Top Ten Tuesday is an original
feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish, where the writers, like me, are particularly fond of lists.
This week's topic is...top 10 books I wish could have had sequels (they were
complete stories but you just could have read more and more about these
characters or set in that world).
This is a tough one, because lately I've been speaking out about how every book nowadays seems to be part of a trilogy or series. I think a lot of great books stand on their own, and don't need sequels. Therefore, none of the below are books I really, really want to read a full sequel to, but ones where I sometimes wish I'd been able to get a definitive answer on what happened next.
1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
We'll start with I Capture the Castle. When I first read it (as a young teenager) I was saddened to find there was no sequel. I felt like I'd been shown a slice of Cassandra Mortmain's life, and I really wanted to know exactly what happened next. Now, I see why Smith worked that way, but I still want to know more.
2. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
This is one of my favourite books, and ends on such a perfect melancholy note. Still, I'd love to ask Shriver what she thought happened next, and how Kevin and his mum dealt with each other.
3. Matilda by Roald Dahl
I'd love to find out what a grown-up Matilda was like. I imagine she set up a school for clever girls, and spent her life making sure all women got an education.
4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Okay, I don't want a full sequel but five minutes with John Green to find out his headcanon for Hazel would be great.
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Lord of the Rings series has a huge number of appendices which expand on the history of Middle Earth and events outside the books. I'd like something similar (on a much, much, much smaller scale) for The Hunger Games, where Collins tells us more about the world and how it copes after the Games finish. We get a small glimpse, but since it's through Katniss's point of view and she's out of it, we don't get much.
6. After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross
I read this recently (review here), and I'm quite happy that there's not a sequel, because I think the characters I met are just fine. I would like to know from Cross, though, how (if) the world recovers and what's ahead for Britain in her universe.
7. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A beautiful, haunting novel, Never Let Me Go (review here) is pretty much perfect. Sometimes a small part of me wants to know exactly what happened to Kathy though, rather than me being the one to figure it out. I think it would be easier to come to terms with if Ishiguro spelt it out.
8. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
I'm a huge fan of Gaiman, and could read more of his worlds anytime. It was a toss up between Neverwhere and Stardust as to what went on this list, and I went for Neverwhere.
9. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
There is actually a sequel to this, called Scarlett, and written by someone who's not Mitchell. I don't need a full book, I just need to know whether Rhett ever forgives Scarlet and the two get together.
10. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Another book I recently read (review here), Gone Girl's ending is jawdropping. I won't spoil anything, but I'd love to know how the lives of the characters panned out. If you've read it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
What books would you like to see sequels to?
What would happen if all our major banks collapsed?
It's not such an out there question, considering how close Britain came just a few years ago to financial disaster. Even though we didn't hit rock bottom, we're still feeling the effects of a recession.
The extreme situation is one explored by Gillian Cross in her novel After Tomorrow, which follows Matt and his younger brother Taco as they are forced to flee through the Channel Tunnel to France after their home situation deteriorates.
The pair live with their mum and Taco's dad, growing their own vegetables to trade in for other food. But they're soon targeted by armed robbers and dubbed 'scadgers' - the term given to hoarders.
After one attack leaves Matt's grandad dead, and another results in his mum suffering a horrific attack, the family decide to head to the continent, just hours before the French shut the Channel Tunnel. At the last minute Matt's mum has to stay behind, leaving Matt, Taco and Justin to fend for themselves.
I found After Tomorrow really difficult to put down, it was just so interesting. Cross often leaves out the nastier elements, such as the fact that Matt's mum was raped by the armed robbers, but it rings true to life because that's something Matt wanted to gloss over, and by doing so he was able to deal with it.
Cross is good at exploring what it means to be a refugee. So often we see pictures on television of people fleeing their country because they're in danger, but when Matt and Justin find themselves in that situation they find it difficult to cope. Matt goes in to a denial of sorts, refusing to learn a word of French (he even calls the place where the refugee camp is Lemon Dough throughout the book) and entertain the prospect that the camp they are forced in to stay in will be their long-term home.
Matt is tied to home by his grandad's bicycle, which somehow survived the trip to France, albeit a little damaged. The bike is almost a metaphor for different stages of Matt's life - back at home it represents safety, order and family, in France it represents a family that has been dented and damaged and still survives, and in the end it proves to be just an object, worth a lot but still less than a family.
Justin copes in a different way, by falling in to a depression. It's only when he finds a way to make himself useful (tending the garden of a French woman) that he feels better. Even then, despite the fact that Justin is the adult, it's Matt who so often acts like the one in charge.
The secondary characters in After Tomorrow are also excellently rendered. There's Bob, the fixer, who helps Matt's family escape to France and then helps Matt to find a way to earn money in the camp. Paige and Muriel, two of the other refugees (Bob' daughter and another woman) prove to be confidants and helpers, although at first it may not seem that way. Stef, a Frenchwoman, becomes a saviour of sorts, while other minor characters all play their part.
Cross uses After Tomorrow to explore moral issues. If you're hungry and need to fend for your family, is stealing okay? Is it alright to rob people who have more so that you can survive? Those are questions that don't have right or wrong answers, not in the context of this book, but Cross convincingly portrays both sides of the argument.
One of the best things about After Tomorrow is that its exploration of character and issues takes place over just one book - there doesn't appear to be a sequel on the horizon. Nowadays, it seems all children's and YA authors are writing series and sagas for the sake of it, so it's great to see an author who is not afraid to leave some things untold, who will let the reader imagine what happens next.
Cross's novel is dystopian fiction at its finest, partially because it seamlessly blends our current reality into a situation that is all too easy to imagine could be possible.
How I got this book: From the library
