I know that I’m super late on reading this book since most people read it in school. However, I didn’t so I bought it earlier this summer and go to it recently. I know that this book is a classic and that almost everyone who reads it loves it, but I was not thrilled.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good read. However, it took me forever to get through it. It started off slow and then started to get interesting and then fell off again. I felt like every other chapter I was interested and then I was bored again. I loved the story as a whole and I see why it’s so popular, I just wished that it was a little quicker. I definitely liked Atticus but went back and forth between loving and being annoyed with Scout and Jem.
If you read the book what do you think? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it?
At this point I have no intention to read Go Set a Watchman. When the book was first released there were a lot of mixed feelings about it. From my understanding the book was supposed to be a sequel (which technically it is because Scout is an adult now). But, some people who read it said that it felt more like an unfinished draft. Or possibly the original draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Some people also wonder if Harper Lee actually wanted it released in the first place. Another complaint is that it ruins the image of Atticus and is a step back from the first book.
If anyone has read, how did you feel about it? If you didn’t do you plan to? Why or why not? And have you heard anything else about how the novel was received?
Let me know!
~Rae
bookmarkchronicles 
It’s been a long time since I read this, but I’ve felt since then that it was one of my favorite books. Let me see if I can remember why I thought/think that. The authenticity of Scout’s voice, the realness of the setting, the characters, the society. I think what’s kind of masterful about this book is the heavy trial/racism situation at the heart of the story but told through an innocent’s eyes. also, the whole Boo Radley (sp?) storyline is so memorable, that an outcast who’s gossiped about as a strange and someone to stay away from can end up being a hero in his quiet way.
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Very true. It was a great story over all just slow for me lol
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I read TKAM for school when I was 15 and completely loved it: I’ve also taught it and loved it then too. I think the depiction of a specific place and time is wonderful, and there are so many good minor characters, like Dolphus Raymond and Miss Maudie. And the dual endings of Tom’s death and Boo rescuing the kids are both so emotional. I will always love the book.
Go Set A Watchman, however, I woul happily go back in time and not read. Atticus is horrible in it and even Uncle Jack becomes really awful. I advise anyone who asks me not to read it.
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I’m so glad I happened to catch a short reading of Go Set a Watchman on the radio–the prose was negative and meandering, and I knew I made the right choice to protect my love of TKAMB by not reading GSAW.
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I do love Miss Maudie! I totally didn’t see the ending coming but it did wrap up the story nicely. Thanks for the heads up on GSAW a lot of people have said that and I feel like it would ruin it all
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It is literally the next thing I am going to read, it is the top of the pile next to my bed
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Let me know what you think when you do!
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I have never read it, but it’s on my list. I hope to start reading more this winter & keep with it next year.
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Wonderful read and great story just slow for me. But I hope you enjoy it!!
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I haven’t read her new book, but I’ve heard that Harper Lee actually wrote most of Go Set A Watchman before To Kill a Mockingbird, and when she brought it to the publisher they mostly liked the flashback scenes of Scout’s childhood and Atticus. So, they had her create a draft of the before instead, which became To Kill a Mockingbird. So I feel that possibly the characters as she intended them to be are as they are in Go Set A Watchman, but they changed when she wrote Mockingbird. Not positive, but just some food for thought.
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That’s interesting! That’s a good point although it would be a little strange that Atticus does almost a complete change of heart
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I didn’t read the sequel. I made the mistake of doing so with the sequel to “Gone With The Wind”, and after that abomination, I’ve never read a sequel that wasn’t completely and totally written and published by the original author. I don’t care how close they are/were, or anything of the sort, after that load of crap that reduced everything in GWTW to a Mills & Boons novel … oh my god.
So no, I haven’t read it, and nor will I.
I feel like, because I’ve taught To Kill A Mocking Bird several times before, my response is biased. I like it. I do. But to have read it, analysed it, taught it, watched it, read essays over it, so many times over? I like the themes, I do. And it’s a good novel.
But how I used to feel about the novel, and how I feel now, is vastly different. I think it’s been ruined for me, and I feel rather bitter about it. Like, I dread if it’s the novel we have to read (we sometimes all read the same novel, sometimes different classes read a different novel, it depends on the school, the cohort, so many different things) that term. Which I know doesn’t overly answer your question … but it does, in a way, doesn’t it?
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I still haven’t read GWTW didn’t know there was a sequel either lol and yes you answered the question. I don’t think its wort reading Go Set a Watchman
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Whatever you do, DO NOT READ THE SEQUEL. I swear to god, you will regret it.
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don’t worry, I don’t plan to
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Dislike this novel myself. Read it again recently and I still cannot quite put my finger on why I dislike it, although as you say it is slow. Interesting part of history.
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Okay good, I’m not the only one! lol
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Love TKAMB. I can’t get into her second book. I love the language. The themes. Who is telling the story.
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I love TKaM, but Watchman was a bad publishing/marketing move. They put it out as a sequel but it actually is the first version that would one day morph into TKaM. So people were very upset about what happens in Watchman with Atticus because they didn’t know it was essentially a draft of TKaM. It’s fascinating when looked at through the lens of a draft, but a pretty terrible book in iself. Nothing can touch TKaM.
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That makes me wonder why it was even published. I mean I guess it’s cool to see what she was originally thinking for the story but I don’t know how to feel about it
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