When Sequels Don't Work

Often, you love a book so much you're not ready to let it go. So you search for the sequels. But should you?

I remember when that one book held me for so long, and so tight, in its relaxing embrace, that I did not want it to end.

I read the pages like I would chew a piece of gum - enjoying every bit of the juice like there was nothing more left to suck.

It made me smile after every long day, where I was sure to get my best moods back.

It was too good to last...

Like every book, it ended.

Frantic, I searched for similar books. I googled the genre, the theme, and then decided the same author must be the best person who could write my next favorite book.

And guess what, there is a sequel!

Half a day of trying, and I get the 'prospective' in my excited hands. To my disappointment, it doesn't even make me go beyond the first chapter. Deciding to be consistent with my love for the story, I push myself to read further, but that only dismantles what the previous book had created.

Ever felt this way after a sequel?

Perhaps it was never supposed to have another ending!

Chances of a book having a bad sequel is high when it ended in a sad mood. You might think that was a sad ending. It had left you open-mouthed, wondering about the future of the main characters.

It would have given you the feeling that the author could have brought in a definitive ending, not something like this. You create alternative endings to make this sadness go away.

But that was the only way a great book like that could have ended. Left you hoping, and craving for more!

So what happens when the sequel is written?

When the original author, or another substitute with due permissions, creates the sequel, it is like force-starting a vehicle to take it down a new, but boring, road. The author knows there is no story, nevertheless, with confidence in the pen, shifts direction.

And this direction is not something the readers would love.

The worst flaw? The characters are not the same.

The main character you had fallen in love with, seems to have lost the charm. Worse, they seem to have lost the will for living.

There are more dialogues for people who did not matter. There is a new centrepiece that connects nothing in particular.

In the end, you are convinced that the previous book was the last you should have read.

No further.

Sad, expectant, lonely - whatever that mood was, seems infinitely better than anything about the sequel.

My final word of advice: google.

An online review will be enough to stay in love with the ending as it is.

Google the sequel before you read it. There would be somebody willing enough to put down their favorite author and save the rest of us.

PS: Hope you have a great time with the books that should have no sequels.

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