The Sequel (The Book Series, #2) by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Published by Celadon Books
Publication date: October 1, 2024
Genres: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
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More devious, delicious, escape reading! The Sequel is just that, the sequel to Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel The Plot. Anna Williams-Bonner is the widow of critically acclaimed author Jacob Bonner. Only she’s not happy about her husband’s success as his novel cuts a bit too close to her own life. She’s aggrieved by this as she is by most things. Her most fervent wish is to be left alone and yet nothing in her life has unfolded in a way that allows that.
And there is so much mess in The Sequel. Grieving is not really Anna’s thing so after she handles the obligatory widow media tour, she decides it’s time to write her own novel. How hard can it be? Apparently not very because she does and, thanks to her late husband’s editor and agent, it’s met with reasonable success. She’s sent off on a book tour which is largely uninteresting until someone starts taunting her with notes intimating problematic things about her husband’s past and her own. Her husband she could care less about, but Anna has made certain to cover her own tracks so having to go back over them makes her even more irritable.
I had a problem with one of the key elements in The Plot and it hampered my enjoyment of the story. With that impediment out of the way in The Sequel, I was able to sit back, relax and let Korelitz drive the car, even it pushed the limits of my credulity and let a wholly dislikable character narrate the entire ride. Because there is nothing nice about Anna. But as the storyteller Korelitz allows her to sow the seeds of doubt, the whispers, that leave the reader second guessing their own opinion. In real life it’s gaslighting, but in fiction it can make for wickedly good reading.
Whether it’s an unreliable narrator or all the interesting tidbits about the publishing industry The Sequel is a fiendish maze that eases the reader into the story with wide open paths only to trap them in dead ends or trails that circle back around themselves. Another novel that kept me happily attached to the page.
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*I received a free copy of this book from Celadon Books in exchange for an honest review.*
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