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.

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

I was not expecting THE PLOT to get a sequel, but I'm so glad it did. It's hard to write a sequel that lives up to the popularity of the first book (the characters in THE SEQUEL even acknowledge this at the beginning of this book), but Korelitz does a great job of creating a totally new story with new twists without making it feel forced.

My advice would be to read THE PLOT first--you'll be missing some key elements if you jump in with THE SEQUEL first. It'll completely change the reading experience, although not necessarily in a bad way.

Our main character Anna is a true antihero. It's a fun reading experience to decide whether you want to root for or against her, and the author does a good job of compelling us to like someone we know is reprehensible. Some of Anna's actions reminded me a bit of Lily's in The Kind Worth Killing, which is one of my favorite thriller novels.

If you already read THE PLOT, you may have been left with some questions at the end. THE SEQUEL does a great job of plugging many of these plot holes and giving the reader a few more answers regarding the events of the first book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and how all of the reveals came together. I'm very curious to know whether Korelitz planned to write THE SEQUEL from the start, or if it was an afterthought due to the popularity of THE PLOT. Will there be a third book in this series?

There is just something about Jean Hanff Korelitz's writing. Her books are so phenomenally written. The Sequel picks up after the Plot ends. I had no idea there would be a sequel to The Plot, so I was very excited when I read the blurb. The story centers on Jacob Finch Bonner’s wife, Anna. We learned briefly about her background in The Plot. Jacob was a writer whose last book was finally successful, but at a cost. He plagiarized the story from a deceased student and was tormented by a stalker who threatened to expose him.

This story’s focus is on his wife, Anna Williams-Bonner. She is not exactly a likeable protagonist but is fascinating with a wry sense of humor. She has written her first novel, based on her life and it is received with fanfare. Her literary journey is going in a similar direction as Jacob’s. Though she is experiencing literary success, she is being plagued by someone who knows about her unsavory past. The book is paced so well, and I had no idea where the plot would go. I was immediately sucked in to the story and had to know what would happen. I listened to the audiobook which was masterfully narrated by Julia Whelan.

Thank you Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a writer to acquire an agent and then a publisher. Unless, of course, your best-selling husband was a plagiarist and his book was inspired by you.

Anna Williams-Bonner has been a student, a striver, a survivor, a victim, a victimizer, just trying to live an unrestricted life. Now, she has transformed into something new: a first-time novelist, the literary widow who is everywhere. Just because one member of a literary pair happens to be deceased, doesn't mean she shouldn't be considered one of the two, with all the benefits that it encompasses. He was gifted, successful, and dead—the ideal literary match made in heaven.

In attempt to exact literary revenge for her husband’s novel, Anna plans a sequel. Sequels can be very appealing when the Plot of their predecessor has been successful; readers are curious about the fate of the characters they have come to love. Anna’s main character is a woman whose writer-husband commits suicide, ironically coincidental as the Anna’s real-life spouse was also a well-known writer who allegedly took his own life.

Oftentimes, authors recount their own experiences and reimagine them as fiction. Writing fiction requires a certain amount of risk, independence, and unwavering ownership. Anna had been living fiction for far longer than she’d been writing it; she could scarcely stop now. Fiction had carried Anna far from where she had started and enriched her life by connecting with individuals who appreciated her just as completely–if not as comprehensively–as she did. And if they did not, she simply eliminated them. At the end of the day, this would be a terminal sequel on several accounts. The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz is unputdownable, unsettling, and unmatched.

Thanks to MacMillan Audio & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Korelitz has done it again - another banger. I'm not sure if she enjoys writing this character, or she needed to get her publisher off her back and would much prefer to be writing books like "The Latecomer," but give me Anna Williams-Bonner any day. When we left her, she had just <spoiler> dispatched her short-term husband, Jacob Finch Bonner, who had stolen her brother's plot, which HE had stolen from Anna/Diana's LIFE (at least, that's her take, and she is pretty salty about it.</spoiler>

Following that, Anna goes through a "grieving" process that culminates with her writing a first novel, loosely based on her experiences, then becoming a touchstone for everyone who has attempted suicide or been left in the wake of the act by a loved one. Her book is a hit, and she does the book tour circuit, dealing with people sucking all her energy and goodwill, until she gets a request for a copy of her book to be signed to her late brother. Hmmm!

Following Anna as she tracks down her tormentor is not unlike reading a Tom Ripley book: she is a narcissistic and vile individual, a total sociopath who will push anyone out of her way (and into the path of an oncoming vehicle) while smiling, but you really can't look away, and in some of the scenes I was waiting for her to get her comeuppance, but I also a little bit rooted for her. Ick!

Korelitz could have toned down some of the interior monologues/rants of her MC, but I'd like to think she had fun writing them. Anna's sense of what constitutes injustice is certainly perverse, and it can be tricky to see things from her POV (thankfully). Now that she has a second novel in this series under her belt, is it too much to hope for 1) another Sequel, and 2) a multi-season series? I know I'd watch it (as long as they don't cast Nicole Kidman). More creepy Anna Williams-Bonner, please!

Oh, and Julia Whelan is a great narrator!

4.5⭐️
Listen to this and it was narrated by my favorite, Julia Whelan. No one compares to her and she was amazing. I thought this one was even better than the first book and that’s saying a lot for me. It had all the build of a crazy good murder suspense and The MFC was definitely a skilled sociopath. The writing was good in a way that I was second guessing all of the events. Replaying things in my mind trying to see it again as I thought about the event. And then there was the giant twists at the end. Yes! There were more than one.
I highly recommend listening to this and you’re welcome.
Thanks Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

The Sequel is the perfect novel for people who love to write or have aspirations to write their own novel. The Sequel is the second book to The Plot and while I remember enjoying The Plot and the very basic premise, I recalled almost zero details. Hanff Korelitz was good about providing enough context and detail when necessary to make this moot point. That being said, I do think this works best in tandem and not as a standalone.

The writing in this novel is great. It's a unique premise, building off The Plot and focusing on Anna and life after Jake. I thought much of the book would be focused on her trying to write her own novel and while the plot certainly focuses on her book, the actual writing of it seemed to come easily. I love the dichotomy of Anna's character and how well she played into each role she adopted. It was hard to know her true colors or motivations so I loved when the inner monologues became more prevalent.

For a short book, there were parts that felt verbose. I think this was done intentionally to give the literary effect and it worked. It also took me a bit to get into it. I really started to get invested once The Afterward was written and Anna started her tour.

I listened to this novel on audio and always love Julia Whelan's delivery. She was great in this role and it was an excellent casting choice.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was a superb sequel and because I still don't recall a whole lot of details from The Plot, dare I say better than the first book!

Thank you to Celadon and MacMillan Audio for the copy.