Blog Tour: Hallowed Author Cynthia Hand shares her Top Ten YA Sequels

Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for Cynthia Hand's Hallowed. The tour is hosted by Mundie Moms HERE. Today Cynthia shares with us her Top YA sequels. 

Cynthia Hand Links: Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

In honor of my own sequel, Hallowed, coming out this week, I thought I’d share with you my top five YA sequels. I can be pretty MEH about sequels. Here’s a little post I did about sequels on my blog a while ago. So yeah, I admit I don’t typically love sequels, with some major exceptions, like The Empire Strikes Back, and the following books:

1. The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan, sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. This is technically a sequel, I think, because it takes place after the original story, but it is from the point of view of an entirely different character. My first response to TDTW was to say that I liked it but I didn’t like it as much as the first book. Sequel syndrome. However, as time has passed, I’ve found that the events of the second books have stayed with me just as fiercely as what happened in the first book.

2. Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry, sequel to The Giver. This is another book that takes place after the first one with a new person’s point of view. I loved this book even more than the first, perhaps because the main character was a teenage girl this time, and I was utterly captivated by her situation and the world that Lowry created for us. Plus I think it’s one of the best book titles ever.

3. Ascendent, by Diana Peterfreund, sequel to Rampant. I love the killer unicorns. This book did exactly what great sequels should do: it deepened our understanding of the original characters so much, and put them in entirely new situations and saw them through new things.

4. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, sequel to The Hunger Games. I was so breathless to see what would happen to Katniss next. I thought, how can Collins possibly top The Hunger Games? How can she build as compelling of a story, now that Katniss and Peeta are out of the arena? How? How? . . . She’s wily, that Suzanne Collins. I thought the sequel was just as tense as the first book. Maybe more, since the romantic tension was so much higher.

5. Fire, by Kristin Cashore, sequel to Graceling. Okay, so this is a companion book, not technically a sequel. I think there might be one overlapping character, and not a major character, at that. But I still loved it.

6. From Bad To Cursed, by Katie Alender, sequel to Bad Girls Don’t Die. I was surprised to hear there was a sequel to this book, since I thought Alender wrapped things up so neatly in the first book, but it was a good surprise. There’s lot more story to be told, and it is creeptastic as ever.

7. Supernaturally, by Kiersten White, sequel to Paranormalcy. Again I say that this novel does what great sequels do: we got to know and understand Evie so much better in this book (and Evie discovers so much about herself, too, which is key, and White takes her to some completely new places. Plus there was a unicorn. Not the killer variety, but still.

8. Vanish, by Sophie Jordan, sequel to Firelight. I liked Firelight but I was totally caught up in the sequel. I really liked being back in the dragon world, which we escaped from so early in the first book, and I loved getting to know Cassian. He’s hot. Literally.

9. Prized, by Caragh M. O’Brien, sequel to Birthmarked. The first book kind of ends on a cliffhanger, but the beginning of the second book was so dire, so bleak, that I was immediately emotional for the character. This was another one of those that I found more compelling than the first book. I was more interested in this new society that Gaia finds herself in, this new dilemma. And a love square, can’t forget that.

10. Linger, by Maggie Stiefvater, sequel to Shiver. I just love Stiefvater’s writing style, and her quiet yet powerful characters, and her use of music. I could read her stuff all day. Every day.

And here’s the list of sequels I am eager to read in 2012:

1. Fragile Eternity, by Melissa Marr, sequel to Wicked Lovely. I should have read this book this year, can’t think why I didn’t except that I was busy. I loved WL and Ink Exchange, the companion book, so chances are I will dig this book too.

2. Beautiful Darkness, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, sequel to Beautiful Creatures. Another one where I liked the first book, but was almost a little wary to read the second. I’ve got it in my queue this year, though.

3. Untitled Peg 2, by Robin McKinley, sequel to Pegasus. I am trying to be patient and understanding with Miss McKinley, but I am on pins and needles here. Pegasus was an amazing book until it left us hanging at the end. *Sends good writerly vibes to RK.*

4. Fever, by Lauren DeStefano, sequel to Wither. I need to know what happens next! I am worried about these people!

5. Rebel Heart, by Moira Young, sequel to Blood Red Road. I have to say I don’t much like the title for this book or the cover, but I so loved the first book that I will have this book in hand the day it comes out.

6. As Yet Untitled?, by Ransom Riggs, sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I need this book! I must know what happens to Miss Peregrine!

7. As Yet Untitled?, by Tahereh Mafi, sequel to Shatter Me. I loved this character’s voice, and I want to hear more. I am going to meet TM soon, I think, and I will probably pester her about it.

8. Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins, sequel to Anna and the French Kiss. Actually, I’m not sure if this is a sequel or just another book by the same author in a similar vein. I don’t care. I want it.

9. Where She Went, by Gayle Forman, sequel to If I Stay. The first book made me cry so much I have been waiting to read the second one until I had an adequate stock of tissues, just in case.

10. Insurgent, by Veronica Roth, sequel to Divergent. I think a lot of people are super excited to read this, and I’m happy to be one of them. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.

So. . . woohoo for sequels! I love sequels! I’m all about the sequels! What’s the word for the third book, now? Theequel?

Thank you Cynthia for this list. Many of these I'm familiar with and now others will be too. Tomorrow hop over to The Secret Life of a Bibliophile to read an interview. 

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