Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Spoilers are Welcome on this topic thread for a group read discussion of The Sequel. What did you think of the book?
Please mention how far along in the book your comments cover if including spoilers.

This book is a sequel to The Plot: A Novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz. I read The Plot and this book picks up directly afterwards. * also please note if your post includes spoilers about the first book as well.

Spoilers to not very far into the book--maybe 40 pages. I only have one comment at this point. Which isn't a spoiler as it's revealed in the first chapter of the book.

How is it that this first time writer, wife of a best-selling author, wrote a blockbuster? Well maybe it's not so unrealistic, her husband's first book was a blockbuster also I think, but she'd never written anything before, whereas as I'm guessing he toiled in author-land writing drafts or short stories or other stuff before his first full length novel hit big.

This is bothering me as I read and I can't get past it. But it will once the plot picks up, I'm sure.

Spoiler to The Plot. Spoilers to The Sequel 40 pages in.
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It's so interesting how Anna dances around her husband's death, in public and in her internal dialog. She doesn't say outright (internally) that she killed him, and I wondered if this was to prevent major spoilers to The Sequel, but that would be kinda hard to pull off for the whole book. I think she is beginning to reveal her involvement as the novel proceeds. She slowly lets the reader into the fact that she didn't like her husband, and one can put two and two together from her other comments. Interesting author choice.

Not really a spoiler comment yet, more on those tomorrow. I finished tonight and felt the three parts were distinct breaks for how I was feeling about Anna.
Skill of the plot, manipulation, feeling beaten down, can’t completely put my finger on it - she did start to grow on me.

I’m glad Ann, because I just finished part 1 and I seriously dislike her. It is, however, getting more interesting!

Gail: both comments are true for me as well. I seriously disliked Anna, and it does continue to get more interesting!

Gail W wrote: "I’m glad Ann, because I just finished part 1 and I seriously dislike her. It is, however, getting more interesting!"

I finished last night too (or more like 1:30 am!!) and am ready to rock.
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Spoilers to the end
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So I started off the book disliking Anna, and I didn't warm up to her by the end. And who could? Unlike Lily Kintner of Peter Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing, her only motive for killing was getting back at people she perceived had slighted her and then covering up for those murders. Yet this book kept me engaged and I'm going to give it a 5.
I confess to getting confused about how many books there were with the story of her and her daughter.. there was Crib, written by her husband, and the one... or were there two?.... written by her brother. And how ballsy of her to write her own book about the suicide of THE HUSBAND SHE HERSELF KILLED. Wow, that girl had a pair of stones on her!
At each turn I was wondering how she was going to get out of the jams she placed herself in. Especially being kidnapped by the lawyer and then being held at gunpoint by the two women who bought her house. THAT was a twist I did not see coming!
I kept imaging that after surviving all that she was going to get run over by a bus or hit by a train, but no, she survives to perhaps return in another novel. Which I would read in a heartbeat, lol.
Can't wait to hear what others thought.

Carol: spoilers to the end of the book
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Agreed on that last twist, I sure didn’t see that one coming - re the two women who bought her family home. And yet it made sense. Anna / Dianna / Rose jumped to a lot of conclusions to the detriment of the people she misjudged. Anna sure has ‘nine-lives’ even at the end when it seems she has left a wide trail of clues behind her murderous actions, if only for someone laying it all out for the coincidences and the missing proof based on her lies.
I suppose if there another book I will probably read it but not spend a credit for it. lol

I suppose if there is

Ann wrote: "I suppose if there another book I will probably read it but not spend a credit for it. lol

Well that's less than a rave, Ann! What rating are you giving it?

I finished this evening. It got much more exciting after part 1. I still disliked Anna but I found myself on a number of occasions almost commiserating with her! The ending was a total surprise but it made sense. I gave it a 4 because the author certainly hooked me in, eventually.

I won’t read another if there is one. The only story left is catching her. And I really don’t much care about that.

I saw another book yesterday that is the same premise. I think it’s getting a bit overdone and none of them compare to John Boyne’s Ladder to the Sky.

Carol: Like Gail I gave The Sequel four stars. I just couldn’t give it five stars because during part one I thought to myself I would abandon it if it hadn’t been a group read. Later on - midway in part two - I was much more engaged and found the last part hard to put down but I’ve never given five stars to a book I was so close to abandoning.

Ann wrote: "Carol: Like Gail I gave The Sequel four stars. I just couldn’t give it five stars because during part one I thought to myself I would abandon it if it hadn’t been a group read. Later on - midway in..."

I can't argue with your or Gail's reasoning. I never came close to abandoning but the beginning did drag. I may change my 5 rating when I reassess at the end of the year, we'll see!

But now I'm curious about this A Ladder to the Sky that Gail mentioned. Inevitable that there would be copycats (not talking about this, but the ones Gail mentions seeing reviews of).

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "But now I'm curious about this A Ladder to the Sky that Gail mentioned. ..."

It may have been the first John Boyne I read, can't remember. I loved it! My niece and I were reading it at the same time but she was way ahead (lucky her has a train commute). At one point she texted me, "Oh my God! Call me when you get to the oh-my-God point!!" Of course, that all happened before I read any Korelitz or Swanson...

Gail W wrote: "It may have been the first John Boyne I read, can't remember. I loved it! ..."

I'm definitely intrigued. Reading the blurbs made me think of The Talented Mr. Ripley also.

Did you read any other John Boyne books and did you enjoy them?

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Gail W wrote: "It may have been the first John Boyne I read, can't remember. I loved it! ..." I'm definitely intrigued. Reading the blurbs made me think of The Talented Mr. Ripley also. Did you r..."

I also read The Heart's Invisible Furies. A totally different storyline, that I also loved. He does a great job with his characters and I get invested pretty quickly.

He published another in 2022, All the Broken Places, which is a sequel of sorts to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, neither of which have I read yet. (oh, but yes, they are on the shelf in the room I call a library, which has run out of reachable wall space...)

Gail: I must seek out The Heart's Invisible Furies and have been mening to get to All the Broken Places. I read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and it was VERY good.

Gail W wrote: "He published another in 2022, All the Broken Places, which is a sequel of sorts to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, neither of which have I read yet. (oh, but yes, they are on the shelf in the room I call a library, which has run out of reachable wall space...)"

Okay, you both are making me add these to my impossibly long TBR list.

Are these other ones you just mentioned mysteries or suspense, or something else? Sometimes it's hard to tell from the blurbs.

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "...Are these other ones you just mentioned mysteries or suspense, or something else? Sometimes it's hard to tell from the blurbs."

All three are historical fiction. The Heart's Invisible Furies starts out in Ireland. LGBTQ storyline later in the US. The other two are WW2/Holocaust.

Lots of twists and I didn’t see them coming! Anna is not a good person, but I did find myself rooting for her at the end, to be honest. Hmmm.

April - I know exactly what you mean. I also found myself rooting for Anna at the end and thinking to myself that I sure didn't see that attitude shift coming. LOL

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "Lots of twists and I didn’t see them coming! Anna is not a good person, but I did find myself rooting for her at the end, to be honest. Hmmm."