The Sequel

• Author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: October 1, 2024
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Series: The Book Series #2

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

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.

Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business—that is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?

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? She has come too far, and worked too hard, to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story—and she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.

I remember when The Plot came out, and it blew my mind. The idea of the story and the way it was written captivated my attention and stayed with me all this time. There’s just something about a book with an ethical dilemma at the center of the story, well-developed characters who are all at least a bit morally gray, and a story within a story that made the first book a really enjoyable read for me. So I couldn’t wait to dive into this one.

The audiobook is narrated by one of my favorite narrators in the entire world, Julia Whelan. She has the type of voice that makes me want to listen to her narrate all day long, and I partially credit her for my finishing this audiobook in such a short period of time. I love how she embodies her characters and breathes life into the story in her own unique way. 

The other factor that kept me listening to this book around the clock was the plot, no pun intended. After the shocking events of the last book, now we get to see more of what is going on in Anna’s life, and her thoughts as well. This story really dives into her backstory, and while she can easily be viewed as a villain, it was also really hard to read this entire book in her voice and not empathize with her. Reading a story in her voice put me in her shoes, and made it really easy to understand what and why she did what she did. 

Learning more about Anna herself was fascinating. We hear fictionalized accounts of her backstory in The Plot, but this book gives Anna agency to tell her own story, and to show what the fictionalized account got right and what it got wrong. But as she writes her own book, a threat comes in the form of an anonymous Post-It note, followed by a manuscript of a story that is nearly the same as her own life story. Throughout the book, she plays a dangerous cat and mouse game with the mysterious sender of the note and manuscript. It was a constantly tense story after Anna receives the note, with the tension ratcheting up towards the end of the book, even as she is living the busy life of a hyped debut author. 

Overall, this is a fantastic story. It was tightly plotted, with a surprise ending that I didn’t see coming. This book keeps the story introduced in book one moving forward, without feeling drawn out, overdone, or boring. I really enjoyed the mystery of the story, both finding out the real story of Anna’s life, where the threat was coming from, and who the bigger threat really is: Anna or the anonymous sender? Korelitz remains a fresh, innovative, and distinctive voice in the genre. I recommend this if you liked The Plot, mysteries featuring anti-heroes or morally gray characters, stories within stories, and high tension plot lines.

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