The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz is a gripping follow-up to her bestseller, The Plot. This novel dives into the life of Anna Williams-Bonner, who is now living comfortably off the royalties of her late husband, Jacob Finch Bonner, a renowned novelist. However, Anna’s peace is shattered when she publishes her own debut novel, The Afterword, and begins receiving mysterious excerpts from a novel that should no longer exist.

Korelitz masterfully blends suspense and satire, creating a narrative that is both thrilling and darkly humorous. The story is told from Anna’s perspective, offering a chilling glimpse into the mind of a character who is far from what she seems. The plot twists are cleverly woven, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as Anna confronts her past and the secrets she has tried to bury.

I listened the the audiobook version of the book, compliments of Celadon Books. The narration of Julia Whelan truly added to my enjoyment of this book.

The novel is a wickedly entertaining exploration of the literary world, filled with barbed characterizations and ironic twists. Korelitz’s sharp writing and keen observations make The Sequel a compelling read for fans of psychological thrillers and literary fiction.

I didn't expect a sequel to The Plot to work, but this one certainly did. In the very well narrated audiobook,, told entirely from Anna's perspective, you enter the thought process of her widowhood and her own writing success with her novel The Afterword. Perhaps a bit over the top, I found it enjoyable and will definitely recommend.

This audiobook was quite the page turner, does that make sense? Having read and enjoyed 'The Plot' I was quite intrigued as to how the author is going to spin a sequel. What happened previously in 'The Plot' is skillfully woven into this story triggering your memory. This story revolves around Anna Williams-Bonner, the wife of the late best-selling author, Jacob. Anna also writes a story of reflection after Jacob's suicide which also becomes a best seller. Anna has her life all neatly tied in a bow until she doesn't. When things start to unravel for her, she does her best to keep her past hidden. I loved the mystery and suspense created as Anna tries to untangle a mess seemingly coming from beyond the grave. Great narration in this audiobook as well.

A taut follow up to "The Plot." I was invested, but I think this would be tough for anyone who hasn't read its predecessor to follow.

Jean Hanff Korelitz is brilliant. I read and enjoyed The Plot; I loved The Sequel. I don't want to spoil this for others but if you enjoy mysteries or psychological dramas you will love this. Read The Plot first and then enjoy this one even more. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my opinions.

I went into The Plot and The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz blind, and it was an awesome experience! They reminded me of the You series by Kepnes: how the characters are awful but you kind of root for them; the drama is slow to start then nonstop; there are totally thrilling twists but they're delivered deadpan, like they're totally normal; and of course, narcissistic, egotistical narrators.

The Sequel picks up from the end of The Plot in the BEST WAY. I was so excited to see what was going to happen, and it exceeded expectations. It's a brilliant sort of mirror to The Plot, and I so enjoyed the callbacks.

The duo remind me of Stephen King's Dark Half, as well. They explore writers, writing, creativity, where ideas come from, and to whom does a story belong. Aside from the thrills and murder and mystery, these are thoughtful and provoking stories!

The audiobook is narrated by the wonderful Julia Whelan! It publishes October 1 from MacMillan Audio.. Arc from NetGalley to read and review voluntarily.

Now that the rumors of her husband’s plagiarism have been taken care of, Anna Williams-Bonner is enjoying the widow of a writer life, and now she’s writing her own novel. How hard can it be, anyway? When excerpts of the story that shouldn’t exist resurface, Anna realizes someone knows far too much about her brother, her dead husband, and maybe even Anna herself.

If you enjoyed The Plot, you’re likely to enjoy this sequel. I did, anyway. I didn’t necessarily think that the first warranted a sequel, but I’m so glad that Korelitz wrote it! Anna is a fascinating character, and the continuing journey of this story and it’s ability to resurface to cause new mysteries and issues make for a very interesting plot. It’s out now wherever you get your books and or audiobooks.

First of all, Julia will forever be one of my favorite audio narrators. Excellent every single time- gets right into the heart of the story no matter the genre. I think my enjoyment of this book was greatly impacted by her performance.

The Plot was one of the most unique and exciting thrillers I've read in a while- so when I was offered The Sequel, I was excited to see where it went. While the character of Anna continued to be intriguing and complex, the plot of this book was, disappointingly, lackluster. I think this is a case where the plot twist of book 1 made a sequel a bit redundant.

The plot was a bit of copy and paste from the original. It was fine- and I enjoyed it overall- but it failed to pack the same punch as the first.

To retell a book you’ve already written, you need to have the most compelling character as your narrator. Using Anna, Jake’s wife, Hanff Korelitz is able to turn The Plot on its head and give us an even more fascinating chain of events.
I will admit, I am severely biased towards women doing highly illegal and questionable things, but Anna is also a more compelling character than Jake for lots of reasons. She’s self-assured, determined, and isn’t whiny. Anna gets shit done and moves on.
Surprisingly, what I liked most about this second book was the matter-of-factness and the lack of justice. Anna is a terrible person who will do anything to get what she wants, and she never lies to herself about it. She did have me gasping and clutching my pearls in a few moments, but she successfully got everything she wanted. It does veer into unbelievable a few times, but it’s so fast-paced and calculated that I barely had time to notice.
Obviously, as the second in a duology, I’d mainly recommend this if you read The Plot and need to know more! But this could also be read as a standalone, with every major plot point from The Plot getting a recap at some point in The Sequel.
If you’re looking for a murder mystery vibe to get you moving into the spooky season, this needs to be on your list. There’s blackmail, gothic old towns, highly suspicious deaths, and a sense of vengeance.
Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the free advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz was a great continuation of The Plot. I appreciated learning more about the familiar characters, and it had some new twists I didn't see coming. The audiobook narration was well done. Overall, I would recommend this series.

Thanks Net Galley for the ARC.

I wasn't able to finish this book. I tried very hard but only made it about 50%. The pace was agonizing. Anna's character was one I couldn't even love to hate.

I hate giving a book a review I didn't like, but this one just wasn't for me. I may try to read the last half instead of the audio because I loved The Plot. I can usually finish an audio in a couple weeks and I've been struggling for over a month. The author is very talented, but as mentioned previously I couldn't like the main character, which made the book difficult to enjoy.

Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism. Now she is living the contented life, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword.

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?

Hard to say much about this without spoilers since it’s book two in a series (book one is about a college professor stealing an idea for a novel from one of his students and the subsequent fallout) but it was a fun time. This will only work for people who enjoy unlikeable characters and an inside look at the publishing industry. I think reading them closer together would have upped my enjoyment, but I’d still recommend if you liked the first installment.

I immediately recognized that this book was a sequel to The Plot which I had read a few years ago. But true to my brain having read dozens or hundreds of books since I had pretty much forgotten the plot of The Plot! So as I started listening to The Sequel I started to remember! The main character is this horrible wife! Oh my gosh! I can't believe the author wrote a whole other book about this despicable character! I'm sure she was rubbing her hands together plotting all she could have her do! She definitely rose to the occasion and "Anna" is just as despicable in this book. Unfortunately, I like to have some empathy for a character--even the despicable ones. My favorite is when an author convinces me to want a "bad" person to get away with whatever it is they have done. Instead I wanted her brought down--someone to outsmart her successfully. Instead we were led to that precipice only to see her nemesises (whatever the plural is!) thrown over it instead of her. I want her to have it catch up with her and succeed in outwitting her successfully. Maybe there will be a third book and I'll get my wish!!
Thank you to #netgalley and #macmillanaudio for my audio arc of this book

Wow! As mentioned in the beginning of the book, sequels are rarely as good as the first book; but this sequel was great. You could read the Sequel without having read The Plot, but I would recommend reading it to get more perspective. We pick up pretty much where The Plot left off, Anna Williams Bonner, the widow of Jake Bonner, is living off his royalty checks from his book and doing some book tours promoting his latest book. When someone asks her what is next for her she offhandedly says maybe she'll write book.

Surprising to most, Anna does write a book and it is a huge success. She's feeling pretty good about life until she gets a note at a book signing that brings up her past. A past she thought she had hidden forever.

Anna is the epitome of an antihero, her way of dealing with a problem is to kill it. I say this with as much respect as I can because Korelitz had me rooting for Anna, this despicable woman. We learned more about Anna's back history in this book and somehow that made her a little sympathetic; not that I could condone how she handled the revelation that someone knew her history.

There were a lot of twists and turns that were handled so well and brought us back to where her life began. I highly recommend the book and I thought the narrator for the book was great, really enjoyed the listen.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio ARC.

The Sequel (The Book Series #2)
By Jean Hanff Korelitz, narrated by Julia Whelan

Following on the heels of the first book, The Plot, we now have The Sequel. This second story works fine as a standalone because the necessary to know past events are explained here, actually adding more information due to a different POV, but for the full experience, I would suggest reading the first book before reading this one. This is Anna Williams-Bonner's POV as she navigates and manipulates life after the death of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner.

Anna is not torn up about the death of her husband. Oh no, being the extremely dysfunctional nutjob that she is, Anna's husband being dead is a "feature, not a bug". Anna is very happy living off her husband's perpetual earnings and the fame that comes with being the grieving widow of a famous man who has committed suicide. She does throw a glitch into this easy to float through life when she flippantly mentions she is writing a book, something she had no intention of doing. But once she's said this enough times, she knows she needs to cough up the goods and being the grieving wife of a famous suicided author grants her instant passes into workshops and such that allows her to fake it until she makes it, book wise.

Once Anna has written her novel, with all the literary acclaim that comes with having her husband's former backers backing her all the way, Anna is living the life of a exalted published author. But, the past comes back to haunt her. Just as her husband was accused of plagiarism, now it's happening to her. She's seeing excerpts of a novel she thought she's wiped from existence, just as she's wiped certain people from existence, to keep her past a secret. This can't be happening! Who, among the living, can possible know of this damaging novel that is haunting her now, again? Never fear, Anna is not to be deterred, she's on a mission to wipe out any knowledge of her past and no one will stop her.

Julia Whelan's narration is just what is needed for the POV of Anna. She sounds like herself when narrating Anna, which is just the way Anna needs to be narrated, so matter of fact, so calm and firm in her justifications for all that she does. But then Julia does a great job with the other characters, too, giving each one a distinctive voice. I was able to both listen to the audiobook and have a physical copy of the book on hand, best of both worlds when enjoying a book. This was a really good addition to the first book and I wonder if there is more to come in the future.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Anna Williams-Bonner is a fascinating protagonist. She is a terrible person, when you come right down to it, but I couldn’t help but admire her unfaltering determination throughout this book. She steamrolls over every obstacle to what she sees as her right to simply be left alone. Alas, the world is filled with obligations of all sorts—including the book tour she endures for the novel that she (so easily!!) wrote—and there are so many people who are in her way. Then, just when she thinks she is in the clear, she is made aware that her own backstory may still be known to someone out there. The Sequel is the story of how Anna becomes a “literary widow” and how she discovers, and obliterates, every challenge to her own very self-centered happiness. This is a fabulously twisty tale that will delight readers who love stories centered around writing and publishing. You definitely need to have read The Plot to get the most out of this book. I had the privilege of reading this book and listening to the audiobook; while both forms are excellent, if you are a fan of master narrator Julia Whelan you will want to get the audiobook. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to provide an honest review of The Sequel.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I have to admit that I didn't love The Plot, but I adored The Sequel. I feel like you will have to have read The Plot to fully enjoy this one. Just when Anna thinks she has gotten away with murder, someone sends her a threatening letter.

I loved the first book in this duology (longer series?) and this one lived up to my expectations. It was narrated by the marvelous Julia Whelan, my favorite audiobook narrator.. This makes it an automatic listen for me. I literally seek out anything Whelan narrates. I don’t want to say too much of the story because it is a mystery and follow-up to The Plot. But, I will say that both of these books center around the idea of taking another writer’s work and rebranding it as your own. The twists and turns and tracks being covered and uncovered keep the reader guessing. In addition to the story itself, there is the question of what is ethical and how far are you willing to go in order to advance your own career, lifestyle, etc.
I flew through this and loved it. Definitely recommend but read or listen to The Plot first to not be spoiled and for understanding of some of the characters and story here.

#TheSequel #NetGalley #MamillanAudio

This starts out as a fantastic tour of the publishing world and the question of who gets to tell a particular story, then evolves into an unputdownable mystery/thriller. Out 10/1 just in time for cozy fall reading.

I did it wrong and did not read The Plot first, and although this totally worked as a stand-alone, I wish I had read the first one of this series first. But, it was also pretty fun to go into this blind and not knowing who to trust.

Anna is one of those characters who you’re not sure whether to fear or cheer on - kind of like Josh Hartnett’s character in M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie Trap. She’s a widow, a successful author, and the keeper of dark, dark secrets. The audio was great - highly recommend!

I had high hopes that The Sequel could be better than The Plot. I sadly didn’t find that to be true. This book moved so incredibly slow for me, I found myself zoning out many times. It also is essentially the same exact premise of the first book…

2.5 stars