Top Ten Tuesday – Stand-Alone Books That Need A Sequel and Those That Didn’t…

12Mar
by Sarah - SWB

I actually found today’s prompt really difficult! I was looking back through the books I’ve read (thank you Goodreads) and it turns out that a lot of the books I read have sequels. A consequence of reading a lot of crime fiction I suppose! So instead of 10 stand-alone books that need a sequel, I’ve picked 5 stand-alone books I’d love to see a sequel for, and 5 books that have a sequel but maybe they shouldn’t have… Controversial perhaps but I’m going with it!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

ttt-big2

Stand-Alone Books That Need A Sequel

Standalone Books That Need A Sequel

Two Can Keep A Secret – Karen M. McManus

Now don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed Two Can Keep A Secret, and I got all the answers I needed but that last line! I’d love some sort of short story that deals with Ellery’s feelings knowing what she knows, and if she ever shares her secret…

Unconventional – Maggie Harcourt

I loved following Lexi through the convention season in the book, I think the book was fantastic as it was but I absolutely adored Lexi’s relationship with her friends so I could easily read another book based around them. Alternatively I’d love to read the full version of Piecekeepers, the book Aiden is promoting in Unconventional. I’m not sure if that counts as a sequel though, more of a spin off perhaps…

State of Grace and My Box Shaped Heart – Rachael Lucas

These are two more novels where I just fell in love with the characters and could easily spend more time with Grace and Anna or Holly and Ed.

If Birds Fly Back – Carlie Sorosiak

So by now you’ve probably noticed a theme, most of the books on this list don’t need a sequel, the story they needed to tell has been told and the story had a really had a satisfying conclusion but I fell so in love with the characters I just want more! If Birds Fly Back is no different I’d love to find out what happens with Sebastian at Cal Tech and if Linny ended up at film school.

Books With A Sequel That Maybe Didn’t Need One

To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Now I’ve not read Go Set A Watchman, mainly because I adore To Kill A Mockingbird and I’ve heard very mixed things about the follow up. Did To Kill A Mockingbird really need a follow up? I’m still not convinced but I don’t want to tarnish my love to To Kill A Mockingbird by reading Go Set A Watchman.

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale was one of my set texts for my English Literature AS Level. I’m not going to lie the premise terrified me but I thought it was a great book. I’m torn on The Testaments, I included it in the post where I spoke about some of the 2019 sequels I’m looking forward to but I’m not sure it’s really needed. I just hope it’s a book that tells a story that needs to be told and not just something written quickly to cash in on the success of the TV adaptation.

Harry Potter – J. K. Rowling

This is kind of hard for me to admit to, now obviously I don’t think the series should have ended after Harry’s first year, I truly do love all of the original series, apart from the epilogue but I can pretend those few pages don’t exist. I’ve not seen Cursed Child, but I do own and have read the screenplay, I’m not sure what I was expecting from it, and I didn’t love it like the original books but I enjoyed it well enough and one day I’d like to go and see the play. I have to admit to being sceptical from the moment they announced the Fantastic Beasts film series, especially when they announced the number of films in it! I’ve not got around to watching them yet, or reading the published scripts so maybe I shouldn’t judge but I can’t help but feel like they’re just cashing in on the loyalty of the original generation of HP fans and grabbing the next…

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator – Roald Dahl

I really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was younger, and I remember reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator but I don’t really remember anything about it unlike the original which makes me think it didn’t really need to exist…

Sequels Not By The Original Author

This is slightly hypocritical of me because I have read some sequels that haven’t been written by the original authors, for example I really enjoyed Anthony Horowitz’s Sherlock Holmes novels and I know he’s also written new James Bond novels. I’ve also read a couple of Sophie Hannah’s Poirot books and enjoyed them as well. I know in the cases above it’s all approved by the original authors estate but I’m not sure they always capture the magic of the original, I feel like the stories I’ve enjoyed I would have enjoyed regardless of the characters, I enjoyed the plot line and if the characters had been a little different I’m not sure that would have taken away from the story. Maybe it’s just that I’ve noticed it a lot more recently for example with the new Secret Seven books. Is it just publishers trying to cash in on already well known characters? I don’t know, I guess the film industry have been doing it for decades, I hope it doesn’t become the norm in the book world to the same extent…

Would you like to see a sequel to any of the books I’ve suggested? Are you pleased that any of the sequels I’ve listed exist? Are there any other sequels that exist that you wish didn’t? Let me know in the comments!

19 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – Stand-Alone Books That Need A Sequel and Those That Didn’t…”

  1. goldenbooksgirl

    Ooh I like that you’ve done five of both! I’ve not read Go Set a Watchman either; it sounds awful. Atticus was pretty much my favourite part of TKAM so I don’t want to tarnish my opinion of him. I’ve still not read lots of the ones you’d like sequels for 🙈. I think your idea for Two Can Keep a Secret is interesting though, and I’d probably pick it up even though I didn’t enjoy the actual book all that much…
    The only sequel not by an original author that I really like is the Guggenheim Mystery. I think Robin Stevens was the perfect choice to write it, and I think it was a really special tribute to Siobbhan Dowd. In general though, I just don’t see the point of them a lot of the time!
    Amy x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Sarah - SWB

      Like I say I’ve enjoyed some sequels not written by the original authors but I can’t help wondering if it’s maybe a little lazy… Not such much by the authors themselves but from whoever (publishers or the original author’s estate) approaches them to write the book in the first place…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Sarah - SWB

      I feel I should give the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale a chance, I’ll probably wait for a few reviews… I think if it’s written for the write reason it could be good, otherwise it could be hugely disappointing…

      Like

      Reply

  3. Catherine

    I know what you mean about Harry Potter, as much as I love the books I wish she would stop now. And there was no need for that epilogue whatsoever. She could’ve just whacked some family trees in the back.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Sarah - SWB

      I will keep pretending the epilogue didn’t exist, I think I’d be happier imagining my own futures for the trio (and other characters) Spoilers Hermione and Ron are not a couple in my version lol

      Like

      Reply

  4. Jordyn

    I love this twist you put on the original meme! I’m torn about some of the books you mentioned in the second part, haha. Agree with To Kill a Mockingbird, but I’m excited about the Handmaid’s Tale sequel… which seems kind of hypocritical of me to want one and not the other when they’re both classics! I guess I’ll just have to read it, and try to forget it if I hate it 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Sarah - SWB

      Part of me is excited about the follow up to The Handmaid’s Tale. I think if Margaret Atwood has written it for the right reasons – it’s a story she’s been planning and wanting to tell for a while I think it could be excellent. But if it’s been written quickly because the publisher has pushed her to capitalise on the success of the TV show I think it has the potential to be a bit of a disaster.

      I think I’ll wait for a few reviews and hope it’s the former!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Sarah - SWB

      Maybe I should give the Fantastic Beasts films a go. I don’t think I want to buy and read the screenplays though. I read The Cursed Child script and it was okay but it was lacking something, and maybe it’s just that it was a script and not a novel but it didn’t have the same magic for me…

      Like

      Reply

    1. Sarah - SWB

      I suppose the Fantastic Beasts movies are kind of a prequel, in that it’s Dumbledore and Grindlewald’s story (I’ve not watched them but I understand that’s kinda the plot of the second FB movie at least). Part of me thinks I got enough of that story in the HP novels anyway. I know people have talked about wanting a book set during the Marauders time at Hogwarts but I’m not sure that interests me that much, I don’t think I care enough about James and Lily. Maybe something going way back to the time of the founders would be interesting… Or McGonagall’s time at school, I do like her…

      Like

      Reply

  9. Pingback: The Sunday Post – 17th March 2019 – Sarah Withers Blogs

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.