Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Go Set a Watchman

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

40 reviews

ellen_suth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly I just feel confused about this book. I think that’s in part because it feels messy and unfocused and there’s doubt as to whether Lee ever meant for it to be published. I really wasn’t surprised to hear that it started as a first draft of Mockingbird, because it reads that way.

But I can’t tell how much of my dislike is because of its literary faults and how much is because it makes me uncomfortable as a white person to see even Atticus Finch can be deeply racist. I think it makes some really good points - Scout needed to be let down by Atticus at some point so she could stop idolising him and be her own person, that’s a necessary part of growing up. And as for Hank and Scout’s argument, a lot of the time it is a privilege in and of itself to be able to vocally disagree with your community and still be able to earn a living as part of it.

Then at the same time, the ending seems to be imploring you to still love Atticus. It does this by saying you need to be able to look past your differences with people and give them love, otherwise you’re just as bad as them. I think that can and should be the case with a lot of disagreements. I have close relationships with many people I disagree with, because you have to be able to listen to those you disagree with, accept where your world view has flaws and try to let them see the flaws in theirs. That’s just part of evolving as a person. The question is, when does a person’s views become irreconcilable with what you consider a good person to be? Where do you set your watchman? I’m not of the opinion that you can believe in the natural inferiority of an entire race and still be a good person. Especially not a person like Atticus who can’t even hide behind the excuse of ignorance - this is a learned, considerate, empathetic man spouting this vulgarity. But maybe that’s just me, and others would draw the line or set their watchmen elsewhere.

I don’t know. I think this book is worthwhile reading, it’s a more adult and nuanced take on the comforting parable that is Mockingbird. Just be prepared that you might not actually enjoy reading it and you might not be able to put your finger on why.

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tea_at_mole_end's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

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spectrumgaymess's review against another edition

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sad

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

I didn’t know until I read other reviews after finishing the book that Harper Lee may have never intended for this book to be published, but that makes perfect sense after reading it and I hope that’s true but sorry it was done against her wishes. To go from To Kill a Mockingbird to this is…I mean it unfortunately feels very familiar to things we’re seeing now. People being radicalized against minorities by misinformation campaigns. But for the life of me I could not parse what the moral of this book was supposed to be. It’s ok if your family is violently racist? That’s the same shit we’re being told now. We’re the weird ones if we cut people off for thinking there are certain human beings who don’t deserve their human rights. It’s insane. And so was reading this book. At first I had a glimmer of hope and thought Scout was being told they were in those meetings as spies to make sure nothing bad would actually happen but no, they actually believed those things. Fuck off, like actually fuck outta here with that

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nickitaylor915's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I would give Go Set a Watchman 3 stars. While it is interesting to see the continuation of Scout's story as an adult, the book lacks the charm and depth of its predecessor, To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee's writing is still beautiful, but the plot is slow-moving and lacks a clear direction. The characters are also not as well-developed as in the first book, which makes it hard to connect with them. Overall, it's worth reading if you're a fan of To Kill a Mockingbird, but don't expect it to be as good.

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mazkar's review against another edition

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informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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softanimal's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

2.0

I didn't know about the controversy surrounding the publication of the book until I had nearly finished it so I decided to go ahead and read the rest. I feel that generally speaking reading a book an author didn't want published is ill-considered and criticizing it is somewhat unfair. As such, here's the caveat that Harper Lee's desired for this not to be shared.

That said, this book was terrible. The writing is condescending to the reader, every character is condescending to the protagonist, and the protagonist is a hateful kind of condescending regarding all black people. There are good moments, some actually laugh out loud funny or heart-achingly tender. However, overall the book is absurdly and entirely devoted to the feelings of its white characters which though not unimportant in general obscures the violently anti-Black reality that is the undercurrent of both the lives of the characters and the narrative itself. This book somehow manages to simultaneously be about racism and totally focused on white people's feelings about just about everything but racism.

[Spoilers]
The worst part emotionally was having it ruin my admiration of Atticus Finch but in a way that was the best part, too. The point of the book (as it was annoyingly explained in the last few pages) is that your heroes are just people and people are fallable. Good point. But did Atticus have to have been a Klan member at one point???

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abf06's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I adored “To Kill a Mockingbird,” it’s one of the books where I would give nearly anything to read it again for the first time. But since that isn’t possible, this book helped me get a sort of closure (which sounds stupid) but it really worked. Because the themes used in both books were tied together in a different way, it helped dat more to read this than to just do nothing after reading “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

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