Lit Twitter and its slightly more polite subset, Canadian Lit Twitter, are both suffering from palpitations this morning over a new announcement from Margaret Atwood:

Yes indeed to those who asked: I’m writing a sequel to The #HandmaidsTale. #TheTestaments is set 15 years after Offred’s final scene and is narrated by three female characters. It will be published in Sept 2019. More details: https://t.co/e1umh5FwpX pic.twitter.com/pePp0zpuif

— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) November 28, 2018

Many people are delighted at this news. I have my own opinions about sequels — I miss definitive endings — but I just can't side with the people who are outraged over this. Consider Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockinbird sequel, which just came out a few years ago and has already basically dissolved into nothingness. The original stories are still there and nobody's making you read the sequel. It will be okay, I promise.