Go Set a Watchman

Author: Harper Lee

Published by HarperCollins Publisher

Genres: Fiction

Pages: 278

“Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch–“Scout”–returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt…Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past–a journey that can be guided only by one’s conscience…Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision–a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times.” -Goodreads

My Review:

Go Set a Watchman is a literal masterpiece. I have never been so impressed with a book that I had extremely low expectations before. I thought this book was going to be an alright book with not much interest to me. With To Kill a Mockingbird, I liked it. I thought the book was good especially cause I read it in class and we got to the deeper meaning behind all of the book. I thought before I started reading this book that I wouldn’t be able to figure out the meaning behind the stuff the characters said. I thought I wouldn’t like it because some sequels are not as good as its predecessor, but I thought this one was better. To Kill a Mockingbird was from a child’s perspective so it didn’t have the full intelligence of an adult who had lived a little which the adult perspective made it easier to understand in a sense. In TKAM, Scout didn’t understand much as a child but she grew up and could figure things out more which made the reader figure it out. I like how Lee could make you think exactly like Scout like you were her.

I heard rumors about the book which made me go into the book hating it and only a few pages in I loved it. I couldn’t put the book down. For two nights I stayed up late and read it because I was so engulfed in the story. I thought the novel was excellent. It was very emotional and because I had read the first book I got real emotional at certain events in the story. I thought everything Harper Lee wrote was raw and came from the heart. I haven’t ever heard anyone say things like what was spoken in this book. Most of the points made in the book were things I agree on. The others were just points that are hard to come to terms with because they are true for that day and age. This century none of the things that were hard to understand are true. That being said a lot of the issues discussed in this book are still issues today, sadly.

I liked the flashbacks in this story. They brought me back to the first book. Harper Lee does well to make the adult Scout seem more mature than childhood Scout. I was happy she included a little of the younger Scout, though. Lee’s writing for adult Scout is different than her writing for child Scout and I was a little put off until the first flashback. It didn’t feel like Lee’s voice in TKAM until I realized that of course, the voices would be different; they were at different maturity levels. Not to says Lee’s voice wasn’t there, I am saying young Scouts voice wasn’t there (not a bad thing.)I think that shows how great of a writer Lee is; being able to voice a child and adult.

There is a lot of growth in Scout. She through the course of the story really learns a lot of things about the world she lives in. Her world basically gets turned upside down. She finds out that the world she grew up in was basically just a facade that her father created. The world isn’t everything she thought it was. I love how she can stand up for what she believes in and has a great voice about it. Scout made me happy through her character growth in the story. She really impressed me with the stuff she said. I feel proud of her.

I hate addressing drama especially when I know hardly anything about it but I am only saying one thing and that is: I am really glad this book was published. I know there was/is controversy around the story being released but I choose not to pay attention to it since it had already been printed and couldn’t be changed. I also don’t really care about publishing drama or any drama around the book as long as it was a good book. I was however scared that my impression of TKAM would have been crushed. If that would have happened, I might feel as though this book shouldn’t have been published or blah blah blah about the drama. I don’t know the whole story of the drama and I honestly don’t care because as I said I only care about the quality of the story.

This book was, to me, a big success. I love it more than the last. I think I still have questions about Jean Louise’s life after the story ends but sadly Harper passed more than half a year ago, rest in peace, so I do not believe there shall be another one (unless she is so epic that she can write from her grave.) I was very impressed with these stories but mostly impressed with Go Set a Watchman. I hope you enjoyed my review. Have a good day!

Star Rating: 5

Thank you for reading!