It is impossible to rate or review this book on its own merits. If there was no TKAM, this book is a 3. A 4 if you realize it is a draft manuscript and not a polished final work. Yet holding it to the standards of Lee's fine characters, endearing small portraits of southern life and gut wrenching scenes of injustice she leads us through in TKAM this book is a 2. But it tells its own story, it had its own theme and place in our conscience.