The sequel is the follow-up to 2021’s breakout hit, the plot. In this novel, we follow the widow of the “ author” of the plot as she wants to enjoy a quiet life on her husband’s Royalties. Soon, she becomes obsessed with writing her novel and finds it a breakout hit with her husband’s publisher. However, as she begins to enjoy her own success, a manuscript resurfaces with secrets of her past and her husband’s. Who knows all of this and who keeps sending her these manuscripts of her own long-buried story?

Much like the plot, the characters are strangely intriguing even though they aren’t likable. This is darker in tone, but very self aware and knowing about the pitfalls of sequels and the pressure to produce after a hit bestseller. If you like smart and savvy thrillers with a darkly comedic tone, or if you liked the plot, read this!

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Just when I believed the narrative couldn’t improve, along comes The Sequel. What a smart continuation of such an exceptional tale! This installment resolved several unanswered questions from the first book and expanded the storyline significantly.

Although I wasn't a fan of the protagonist, I could see how her negative actions stemmed from the desire for revenge against her husband's misdeeds. Every time I thought she was about to face the consequences of her actions, she always managed to wriggle her way out and keep moving forward. I found myself so excited to see what would come next!

Thank you Net Galley and Celadon Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A very dark final (?) installment to The Plot.

While The Sequel does a little recapping, of The Plot, I also do a bit more in my website review.

I thought The Plot was such a clever book. The Sequel is much more straightforward in narrative structure and even darker in tone, with a higher body count.

If you didn't like the ending of book one, you will REALLY not like the ending of this one.

This was a great follow up to the plot! I thought the events of this book and the pacing were done very well. The narrator is so unlikable but at the same time I was rooting for her to get the justices she felt she deserved. The ending felt a little crazy to me but overall really enjoyed this one!

Loved The Plot so well written multi layered and tense and the Sequel is just as good.You can read The Sequel as a stand alone but the Plot is to good to be missed,a perfect follow up.Thanks #netgalley#celadonbooks

Anna Williams-Bonner is living a contented life as the literary widow of Jacob Finch Bonner - happy to collect his royalty checks after putting both him, and the accusations of plagiarism regarding his last book, to rest. Then Anna decides to release a novel of her own to swift literary acclaim. But with all this increased attention, Anna soon becomes harassed in much the same way her late husband was, except this time she’s being sent excerpts of another story she knows all too well. Someone out there knows too much about her and the bodies she’s left behind, and she’ll do anything to hold on to ownership of her own story.

The Sequel is the follow-up to Jean Hanff Korelitz’s 2021 release The Plot. In The Plot, Jacob Finch Bonner is unhappily teaching at Ripley College, a lowly MFA program, while struggling to write another novel after his initial success. There he meets arrogant student Evan Parker, who declares the plot of his novel as a sure thing and Jacob is frustrated to realize that might be true. But the book never comes to fruition due to Parker’s untimely passing. Jacob then secretly appropriates the story and publishes it himself, relishing once again in fame. That is until he begins receiving anonymous threats indicating that someone out there knows of his plagiarism. This prompts him to begin investigating his former student and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him, as he realizes there may be blurred lines between fact and fiction, and Evan Parker might just be a thief himself.

You definitely need to read The Plot first to understand this story, although I’ll admit after three years I didn’t remember it as well as I’d hoped to understand some of the nuance. However, we pick up from Anna’s point of view shortly after Jacob’s passing. She’s not always a likable character and she really makes some questionable choices but it’s hard not to root for her. These were both unexpected thrillers for me with a slow burn. I found some plot points a little confusing and some of the connections between characters a bit of a stretch but overall really enjoyed this.

Thank you to @netgalley and @celadonbooks for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.75⭐️

There is something absolutely delicious about the compartmentalized point of view of a well-written psychopath. Even though the person does horrendous things, there is a kind of untainted clarity about what they are seeing. And oddly, her logic is easy to follow and even identify with. I found myself wanting the protagonist to get away with everything.

In The Sequel, Anna (the murdering wife of a novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, who in the precursor novel The Plot, appropriated a plot that was not his) sees the world of novelists desperately seeking success in all of its insanity. This is an "inside publishing" novel that anybody involved in the industry, but especially writers, will love and laugh at.

From there, the "who-done-it" or "is-doing-it" threatening from the past takes off. As with The Plot (a necessary read before approaching this book), the plotting, character development, and writing are wonderfully entertaining.

This book was a great escape from anything that was concerning me in real life.

The widow of an acclaimed author writes a novel but remains haunted by the same plagiarism allegations that haunted her husband while alive.
I flew through this book and could not put it down. I really love the wry way Korelitz presents the narrator, who gives off anti-hero main character vibes again in this novel. I also love the insider info about the world of publishing and academia. I will read anything by this author!
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

What better than a psychological thriller for the month of October? “The Sequel” by Jean Hanff Korelitz is a page turner, one you can’t put down. I finished it in 2 days!

Anna Williams-Bower is a literary widow after her husband’s sudden death. She discovers within herself she would like to follow his path as a fiction author. After her debut novel “ The Afterword”, a surprise manuscript arrives in the mail, one she hoped never to see again. Somebody knows something about her past, secrets she’s been hoping to keep. Her deceased husband is being accused of plagiarism with this precise manuscript Anna was hoping would never surface.

A thrilling suspenseful read, after “The Plot”, but an outstanding read alone. I didn’t feel like I missed anything from the previous novel but more so now want to go back and read it for curiosity alone.
I appreciated Jean’s satire in the publishing world and actually gave me some respect for Authors in general, LET’S BUY THEIR BOOKS! We get caught up in ARC’s and the bottom line is they need to SELL books. I’m IN !

Thanks to Celadon books , NetGalley and Author Jean Hanff Korelitz for this eARC. All comments and opinions are my own.

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. I started reading it without realizing it was a sequel (I know, I know!), and for a while I was having a deja vu experience trying to remember why it sounded familiar, which is probably the ideal meta experience for this book, tbh. Once I realized it was a sequel to the Plot, a book I did not love, I was entirely suprised by how much I enjoyed The Sequel. It was both a book I couldn't put down for the storyline and characters and searing indictment of the publishing industry (tell me how you really feel, JHK...).
Can't wait to discuss it with other readers.
Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

I didn’t really expect a sequel to The Plot, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. I definitely found Anna to be more interesting than Jake had been, but I found that this book moved a bit slower than I was hoping for. I listened to the audiobook for the first half and I did enjoy the narrator. I think you could read this without reading the Plot, but I think some parts you would be frustrated by until enough details came together and it just reads better if you know the back story. I almost hope we do see more of Anna even if I think this is likely the last of her that we will see. Anna is helping to promote her late husband’s last book and during an interview she impulsively says she plans on writing a book of her own. She doesn’t know why, she never thought about writing a book before but there is something about the idea that she can’t shake. As she writes and publishes her novel she learns that someone out there still believes that Jake stole the idea for his most popular book Crib and allude to the fact that they may know more than that. Overall this was an enjoyable book, I gave it 3.5 stars rounded up because I did like Anna as a character (even if she isn’t a great human).

The Sequel is, yes, the sequel to The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz and takes place after the death of her husband. Anna decides to write a book of her own, because how hard can it be, called The Aftermath, which becomes a quick success both critically and in popularity. However, she gets little time to enjoy her success before she starts receiving anonymous letters concerning an unpublished novel by her dead brother which she had believed had been destroyed and now, she must track down who is behind this if she is to have what she considers her well-earned peace.

For the most part, I enjoyed The Sequel. It is well written and, for the first half, I quite enjoyed following Anna’s journey from ‘grieving’ widow to successful author and righter of what she considers all the wrongs in her world. There was a somewhat tongue-in- cheek quality to Anna’s badness which was quite entertaining at first. After a while, though, I wanted to, at least, feel some sympathy, if not empathy, for Anna but she seemed to have no redeeming characteristics nor, for that matter, did any of the other characters. Still, it did keep my attention enough to want to know how Anna would solve her problems and, to be honest, how she would be able to leave a long line of bodies across the countryside without raising any concerns by anybody besides the people who had occupied those bodies. So, in the end, I will say if you liked The Plot or stories with narcissistic but charming (really) bad girl protagonists, this one’s for you.

I read the novel while listening to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan who, although the story is told in the third person, does an amazing and, at times, somewhat creepy job, of getting inside Anna’s head. Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Celadon Books. All opinions are my own.

3.5

As a fan of the Plot, I was so looking forward to this book! The early reviews were promising and I was delighted to get my hands on an advanced copy (Thank you, NetGalley). My excitement waned about 3o% of the way in - nothing in this book felt likable or redeemable and after just a few pages I already hated Anna, everything she stood for and the whole entire book from a stylistic perspective. I cannot imagine that I liked the Plot with this same style writing - but Goodreads says I did!

I heard the narration on audio was great- and maybe I’ll try that if I feel like revisiting, but this one was a no for me.

First, a big thank you to NetGalley and Caladon Books for the ARC of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel “The Sequel" – “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.”

I read “The Plot” last year and didn’t find it had a crazy plot twist that everyone was telling me about - I thought I enjoyed the Plot enough maybe I’ll give the Sequel a try. I initially was unsure how Korelitz would write this one given that the first ended pretty conclusively. But she is basically giving the first book a new coat of paint and calling it a Sequel. It does feel like there are lower stakes and nothing new to figure out. It feels like I have already read this book.

And I really think that is what Korelitz is commenting on with her satirical work. Authors rewrite the first novel changing one or two things about it and calling it something new. “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” are recent examples of this that I can think of. “Twilight” and “Midnight Sun” are another. In the Sequel we have a novelist with a bad attitude as our main character. This time it's Anna, the wife from the Plot, who, it turns out, just happens to have written an amazing first novel. The satire in these two books is definitely something that you have to accept for what it is. What we're really getting at with this book and the satire is how some people avoid the typical difficulties of getting published, not due to any talent but who they know, Anna is one of these. It's a lot less interesting when there is no struggle, and when Anna's book is not necessary. Anna is, clearly, set for life though it's completely unclear what she wants out of that life.

Once again, we have mysterious messages saying they know our novelist's secret. Which is the same secret as the last book. It's unclear why this must happen through another strange campaign of letters and notes, why someone doesn't just come out and make an accusation.

Worst of all, the book feels very repetitive. Sections play out much longer than they need to. Anna thinks the same thoughts over and over again. It would have been really easy to trim 50 pages out of this. Overall, I think that the take aways are the satirical message about the publishing industry “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and rewriting the same books with the same plot beats.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the perfect sequel. Literally. The Sequel is the follow-up to Jean Hanff Korelitz's best selling book The Plot. The book is a sequel, it's the second part of the story. It is definitely not a book you read without having read the original book. Indeed, I wish I had re-read the Plot before starting the Sequel, as I had forgot some of the details, which make this book so good. Anna is the perfect protagonist as villain. She got what she wanted in The Plot (read it people), and now it seems to be coming back to bite her. And her many crimes could be revealed, Or will they? No spoilers here, but the book builds up to a crescendo in a way in which the two books come full circle. Great read. Thanks to Macmillan and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy.

And look for the great easter egg Korelitz provides with the chapter titles!

A Twisted Tale

4.25 stars

The Sequel is the follow-up to The Plot, focusing on the widow of a famous author who writes a bestseller of her own. However, behind her newfound success lies a tangled web of deceit. Determined to hold onto her fame, she will go to any lengths to protect what is hers.

I highly recommend reading The Plot before reading The Sequel. Fully understanding the events of book one and the MC will elevate the reading experience of this book.

To avoid spoilers, I won't provide a detailed summary. What I can say is that the main character, Anna, is a master manipulator and strategist. Her level of conviction in her deceit is astounding, which makes for an immersive and intense reading experience. I was drawn into her story and invested in her plan for success. Anna outmaneuvers everyone who crosses her path—or does she?

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celadon Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How hard can writing a novel be?

So Anna Williams-Bonner, recently widowed when her husband of less than a year (bestselling author Jacob Finch Bonner) asks herself. Anna has spent the months since her husband’s apparent suicide touring in support of his final book, and when asked what the next chapter of her own life might hold she has taken to saying that she’s working on a novel herself (although she isn’t). The idea has received enthusiastic responses, including from her late husband’s agent Matilda Salter who arranges for Anna to attend a prestigious artists’ colony in NH to focus on her (supposed) writing. It sounds like a delightful escape to Anna and she willing goes, but after meeting the other artists in residence whom she finds to be whiny, pretentious, judgmental and quite frankly a bunch of idiots, she decides to give the writing thing a go. Matilda loves her manuscript, as does the late Jacob’s publisher Wendy, and before Anna knows it she has a glowing write-up in the New York Times and is launched on a highly anticipated book tour. There’s only one tiny problem….someone is sending taunting notes and manuscript excerpts hinting that Jacob may have plagiarized another author when he wrote his most famous book. And since Anna knows that to be true, she will need to take steps to figure out who is behind this whisper campaign and shut them down. Permanently. And how hard will THAT be? After all, Anna has had a lot of practice in taking care of those who threaten her.
The Sequel (which is, in fact, a sequel to The Plot, though can be read as a stand-alone….author Jean Hanff Korelitz doles out sufficient tidbits from the first book to catch a reader up if they didn't read it) is part mystery and part satire. Artists’ colonies, the publishing world, academia, none are spared from being delightfully skewered. Having managed a book store and hosted more than a few books signings, I laughed as even those get a little poke (the post-it notes! the fan lurking at the end of the line to capture more of the author’s time!), all while Anna schemes to shut down whomever has found a copy of the manuscript which Anna swore she had already eradicated from the planet and plots how to create both a novel and an author persona guaranteed to produce a bestseller. Just because she’s most likely a psychopath doesn’t mean that she’s not an oddly appealing character, and she’s (somewhat) honest with herself about who she is and what she’s done. If you are inclined to like dark humor and sharp wit, I suspect you’ll enjoy reading Anna’s new exploits, especially if you read and loved The Plot. Fans of William Kotzwinkle, Liane Moriarty and Nita Prose should also give this a try. My thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for allowing me early access to this amusing and addicting novel. Who says that sequels are never as good as the original?

Loving The Plot as much as I did, I was very excited to be granted both the ebook and audiobook for The Sequel! It takes a very talented author to have me invested in an unlikeable character like Anna Williams-Bonner. But Korelitz has created this intriguing, entitled, ruthless character – the widow of the best selling author, Jacob Finch Bonner. And just as she is coming into her own and settling into her own success, someone rocks her world.
Early on I thought I had the premise figured out while still enjoying my read. Well, I was totally wrong! Plot twists abound, will keep you guessing and pivoting! Dark humor and psychopathic villains galore, and writing that is cleverly sharp and includes her self-depreciating humor about writers and their processes.
I do highly recommend reading The Plot before starting The Sequel. Also, take note of the Chapter Titles!

In this captivating sequel to The Plot, Anna Williams Bonner is enjoying the spotlight as a famous literary widow and now a best-selling author in her own right. Life couldn’t be better, that is until she feels an unwelcome situation from her past. It turns out a “buried” manuscript still exists, and someone is sending pages not just to her, but to her in-laws and editor. In order to keep her darkest secrets under wraps. she sets out to find out who’s stalking her and destroy the manuscript once and for all. Now Anna knows someone has knowledge about her late brother, her husband and likely her.

The Sequel is Anna’s story. It is immensely satisfying, very suspenseful, an anti-heroine I cannot believe I was rooting for by the end. This book far exceeded my expectations.

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books are this arc! Jean Hanff Korelitz has written a sequel to her novel, appropriately titled "The Sequel." Set a few months after the first book, it explores Anna's life after her husband, Jake, is killed. Like Jake, Anna writes a novel centered around his untimely death, but publishing this novel leads her down a path she was hoping to leave in the grave. Like most sequels, I felt disappointed. The reveal behind the mystery was not predictable at all, but was kind of out of the blue, which is almost worse. The first half of the novel was pretty boring and the second half just didn't impact me as much as I wish it did. One positive thing I will end the review with is that the cover is cheesy, but I love it so much!