I can't help but compare this novel to its great predecessor, To Kill a Mockingbird. That's somewhat unfair to Go Set a Watchman because although the two books undoubtedly will always be tied together, it also deserves to be regarded on its own. To me, it is a 4-star novel. If I were to rate against Mockingbird, then it would be more like a 3. That just says how much I loved Mockingbird. 
 Watchman again centers on class and racism. It is a story about change, and things that do not. Where To Kill a Mockingbird meandered through Scout's childhood, Watchman often flashes back to the same childhood, but from a 26-year old Jean Louise Finch's viewpoint. Now living in New York, she has returned to visit her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama. We see in Scout not a person changed by the big city, but a small southern town that is not ready for change. The country is moving forward without Maycomb. At the heart of the matter is race equality. Slow that the change is, Maycomb is the proverbial stick-in-the-mud and example of the South at the time. 
 Bless Jean Louise's heart because she is "color-blind". But where we once saw her father, Atticus, as the hero protagonist, and father in whom there is no prejudice, we now see a man who may have a flaw. It's not that Atticus is a different person, but one we now see in a fuller light. When Scout sees this father, she is willing to leave this family and life behind forever. 
 I liked Go Set a Watchman for its honesty, and moral. Plus, I liked one more chance to visit some of my favorite characters. Not all of them are present, but I enjoyed seeing the few present and thinking about the others again. As a whole, the book is not as refined as To Kill a Mockingbird. Fine, I say. I can live with that.