Sequels suck.

Everyone knows it. There are a few exceptions (think “The Lord of the Rings” series), but most of the time the reader gets the sense that the author has one idea or experience they must write down, which becomes their first book. After that, the author covers empty space with floating, air-filled sequels.

However, “Go Set a Watchman,” Harper Lee’s much-talked-about companion piece to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is the exception that proves the rule. Perhaps the fact that it was written before “To Kill a Mockingbird” is what accounts for the difference. “Go Set a Watchman” tells the story of Jean Louise Finch all grown up. Jean comes home to Maycomb, Alabama in the 1950s, thrilled to be back and to visit her beloved father, Atticus. However, Jean soon realizes for the first time that Atticus is a racist. This cuts Jean deep because she’s always looked up to her father, more than anyone else, as a model of kindness and justice.

This is where the story gets dark. If you thought the detailed interactions in “To Kill a Mockingbird” were sad, then you will find those in “Go Set a Watchman” even more so.

Jean feels completely betrayed. She convinces herself that Atticus is utterly corrupt.

She tries to destruct him as a person by screaming at him.

Her father takes it.

At the end of the book the pieces of Jean’s life that flew apart come back together in a new way. Jean learns something crucial about who people are. She learns what everyone’s watchman really is.

Lee’s trademark, the throbbing realization of truth, is present in “Go Set a Watchman,” perhaps even more so than in the classic “Mockingbird.” “Watchman” is not as well written as “Mockingbird” (after all, it’s an unedited first draft) but it’s still very real, and lodges itself in the reader’s heart enough to not soon be forgotten.