I love when authors get hooked on their own characters by writing not-tacky sequels (especially when the sequels have titles entirely different from the original). Take Louisa May Alcott, for example -- she loved Jo March so much she kept returning to her. Or Judy Blume's Fudge. Or L.M. Montgomery's Anne.
If done well, it speaks to good writing. It's not cutting and pasting the exact same intro to every story, but rather exploring the development of a character as if the character were a child the author wants to watch grow up.
1 comment:
Is this potentially youthful memory deceiving you? I just noticed that all the books you named were children/young adult (yes, I too adore Anne of Green Gables, and own all 10 in the series, but it is definitely young adult). Maybe the sequel just seems less tacky when you already have a youthful adoration of the characters? On the other hand, book sequels, of any level, tend not to run the tacky route that movies go... the Cairo trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz is fabulous. Maybe prose is able to escape the sequel/series cliche?
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