3
Listen, much like the first book, this was something else. I don't know how Jean comes up with these story ideas but they are absolutely wild. The first 30% of this book was just a recap of everything that had happened between the events of the last book and this one. It was very dry, a bit boring and I was just kind of waiting to see if anything was going to happen. I could have easily DNF'd this at any point but I didn't actually hate it, I was just... along for the ride I guess you could say.
The things about The Sequel (much like The Plot) is that it does get a bit zany towards the end and you really just want to know what happened. But through both of these books, our narrators don't have the highest of opinions about writers. So as a writer it's like a whole book of being trash talked and that's... super fun. And like.... neither of our narrators are particularly likeable nor did I really care if they died or not.
This is honestly such a weird way to write a book and that's why I think these stand out. Most people wouldn't consider writing a book based on the anti-hero (or villain in some cases) and also trash talk the entire community that publishes books. It's wild.