Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Need a Prequel

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Welcome to the very first Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge! Today’s topic is books that need a prequel. I hope my readers will click the link above and see how everyone else responded to this prompt, too.

Lately, I’ve been discovering prequels to all sorts of books that I spent ages wishing would have such a thing, so this post won’t be as long as it would be if I’d written it a year or two ago. For example, I recently read Sarah McCoy’s “Marilla of Green Gables,”  a prequel to L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables.” Last year I read “Caroline: Little House, Revisited” by Sarah Miller and saw Laura Ingalls Wilder’s early childhood from her mother’s point of view. (If you liked those series and haven’t already read the prequels to them, I highly recommend checking them out. They were both excellent reads).

Those experiences give me hope that everything I discuss today has a chance of actually having a prequel written for it someday. My fingers are crossed that this will happen.

Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary.”

For anyone who doesn’t already know the premise of this book, it was about a young family who unknowingly moved next door to a cemetery that brought anyone who was buried in it back to life. The trouble was, the people and animals who were reanimated in it weren’t their usual selves after that experience. They came back violent…or worse.

There were so many unanswered questions about this graveyard and the folks who had used it. Admittedly, I’m probably way more cautious about unexplained phenomenon than many people, but when I read this I really wondered why the people who knew about how dangerous it was didn’t work harder to warn newcomers and, I don’t know, prevent anything from being buried there. Did the cemetery somehow negatively influence your critical thinking and survival skills, too? I want answers!

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series

What I’d love to see J.K. Rowling do is go back to when ancient wizards and witches first realized that they had special powers. Wouldn’t it be cool to see how wizarding society was first formed back when the general human population was much smaller than it currently is today?

Maybe it would be set in Africa tens of thousands of years ago when all of our ancestors still lived there. Then again, maybe magical characters in that universe didn’t actually have the resources to live separately from muggles until we invented agriculture and cities and could support much larger populations. What do you all think?

Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” graphic novels

I haven’t been keeping up with the latest issues of these graphic novels, but from what I’ve read the creator has no interest in explaining how the walkers (what we would call zombies) in this universe came to be or how they took over the world so quickly while Rick Grimes, the main character, was in a coma for a few weeks after an accident.

This is something I’ve thought about a lot over the years, so not having answers for it vexes me. It sure seems like more people would have realized early on that walker bites would turn you into a walker, too.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’d sure like to know what Mr and Mrs. March’s childhoods were like, how they met, and what it was like for them to have four daughters in five years. That many babies in such a short period of time is a lot of work! I have a relative who had a similar age spread for their children, but they raised their brood with all of the benefits of modern society like disposable diapers, antibiotics, and kid-friendly TV programs for when one of the parents needed a few minutes to relax.

Room by Emma Donoghue 

 I’d sure love to read a prequel to this book told from the perspective of someone who knew why the antagonist kidnapped and imprisoned the main character’s mother for so many years in the first place. This wasn’t something that was addressed in Room since the narrator was a young, innocent kid who didn’t realize how bizarre his life was, but it is something I’ve wondered about ever since I finished reading it.

How about you? Which books do you want prequels for?

19 Comments

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19 Responses to Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Need a Prequel

  1. Oh yes, I think seeing the wizarding world begin would be fantastic — and so much potential for such fabulous stories.

  2. I’m thinking Harry Potter might be a popular one today! Never thought about Pet Semetary, but that would be a good one as well.

    My post

  3. Agree with all, actually. I remember thinking much the same thing about Pet Semetary when I first read it years ago. Definitely Harry Potter, though it’s been fun watching the “Fantastic Beasts” movies that tell a little bit. And, TBH, the fact that Robert Kirkman doesn’t really know or care how the ZA started kind of bugs me… though I’ve lost interest in both the comic and the show in the last year or two.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier!

  4. Well now you caught me. I would love to have read a prequel to Little Women. Do you suppose Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books were the same way? I don’t remember the first book and how much background it gave.

    Then again…it’s been a long time ago that I read them. Hey, maybe I should do it again. Perfect read for a long cold winter day.

    • Yes, I do think they were the same way. Raising children in the 1800s was tough!

      And I think we should both reread the Little House books this winter. 🙂

  5. A Harry Potter prequel would be awesome. I imagine most people would say Harry’s parents in Hogwarts or something, so it’s interesting you went another route entirely!! And I haven’t read Room – I still need/want to – but I can see how a prequel would explain some things!

    -Lauren

  6. There are some books that are just crying out for prequels! I’ve never read King but the idea of Pet Sematary is so deliciously creepy that a prequel would seem to be a given- especially if the book itself doesn’t give a lot of answers. I recently watched Castle Rock too on Hulu and there was some Pet Sematary Easter eggs/ references- at least I think they were. Again I’m a King novice.

    I agree about the Harry Potter and Walking Dead ones too. I always like answers for my apocalypses lol so the lack of interest in explaining the “why” of the zombieverse is baffling to me…

  7. Wendi Zwaduk

    I read Room and had to put it down many times. I can’t read Pet Sematary. Just won’t do it. But I did love Harry Potter. 🙂

  8. I don’t read that many prequels to be honest, but ones for HP and Little Women would be very interesting to me!

  9. I also chose Harry Potter! There is SO MUCH potential to talk about all the adventures Lily, James, Sirius, Lupin…even back a generation with Dumbledore and McGonagalll. What were they like in their youth? What shenanigans did they get into? Ugh, I want my grabby hands on it!

    I haven’t read the other books you mentioned but they all look great–I need to add them to my TBR list!

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