For thus my Lord said to me: Go, station a watchman, let him tell what he sees

"For thus my Lord said to me:

Go, station a watchman,

let him tell what he sees."

 --Isiah, 21:6, New American Bible

*Spoilers*

I told myself to ease into.
I told yourself that it's not a sequel, it's a rough version.
I told myself it's full of the characters of my childhood (and second childhood), the characters I know as well as myself, and love so much I just have to travel alongside them again. On a new journey.
And yet I still prepared for the worst. And I wasn't disappointed.

There is no way this is all Harper Lee's doing--though her publisher would have us believe it's an early and very different draft of what later became To Kill a Mockingbird--this book reads so inconsistently, and only parts of it ring with Lee's voice--in the part featuring the flashback of the children and the Revival I couldn't help but smile and be momentarily lulled. There she is, now she'll take over the story, and it will come right...

 But the lack of character development; the tangential nature of some of the conversations and flashbacks; Scout's willingness to concede to Dr. Finch at the end!! WHAT! THE! HELL! The ending is such an infuriating mess. I was so mad. So disheartened.

Poor Harper Lee, I hope she never reads this awful thing.

That is all I can say. Please let's never talk about it again. Ok?