To Kill a Mockingbird Sequel Will Kill Your Love for Atticus Finch

To Kill a Mockingbird is considered an American classic, a shining piece of literary work that deals eloquently with the topic of racism in the 1930's Deep South.

In February, the shocking announcement came... reclusive To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee (now 89) would be releasing Go Set a Watchman, a sequel to her 1960's masterpiece.

To Kill a Mockingbird follows young Scout and her brother Jem, as their lawyer father, Atticus Finch, defends a black man from rape charges. Finch's character has consistently been a role model, the anti-racist example he sets in a town fraught with racial tension still standing today.

The news was met with mixed emotions, many even concerned that Lee, who lives in an assisted living facility, was being manipulated by her lawyer into releasing the manuscript.

Now, early U.S. reviews of the book are out, and it's proving even worse than people feared. Not because of poor writing, of course, but because it shatters the beautifully constructed book we know and love.

The novel was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird, and featured occasional flashbacks to Scout as a young girl. Lee's publisher found the backstory more compelling, and convinced Lee to write about Scout's past... the story which later would become the classic we know today.

Go Set a Watchman takes place 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird, when [SPOILERS] a grown-up Scout returns home to find the iconic Atticus Finch has become a major bigot, attending protest meetings fighting federal de-segregation.

In the New York Times, chief reviewer Michiko Kakutani writes,"Go Set a Watchman is a distressing book, one that delivers a startling rebuttal to the shining idealism of To Kill a Mockingbird. This story is of the toppling of idols; its major theme is disillusion... How could the saintly Atticus - described in early sections of the book in much the same terms as he is in Mockingbird - suddenly emerge as a bigot? The reader, like Scout, cannot help but end feeling baffled and distressed."

Knowing that Go Set a Watchman may ruin the original, will you still plan to read it?