Tuesday 14 January 2014

Jennifer Jones Grows Up Anne Cassidy



In January 2004 LOOKING FOR JJ was published. The sequel FINDING JENNIFER JONES is published on 7th February 2014. The actual story takes place two years after the end of the first book. Jennifer Jones is now called Kate Rickman and she is a student at Exeter University. She has grown up a lot in two years. When we met her again she is not the sweet, sympathetic girl that she was in LOOKING FOR JJ. Now she is older, embittered.  She knows that her life will always be governed by other people and she is still obsessed by the past.  She decides to go against the conditions of her release and contact the other girl who was there on the day she killed her friend. She writes a letter and nervously posts it.

As a writer it was odd going back to a book I’d written ten years ago. I was full of trepidation. Would I be able to write about Jennifer after such a long gap? Did I have more story to tell? Would people like this book as much as they had liked Looking for JJ?

A friendly librarian (mention no names) told me not to do it. Common sense told me not to do it. How often had I read a follow up, seen a movie sequel and thought – that wasn’t as good as the first one!

But in the last ten years I had had endless questions from readers asking me what happened to Jennifer after the end of the book.  So, I took my courage in my hands and decided to tell them. My main hope for this book is that it tells Jennifer’s story with integrity and that the readers who wanted to know what happened to her will be satisfied.

4 comments:

Penny Dolan said...

Brave thing to do and such an achievement to take on the task of re-visiting your character. It sounds as if it's as compelling an story as the original.

Wishing you congratulations & celebrations for February 7th!

Miriam Halahmy said...

MAZELTOV Anne and really looking forward to reading this book. All the very best with it!

Emma Barnes said...

I found "Looking for JJ" really gripping...I'm looking forward to seeing how you've taken the character forward.

Unknown said...

My daughter adored 'Looking for JJ'. I'm going to surprise her on her birthday - so glad you blogged about it.