Top Ten Tuesday: Sequels!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's Top Ten list? Best sequels ever.

I'm super bad at picking favorites, but here goes! In no particular order, top ten sequels that I love. (And I'm sure I'm going to forget some because that's how it goes when I make favorites lists, but we'll go with it.)

1. Harry Potter 2-7 by J.K. Rowling. I know this one is on a lot of people's lists, but I mean, how can it not be? These books are great and I love them and I will read the series over and over again.
2. The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan. I loved the first one, and the second one just grew my love for the series even more.
3. Where She Went by Gayle Forman. Not a technical sequel, but a beautiful follow-up to If I Stay, and I adored it.
4. Everbound by Brodi Ashton. No middle book syndrome here! And with the mythology and everything... yeah I'm super psyched for book three.
5. Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Although this is the third book in a quartet, which usually just means a lot of build-up to the finale, it's probably my favorite in the series after the original. Love.
6. Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson. Because humor and characters and sass and all of it. Love love love.
7. Prince Caspian/Voyage of the Dawn Treader/The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis. Pretty much exclusively because Reepacheep and Caspian. I just really love this particular set from the Chronicles of Narnia.
8. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. There was a touch of middle-book syndrome, but I would still classify this as one of the best sequels, because I just adored the story it told.
9. A Series of Unfortunate Events 2-13 by Lemony Snicket. One of the few series where not only is the first book not my favorite, I can't ever settle on a favorite because I love ALL of them. (With like two exceptions, but let's ignore those for now.)
10. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. I adore the characters and the story and it just made me want the third book even more.

There are a lot of FANTASTIC sequels that I had to omit, and a pretty big part of that decision was middle-book syndrome. But I could probably keep listing kick-ass series for a looong time.

What are your favorite sequels?

Book Thoughts: Pandemonium

Title: Pandemonium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Series: Delirium #2

Wow! I wasn't really sure what was going to happen in the follow-up to Delirium -- with the way the last one left off, I honestly had no clue what this one was going to contain.

What it contains: adventure, more exploration of the society Lena has grown up in, a whole host of new and wonderful characters, romance, action, and of course, an ending that left me desperate for Requiem. If you enjoyed Delirium, this is a sequel that does not disappoint.

What I want to talk about with this one, though, gets spoiler-tastic, so let me just say right now: ***SPOILER WARNING!!! DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PANDEMONIUM YET!***

...everyone who hasn't read it gone?

...seriously, I'm not trying to get rid of you, I just really don't want to spoil this for you!

...okay, ready?

...here we go. One more time: ***SPOILERS!!!***

Okay. So, at the end of Delirium, Alex dies. Lena is beyond heartbroken. But as Pandemonium proceeds through its plot, she works through the emotionally exhausting process of getting over him. She fears falling in love again, she fears her feelings for Julian, she fears betraying Alex, but she slowly learns to love again. And I loved that -- I thought it was beautiful. It was a bold move to kill off the love interest at the end of the first book, but I thought it made a powerful statement about the casualties of war and a broken society and paved the way to explore emotions that don't often get explored in these sorts of stories. I missed Alex, of course, but I fell in love with Julian right along with Lena, and I loved her healing process.

Plot twist: Alex isn't dead. Obviously I'm glad he's not dead in the sense that he's a great character and his death was sad, but in terms of the plot, I'm worried that bringing him back is going to turn Requiem into nothing more than a love triangle instead of the powerful dystopian piece it has the potential to be. I just wanted Lena to be able to be happy with Julian!

So, yeah, I almost hope she stays with Julian. But Alex... ugh I don't know! Can't wait for Requiem to find out.