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Summary and Reviews of The Sequel by Jean Korelitz

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Sequel

The Book Series #2

by Jean Hanff Korelitz
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  • Oct 1, 2024, 304 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

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. That it does means something has gone very wrong, and someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly... 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.

With her signature wit and sardonic humor, Jean Hanff Korelitz gives readers an antihero to root for while illuminating and satirizing the world of publishing in this deliciously fun and suspenseful read.

Chapter One

It Starts with Us

First of all, it wasn't even that hard. The way they went on, all those writers, so incessantly, so dramatically, they might have been going down the mines on all fours with a plastic spoon clenched between their teeth to loosen the diamonds, or wading in raw sewage to find the leak in the septic line, or running into burning buildings with forty-five pounds of equipment on their backs. But this degree of whining over the mere act of sitting down at a desk, or even reclining on a sofa, and … typing?

Not so hard. Not hard at all, actually.

Of course, she'd had a ringside seat for the writing of her late husband's final novel, composed—or at least completed—during the months of their all-too-brief marriage. She'd also had the master-class-for-one of his previous novel, the wildly successful Crib. True, the actual writing of that novel had predated their meeting, but she'd still come away from it with a highly nuanced understanding of how that ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. Did you read The Plot before reading The Sequel? If your answer is different from that of your reading buddies, compare your reading experiences.
  2. The chapter titles in The Sequel are themselves titles of other writers' sequels to their novels. Did you spot that, and if so, at what point?
  3. Discuss Anna as the antihero. Did you enjoy reading the story told from her perspective? Would you want to be friends with her?
  4. Anna's recollection of Evan contrasts sharply with his recollection of her. Where do you think the truth lies? Is Anna a reliable narrator?
  5. Do you view Anna as the villain of the story, or is the villain her husband, her brother, or her blackmailer?
  6. Would Anna's book have hit the ...
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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

In Anna, Korelitz has brilliantly created a sympathetic antihero. Her sleuthing into the identity of her nemesis and what they want from her takes from her from New York City to Vermont, where Jake taught, and finally to Georgia; throughout this journey, her intelligence, fiery determination, and savvy instincts are impressive and compelling. Her backstory, which is developed over the course of the novel in tight prose flashbacks and from excerpts of Evan's manuscript, propels the plot hand-in-hand with her current actions...continued

Full Review (664 words)

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(Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski).

Media Reviews

AARP
[A] page-turner for sure and a worthy follow up (sequel!) to the author's fantastic thriller The Plot.

BookPage (starred review)
[A] hilariously snippy and deliciously mean satire of the publishing world in addition to a nail-biting suspense novel.

LitHub
Fans of Korelitz's literary thriller The Plot will (manuscript theft! identity theft! murder most foul! soup!) get excited for the sequel: The Sequel, in which a certain author's widow decides to write her own book—and discovers that she's not the only one who knows a few secrets after all. Fun.

New York Times Book Review
This follow-up to The Plot finds Anna Williams-Bonner basking in literary acclaim (and moola from her murdered husband's estate) — until pesky excerpts from a manuscript resurface and put questions of authorship, and the publishing world's values, under the microscope.

New York Times
Sequels are notoriously tricky. Even the characters in The Sequel acknowledge it. "They're never as good as the first book, are they?"… Well, this one is. By shifting the focus to Anna, Korelitz gives the novel what many sequels lack: a sense of newness. While the story grows more intricate, she remains in control. Her plot — ha! — is propulsive, her prose precise.

The New Yorker
[A] propulsive thriller... Korelitz spins Anna's pursuit of her accuser into a satisfying hunt, threading it with her antihero's hilariously jaundiced opinions of literary life.

The Wall Street Journal
Ms. Korelitz's book, mixing dark wit with coldblooded suspense, provides an unforgettable tour through the life and mind of a homicidal protagonist.

The Washington Post
Like Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley or Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, Anna is a heinous devil who may shock and offend, but never bores.

Library Journal
The narrative starts slowly but by the end, it steams along. This book will fly off the shelves.

People Magazine
Korelitz fans will eat up this satirical, bookish suspense.

Woman's World Magazine
Chilling, creatively woven.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A slew of barbed characterizations—there are no good guys here—add to the mean-spirited fun. The conclusion suggests that Korelitz may decide to emulate Patricia Highsmith and keep her antisocial protagonist around for more enjoyably amoral outings.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
It's another taut and compulsively readable spellbinder from Korelitz.

Booklist
[A] compelling and worthy sequel, another rip-roaring thriller full of very amusing scenes of delusional writers and their awful prose and many twists and turns.

Reader Reviews

Bonnie G

The Sequel is a worth sequel
The Sequel is as much fun for voracious readers as The Plot. Sprinkled throughout a solid mystery thriller, Hanff Korelitz slyly winks to the peculiarities of the book business. She saves her sharpest knives for book signings, the idea of sequels, ...   Read More
Labmom55

It’s not a stand-alone
What a fitting title for a book that is exactly what it claims, a sequel. Jacob Finch Bonner is dead, the result of suicide. His wife, Anna Williams-Bonner is overseeing his estate, especially his last book, Crib, which was a success. Then, she ...   Read More

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Beyond the Book



Book Tours Behind the Scenes

In The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, readers get a taste of what authors go through in the rite of publishing passage known as "the book tour." For new or established authors, a book tour usually includes an (often hectic) travel schedule to bookstores, schools, and writing conferences; book signings; and readings from their work. For readers and book buyers who attend these events, it can seem like a sweet deal. But what is it like on the other side for the author? A lot of work, it turns out.

Library patrons attend a reading at the Cannon Beach Library Science fiction writer John Scalzi revealed the inside skinny on a typical book tour in a 2017 Los Angeles Times article. The first thing he mentions is the sheer amount of disorientation an author may feel with so much travel. For Scalzi, one ...

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Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

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    From the author of Looker comes this "compulsive and unforgettable novel" (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.

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