Top Ten Tuesday

TTT – Standalone Books I Wish Had Sequels

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Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.

I think every one of us has read a book and wished that it had more of less of something in it. This week’s prompt is books I wish had more/less [insert your concept here] in them (for example: more/less romance, more/less world building, less info dumping, more/fewer pages, more character development, fewer characters, fewer descriptions, more suspense, etc). This is such a broad topic to work with that I’m not even sure where I want to start. 

I often find myself wanting more or less from a book. The descriptions provided in the prompt are a great cross-section of what I typically want more or less of in a book, but for this week’s post, I’m going to go rogue and give my own concept. I love a good standalone book, but sometimes I want more from a standalone, and find myself wishing that it wasn’t a standalone, but a series. Here are ten awesome standalone books I loved that I wish had more book to make it a series:

  1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Yes, this book is a chonk. Yes, this book covers a lot of ground. But I’d like to see what happens to Demon Copperhead once things are looking up for him. The poor guy needs a break.
  2. Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope. This book was so good, and while it’s strictly a standalone, there’s so much more about this fantastic world that I wanted to see before saying goodbye.
  3. Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber. I just finished this as a buddy read, and while it is a great standalone book, it also leaves off with the opportunity for a sequel.
  4. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is such a wonderful book, and I couldn’t help but wonder what happens after everything goes down. 
  5. Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust. Here’s another great story, and while it works beautifully as a standalone, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the story and the characters.
  6. A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Acebedo. This was such an intriguing and capitvating story, and it was really hard to let go of the book after finishing.
  7. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. In case you can’t tell, I love learning about what happens after all the action slows down and life starts to settle into a new normal. 
  8. Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar. In this fascinating book, we delve into multiple generations of a Sephardic Jewish family, and spreading this into a series could allow us to get to know each character and their circumstances in more depth.
  9. The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert. This was a fascinating and creepy story, but there’s so much opportunity for a prequel, and I would absolutely be here for it.
  10. The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers. There’s nothing like a lush and immersive fantasy, only to finish it and wish there were three more books to read. This is one of those.

What are some books that you wish had sequels? Do you agree with any of mine?

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23 replies »

  1. Much as I sometimes would like to read more about favorite characters, sometimes I think “more” can ruin a story for me. So most of the time, if a story is finished and has a good ending, well, that’s really all I want from a novel. 🙂

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    • There’s a fine line between being satisfied with an ending and wanting more. I know what you mean about feeling like a standalone is just right, but I also struggle with saying goodbye to my favorite characters sometimes!

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    • I completely agree with everything you said, Pam! Sometimes series just drag out, but I’ve gotten better about DNFing those, rather than forcing myself to continue reading books I am not enjoying. It took time to get to that point, though!

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    • Yeah, I struggled with coming up with one thing, because I luckily tend to pick books that I enjoy and don’t have many complaints about. I highly recommend A Constellation of Roses!

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    • Thank you! And I agree – sometimes a side character just has to have their story told. Like in A Discovery of Witches, how there was a book that’s all about one of the side characters and his back story.

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