I finished reading 'Go Set a Watchman' in September. We are now approaching the end of October and I have only just willed myself to begin writing my review. This book didn't excite me. I knew, when I first began reading, that it wouldn't be nearly as good as 'To Kill a Mockingbird' yet I was still intrigued to read what else Harper Lee had written.

'Go Set a Watchman' was written before 'To Kill a Mockingbird', and is essentially its first draft. Scout, now 26 and living in New York, returns to Maycomb in Alabama to visit her elderly father, where she discovers disturbing truths about her family regarding their views on African Americans. This particular time period also happened to correspond perfectly with my current History A Level topic of 'U.S. Civil Rights for African Americans' so I really enjoyed the contextual aspect of the book.

Scout - or Jean Louise as she was known in this book - had grown up to be exactly who I always thought she would be. Scout's character development, from what we saw of the stubborn, self-willed child in 'To Kill a Mockingbird', to the outspoken, plucky feminist in 'Go Set a Watchman' was seamless.

The book certainly had its charming moments, namely in the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, such as young Scout's confusion as to whether she was pregnant or not. Although this was amusing, it did also reflect the attitudes to women and such taboo subjects, and how little was known about such issues at the time. Despite enjoying this particular flashback I found most of them quite unnecessary. Other than giving the reader some insight into Scout's childhood - which we already had having read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - these stories did not advance the plot at all. It almost felt as if Lee was struggling for things to write and really preferred writing about the young Jean Louise.

In addition to this, it took an extremely long time for anything to really get going in the book.In fact not a huge amount did happen until the final few pages which were a lot more dramatic than the entire novel. This only made the book feel even more dated, and I couldn't help but think that, if it had to be released at all
, it should have been published years ago.