"Sequels are notoriously tricky. Even the characters in The Sequel acknowledge it. 'They're never as good as the first book, are they?'... Well, this one is. By shifting the focus to Anna, Korelitz gives the novel what many sequels lack: a sense of newness. While the story grows more intricate, she remains in control. Her plot - ha! - is propulsive, her prose precise."
-The New York Times

"[A] propulsive thriller... Korelitz spins Anna's pursuit of her accuser into a satisfying hunt, threading it with her antihero's hilariously jaundiced opinions of literary life."
-The New Yorker

"Like Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley or Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, Anna is a heinous devil who may shock and offend, but never bores."
-The Washington Post

"Ms. Korelitz's book, mixing dark wit with coldblooded suspense, provides an unforgettable tour through the life and mind of a homicidal protagonist."
-The Wall Street Journal

"This follow-up to The Plot finds Anna Williams-Bonner basking in literary acclaim (and moola from her murdered husband's estate) - until pesky excerpts from a manuscript resurface and put questions of authorship, and the publishing world's values, under the microscope."
-The New York Times Book Review, 21 Books to Read in October

"Korelitz fans will eat up this satirical, bookish suspense."
-PEOPLE Magazine

"This delicious follow-up to 'The Plot' finds Anna Williams-Bonner basking in literary acclaim (and moola from her husband's estate) - until pesky excerpts from a manuscript resurface and put questions of authorship, and the publishing world's values, under the microscope."
-The New York Times Notable Book of the Year

"Korelitz's leery view of intellectual posturing and the professionalization of the writing life brings out some of her own best writing."
-The Washington Post, Best Fiction of 2024

"Through the narration of this unforgettable antiheroine, a deliciously nasty storyteller, Korelitz delivers a ripping good read."
-Esquire, Best Books of 2024

"Wicked entertainment."
-Kirkus, STARRED

"It's another taut and compulsively readable spellbinder from Korelitz."
-Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"This book will fly off the shelves."
-Library Journal

"Fans of Korelitz's literary thriller The Plot will (manuscript theft! identity theft! murder most foul! soup!) get excited for the sequel: The Sequel, in which a certain author's widow decides to write her own book-and discovers that she's not the only one who knows a few secrets after all. Fun."
-LitHub, Most Anticipated Books of 2024

"[A] hilariously snippy and deliciously mean satire of the publishing world in addition to a nail-biting suspense novel."
-BookPage, STARRED

"[A] compelling and worthy sequel, another rip-roaring thriller full of very amusing scenes of delusional writers and their awful prose and many twists and turns."
-Booklist

"[A] page-turner for sure and a worthy follow up (sequel!) to the author's fantastic thriller The Plot."
-AARP

"Chilling, creatively woven."
-Woman's World Magazine

"Korelitz delivers another sizzler of a story about literary theft and murder. Readers of her earlier book, The Plot, will welcome the return of the diabolical Anna Williams-Bonner. Posing as a grieving widow and promoting her novel - a fictionalized account of her husband's death - she gets an unsettling note from an unknown person who appears to know too much about her past. Anna has a lot to hide, and a knack for eliminating her enemies."
-The New York Times, 10 Best Thriller Novels of 2024

"The Sequel, by Jean Hanff Korelitz, is an unpredictable continuation of the author's 2021 novel, The Plot. The literary widow Anna Williams-Bonner, inspired by the success that her husband won by crafting a bestseller out of a story lifted from a deceased writing student, creates a novel of her own: a thinly disguised fiction based on her life before and after her spouse's death. Sales are brisk, but an anonymous troll threatens to spoil everything by exposing deadly secrets from Anna's hidden past. In the hope of protecting her reputation and freedom, Anna invents a killer of an ending for her tormentor."
-The Wall Street Journal, Best Mystery Novels of 2024