I just finished this book, read it in three days, Saturday,Sunday and Tonite. Not a big reader, but didn't take to long.
------------------POSSIBLE SPOILERS------------------
I thought the book was pretty good. It started off slowly I found. The best parts where chapters 23ish to the end of the book. It ended kind of suddenly though, left room for a lot more.
The court case was done really good, and so was the part when Mr.Ewell attacked Jem and Scout.
Great book. One of the only books on my highschool mandatory reading list that I actually liked. The only others that I thought were any good were Ender's Game, Lord of the Flies and any of the mandatory Shakespeare.
Although, you'll be hating your life if you're ever required to read Ethan Frome, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or Black Boy. Ethan Frome in particular will have you nearly slitting your wrists in absolute misery.
It was an excellent book, a lot of people hated it, but it was unique.
---------------------spoiler---------------------
-----------------------------spoiler
-------------------------
The book wraps around, the beggining starts off telling you something that happened to Jem, then it goes through a couple years leading up to the event and finishes off with the thing happening to Jem. The beginning wasn't as interesting as the end though.
--------------------------------------------
------------------------end spoiler
---------------------------------------
Well no shit genius. Good books have normally a couple things in the beginning to grasp the reader's attention. The plot leads to the climax, and with many possibilities the ending HAS to be interesting/surprising.