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There's a feeling you get on the last page of a good book — a mix of thrill and dread. You want to know what happens, but you don't want it to 

This is the space for your deepest book longings: What books do you wish had a sequel? What worlds do you want to step back into? What characters are you dying to follow?

Yes, sequels often bring nothing but heartbreak — or new characters who you hate — but pretend for a moment you haven't been burned by a sequel before.
Below are some books we'd love to keep reading, if only there was a Part Two.

A world without books? Terrifying. Bradbury's dystopic classic imagines a future where books are the ultimate contraband and must be burned on sight. Guy Montag spends years as a loyal fireman, burning books without question, before he wakes up to the wonders they hold. The novel ends after Montag escapes the city and finds himself surrounded by the few people left who still appreciate literature. They each memorize a book to carry it forward. 

 what? Are they hunted? Do they stage a resistance? Do they find anyone to share their stories with? I'm ready for "Fahrenheit 451: The Books Fight Back."

Someone finally give that poor tree the appreciation it deserves.

In an age when it seems that every fantasy hit already has a trilogy waiting in the wings, "The Night Circus" is the rare exception. The dark magical romance revolved around a circus that traveled the world, appearing without warning and promising eerie delights. Two talented young magicians roamed the grounds, raised since childhood to duel one another. It was a richly detailed world that seemed to hint at endless possibilities, but nope: Don't get your hopes up.

"There are no plans for a circus sequel," Erin Morgenstern 

. "And it is highly unlikely that there ever will be."

I definitely don't want to go back to the island, but I am curious about what happens to those boys. 

They drop the Machiavellian horrors and turn back into sobbing little kids when help finally arrives, but they have been through more life-and-death-drama than a medieval English monarch by the time they're rescued. What happens when they go home again?

'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' by Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon's masterpiece on comic book artists working in the 1940s is widely considered one of the best books of the century so far. It's all heartbreak, ambition, history and genius, and the characters are impossible to say "goodbye" to. Dark Horse Comics continued the spell for a time, publishing new issues of a comic starring the superhero invented in the book.

But there actually is a little-known sequel to this favorite: "The Escapists" by Brian K. Vaughan. It's a graphic novel that picks up decades after the close of Chabon's book, and it follows modern-day comic artists trying to revive the work of Kavalier and Clay.

Be careful what you wish for. J.K. Rowling finally gave fans something of a sequel, 10 years after writing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but in came in the form of a play: "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." Not everyone was pleased.

Mr. Knightley's nice enough, but is that relationship going to stick? 

Share what sequel you're dying to read — and why — with 

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Tracy Mumford

Author

The last page of your favorite book can be a heartbreak. What story do you wish had continued? What literary world do you wish you could revisit?

What book do you wish had a sequel?

Go Deeper.

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