Let’s Talk Bookish: What makes a good sequel?

Hello! I hope you’re all having a good weekend. I have a long weekend because it’s Memorial Day, and tomorrow I’m hoping to get some reading done. Today, I have another Let’s Talk Bookish post, and although it’s a couple days late, I had a lot of fun writing it!! This week’s topic is What makes a good sequel? suggested by M.T. Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left),

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion post created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and is hosted by Rukky and Dani @ A Literary Lion! For this week’s topic, I’m going to talk about what I look for in a good sequel, a few of my favorites and some that I’m looking forwards to! To start off, what do I think makes a good sequel?

Building on and working off the events drama of the previous book

I think that one of the most important things for a sequel to do is to really build on the first book, especially in terms of plot. A series must have some sort of overarching plot, antagonist, or problem that the characters face. With that, the books will be connected enough, and work well together.

There should also be something new. Maybe a new challenge the characters must face, a quest they must go on, or an antagonist just now showing up.

That balance of having new and old in the plot can be what makes a sequel really good. There has to be enough pulled from the previous book of a series to make it feel like its part of the same world, but it can’t be too much of the same without it feeling repetitive. I think that both the five book Percy Jackson series and the Six of Crows duology do really well with this.

Diving deeper into the characters

New characters in sequels are fun, but one of the most rewarding things to read in a sequel, or really a series as a whole is learning more about the characters we’ve known since day one. Characters with really interesting histories, or personalities can be explored really well in series, and with multiple books set in the same universe with the same characters there is a lot of opportunity for more depth. A series that I think does this well is The Gilded Wolves trilogy, by Roshani Chokshi. Only the first two books are out so far, but I’ve loved how well the characters are developed, explored, and written about throughout the series.

Some sequels I love…

While sequels can be dissapointing, there are quite a few there I love. Here are six!

Some sequels I’m waiting on…

Two sequels coming out later this year: Our Violent Ends, by Chloe Gong (sequel to These Violent Delights) and The Bronzed Beasts, by Roshani Chokshi (third book in The Gilded Wolves trilogy).

Two more that I’m excited for and don’t have covers yet are: The Last Fallen Moon, by Graci Kim (sequel to The Last Fallen Star) and Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality, by Roshani Chokshi (book five in the Pandava series).

Wrapping this up…

I really loved writing this post, and thinking more about sequels in general. Its not something that I’ve really thought about in depth before, but its pretty interesting, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

What do you look for in a sequel? What are some of your favorites? Chat with me in the comments below!