Must-Read Sequels We Loved as Much as the First Book

From Jean Hanff Korelitz, author of the “insanely readable” (Stephen King) literary thriller The Plot, comes its eagerly anticipated follow-up, The Sequel. Anna Williams-Bonner is doing just fine in the wake of her husband Jacob’s dramatic literary achievements. But things take an unexpected turn when Anna decides to publish her own book. Suddenly she’s being sent excerpts of a novel that no one should possess — and if they have the novel, what else do they know? We don’t want to drop any spoilers if you haven’t yet read The Plot, so let’s just say that Anna has her own story to tell, and she’s not about to give it up.

Published more than 30 years after The Shining, Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep is just as chilling as its horror classic precursor. As a boy, Dan Torrance faced terror at the Overlook Hotel when his paranormal gifts opened his eyes to unimaginable horrors. The childhood trauma haunted him for years, but he’s finally begun to ground himself. As an adult, Dan works in hospice, where he’s become known as “Doctor Sleep,” using his gift to help calm and comfort his end-of-life patients. But when he meets a young girl who shares his powerful paranormal gifts, Dan finds himself fighting for their lives after they catch the eye of a violent tribe called the True Knot. “A vivid frightscape” (The New York Times), Doctor Sleep is steeped in creepy suspense and sure to keep you up at night.

A New York Times bestseller, The Testaments is Margaret Atwood’s Booker Award–winning sequel to her acclaimed speculative fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s been over 15 years since the events of the first book, and though the Republic of Gilead’s theocracy is still in power, it’s beginning to crack. On the cusp of change in Gilead, three women find their paths crossing despite their different backgrounds. In The Testaments, the stories of two young women who grew up in the first generation of the new order intertwine with that of Aunt Lydia, in a narrative that unveils the guts of Gilead and “reminds us of the power of truth in the face of evil” (People).

Tommy Orange delivers an outstanding follow-up to There There in this generation-spanning bestseller, which introduces us to the ancestors of the characters we met in his acclaimed debut novel. Wandering Stars opens in Colorado in 1864, where Star is brought to Fort Mason after surviving the Sand Creek Massacre. Once there, an evangelical prison guard forces him to speak English and practice Christianity. Decades later, Star’s son Charles is sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School — a facility founded by that same guard with the intent of stripping Natives of their culture. Impeccably written, Wandering Stars “is proof that the sophomore slump is a myth, at least when it comes to Orange” (The Boston Globe).

André Aciman invites us to catch up with the characters of Call Me by Your Name in this New York Times bestselling sequel, Find Me. Ten years after that unforgettable summer in Italy, Elio’s father, Sami, is on his way to visit his son when he has a life-changing encounter with a young woman on the train. Fast-forward five years, and Elio, now a classical pianist, moves to Paris and finds himself once again entangled with an older man. Another five years later, Oliver is married with children and working as a professor, though nostalgia continually pulls him back to his summer with Elio. Brimming with insight and intimacy, Find Me will have you blissfully immersed back in Aciman’s narrative.

This one’s for the Agatha Christie mystery fans in the audience. The Mystery Guest is the second in Nita Prose’s Molly the Maid series, and it finds Molly Gray, the Regency Grand Hotel’s indomitable maid/sleuth, once again cleaning up a big mess. This time, it’s mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe, dead on the floor of the hotel’s tearoom. And of course, the investigator assigned to the case is Detective Stark — the man who had suspected Molly in the last perplexing murder case she got caught up in. With every guest a suspect and reputations on the line, Molly knows she has to solve this mystery, in part because she used to work at Grimthorpe’s mansion years ago. Molly knows she knows something, a key from the past that will crack the case and identify the killer. 

Another acclaimed mystery from Anthony Horowitz, Moonflower Murders is a sequel to Magpie Murders and the second in the author’s Susan Ryland series. When a family comes to stay at Susan’s small Greek island hotel, her simple life gets thrown for a loop. Though she’s retired from publishing, the family’s strange story of a murder on their daughter’s wedding day pricks her editorial ears. She recognizes it as the basis for a mystery novel by one of her former writers. The family’s daughter Cecily claims that the book proves the innocence of the man convicted of the real-life murder — but now Cecily is missing, setting Susan on her own search for the truth.

In Anything Is Possible, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout returns to the fictional small town of Amgash, Illinois, first introduced in her bestselling My Name Is Lucy Barton. In this moving novel of interconnected short stories, a woman chooses a wealthy husband over her self-respect, while her sister falls deeper into a book. Another woman yearns for motherly love, while her mother finds happiness somewhere else. And Lucy Barton comes home after many years away. As is to be expected from Strout, Anything Is Possible is “full of searing insight into the darkest corners of the human spirit” (San Francisco Chronicle).

An instant New York Times bestseller, Either/Or by Elif Batuman is an insanely readable sequel to her acclaimed debut novel, The Idiot. Selin’s ’90s-set story continues as she embarks on a mission to understand… well, everything. She’s got questions that need answers, like why her crush got her a job in Hungary and why his ex is suddenly trying to talk to her. With the help of her peers and her literary syllabus, Selin navigates her sophomore year at Harvard, eager to go far beyond the course material in search of knowledge. Relatable and hilarious, Either/Or is a gripping and colorful narrative.

Attica Locke follows Bluebird, Bluebird with Heaven, My Home, part two of three in her acclaimed Highway 59 crime thriller series featuring Texas Ranger Darren Matthews. With his marriage on the rocks, his career on the line, and his own mother leveraging information against him, Darren is shouldered with a new case that connects back to his previous investigation. It seems the young grandson of a wealthy businesswoman is missing, though the grandmother is far more concerned about her business than the fate of her kin. Secrets swirl in this small-town mystery set in a lakeside enclave where racial attitudes remain dangerously stuck in the past. Darren will have to work double-time to rescue the missing child — and hopefully save himself. 

Federal police agent Aaron Falk of The Dry returns for a new investigation in Force of Nature, the second in Jane Harper’s riveting Australian noir series. Five colleagues head into the Australian wilderness for a corporate retreat, but only four return — and each remaining member has a different story to tell about what happened in the woods. Aaron is tasked with unraveling the web of stories about the now-missing hiker, but he soon finds himself lost in a tangle of deception. “[L]ike The Dry, Force of Nature bristles with wit; it crackles with suspense; it radiates atmosphere. An astonishing book from an astonishing writer” (A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window).