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arcoiris2 t1_ix8nc5i wrote

The only one that comes to mind at the moment is To Kill A Mockingbird. I was highly disappointed in Go Set A Watchman by comparison (maybe I'm missing something in my perspective?). I just felt the writing wasn't as good as the first book.

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ersatzbaronness t1_ix8rlqc wrote

It was written first, then abandoned and lost. There's a lot of room to argue Lee never intended to finesse and release it. There are lots of reasons it doesn't compare.

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3-Eyed_Fishbulb t1_ix8u9yw wrote

There was a rumor that Harper Lee didn't write most of the book, as though someone else finished it unbeknownst to her.

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Mr_niceguy0 OP t1_ix8pi1j wrote

Yeah, some writers i think just make new books to ride off the fame of the last book to make extra cash, I don’t know if that’s why they made go set a watchman but I feel like that’s the reason for most of these disappointing sequels, that or the author got lucky and his first book blew up despite them not being the best author

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ersatzbaronness t1_ix8rf6j wrote

Go Set a Watchman was published 55 years after To Kill a Mockingbird." It certainly wasn't a fame riding situation. It's release is actually quite controversial.

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jefrye t1_ix9ys4n wrote

>It certainly wasn't a fame riding situation.

Well arguably it was, but by her publisher/agent/family. It seems like Lee was taken advantage of so that other people could make money.

A lot of people I think realize this, hence it being a controversial release as you pointed out, but a lot of other people just came away with "Atticus is a racist" and that's it.

I do think the manuscript is an interesting insight into her creative process, but it should have been published as such and not as "the never-before-seen prequel to To Kill a Mockingbird!" It also should not have been published until after her death. The audience should have been primarily other writers and academics—not everyone who read TKAM in high school and has little or no understanding of what the manuscript is (and, more importantly, is not).

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JigglypuffSquirtle t1_ix9qr49 wrote

Sorry to be that person, but it was actually written by a woman! Harper Lee. She died about a year after it came out, the rumours I heard were that they took advantage of the fact she was dying. I never heard the rumours about someone else ghost writing it until today.

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SubstantialScale9858 t1_ixa09va wrote

If the author is good at their job, they'd know when to pull the plug on their story. Story's have a beginning, middle, and end. Some books make take 5 or more books, some may only need to tell their story in one book, but every book has an end. Some writers just don't know when that is, or don't care, which disappoints everyone in the end.

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