All reviews of Never Let Me Go

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  Very interesting

  by Lauren

  • Top Book Reviewer
  • Most Interesting

  13 months ago

  Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy go to a special school that's on for kids like them. They live there and learn there and, in many ways, they are like normal teenagers. But some things don't seem to make much sense to those three and as they slowly start to peel away the layers, they learn more about what their future is going to be like. As they learn about their future, they also need to go through regular teenage problems, like betrayal, gossip, and sex. Years later, Kathy meets up with Ruth and Tommy to re-live some of their good times together and some of their more passionate arguments. They still have a lot of questions about what happened while they were at school and what's still to happen to them in the future. This book is a very subtle science fiction. The way Ishiguro presented the more science fiction elements of this book were slipped in to the book like they were no big deal and as if they are secondary elements to the story. Not only were these elements the odder parts of the story but they were also the twists in the story and I don't recall ever having read a book where the author is so nonchalant about the twists of his story. One thing I never understood about the book is why the characters just accept their fate. Why don't some of them run away? Some of them would dream of running off to the USA and becoming actors. Why didn't they try? Also, why did Kathy put up with Ruth all that time? I would have given up with her and found other friends.

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  Loved the Idea

  by khicks

  2 years ago

  I loved the idea of this book, and I loved the characters. I even loved the story...however...It seemed to me like I was reading an outline of a story. There was just never "enough" of anything. I could have read 200 more pages, if only more information had been included throughout. I was disappointed.

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  As close to perfect as I have ever read!

  by Stacey S

  2 years ago

  Ok, so there has been a lot of praise for this novel over the last decade or so, and I always figured I'd get around to it, but to be truthful I was expecting this to be one of those novels that was so pretentiously written you'd need a Masters in English to decipher it. This was what I expected. However, what I actually got was a complex, haunting, heartbreaking, beautifully written story about sacrifice, love, friendship, and morality that touched me deeply. Ishiguro walked the razor's edge throughout this entire novel, and proved himself worthy of the label "Best Novel of the Decade". It is a rare thing to have a literary experience like Never Let Me Go...don't deny yourself any longer!

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  Quietly Shocking

  by Mary Beth Denholme

  2 years ago

  I was drawn to the title of this book. I think being a romantic at heart, the title just captures you. But there is so much more to this novel that the covers only elude to. This book touches on humanity in a way that no one wants to face and yet is on the verge of becoming reality. This book draws you in quietly, bringing you into the characters and eventually revealing tthe darkness that all of the characters are forced to face. It's breathtaking, tragic and deeply compelling. It leaves you exposed and brings you to face questions and realities in yourself that you otherwise would have overlooked.

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  4

  A Big Disappointment

  by Mary Ross

  2 years ago

  I loved Kazuo Ishaguro's "The Remains of the Day" and had high hopes for this book. I am at a loss as to the positive reviews... I didn't like the writing style, plot, or characters. One of the worst books I have ever read.

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  good read

  by Sohail Aftab

  • Editor

  3 years ago

  good read

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  A Unique Story

  by Yantai

  3 years ago

  It was a good read that wasn't quite a page turner for me but was well written and had an engaging plot. I found that the author did a great job building relationships between characters, rather than individually, through describing social interactions in detail. His first person style of writing was slow to take hold, but once it did, it felt like a more intimate storytelling. What stands out to me, however, is the unorthodox plot and setting of the novel. While the story has a conclusion, it leaves readers asking questions about the world that they read about, and whether such a world is possible in our real lives. I read this book as part of a book club. WIthout giving anything away, this book deals with a theme all humans can comtemplate on some level or have an opinion about, particularly for me. Thus, it generated very good discussion during the book club meeting.

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  You won't forget Kathy

  by Iolanda Naccarato

  3 years ago

  This is easily one of the best books I have read this year. It is haunting and beautiful and quite frankly it is also frightening. I have suggested this novel to countless friends. Ishiguro has created a truly memorable narrator in Kathy H.

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  Fiction meets Real Life

  by Sharpquilter

  3 years ago

  Hailsham seems like the typical English boarding school. A big spacious building, wide open grounds and caring staff, teachers and guardians. They receive a liberal arts education and are highly encouraged to produce 'works of art'. What is unusual is that no parents ever come to visit, nor do any of the students ever go 'home' for the weekend or holidays. From a young age the students are told that they will become 'donors', whatever that might be. They also learn that this will happen soon after they leave school and that they won't grow old and have the lives that they see depicted in the movies they watch. I listened to this as an audio book and was hooked from the opening passages. The book was read by Rosalyn Landor. Her soothing voice was a perfect choice for this novel. There were a number of difficult and troubling concepts introduced and having them presented by such a calming voice made them easier to believe. Spoiler Alert This book introduces a group of people who were created for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs so that others could live. Their lives were not valued by a wider society, only their organs. While I was grappling with the morality of saving one life by ending another, the students had to deal with the knowledge that their lives would be ending just when they should be starting careers and building families. Hailsham didn't teach them how to deal with that, in fact it didn't teach them much about life beyond being a student. Why bother when it wouldn't really be necessary for long; after all they'd be spending much of their remaining lives in one hospital or another. This was an excellent, though difficult story to listen to. When one considers that there are already children being conceived with the hopes that they will be a perfect match for an older sibling requiring a bone marrow transplant etc., this book becomes more than fiction; it poses a serious moral dilemma. Have we crossed that line already; do allow doctors/parents to create a new life just to save an existing one.

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  8

  Horrible

  by Joanne Elkaim

  3 years ago

  A real page turner - couldnt turn the pages quickly enough! A booker prize book? Both the plot and characters were empty. Could not finish it. Would not recommend!

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  Very moving

  by Rach

  3 years ago

  Incredible book, changed me after reading it. Really recommend it!

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  Didn't Grab Me

  by Emma James

  • Indigo Employee

  3 years ago

  There's no denying that this book has great potential. The storyline is solid, but the writing style never drew me in. I wanted to like it. Maybe it was something about Kathy's narration. She would go on for ages about little things that I thought might come back later to become important points, but they never did. The characters themselves lacked that special something that really makes you feel for them. I'm not one to leave a book unfinished, but this one was a struggle. I kept holding out that maybe it would start to get exciting if I just kept reading, but nothing about this book drew me in or gave anything to be looked forward to. It has great potential, so maybe the movie will be better.

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  3

  Not what I had expected

  by Meliss

  3 years ago

  This book was hyped up for nothing, although I do give credit to the author for his imagination and ability to describe settings with wonderful detail; I thought this book could offer more due to its topic. Def. recommend My Sister's Keeper in terms of a book dealing with using another person's body parts to save another. I was quiet disappointed in this book; as I read I found nothing to look forward too.

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  Suspenseful and eerily suggestive

  by Matthew McCarthy

  3 years ago

  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro has been on my "to be read" shelf for a while, and when the book finally came into my local Chapters outlet, I immediately picked it up. However, this novel is not exactly what I expected. Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go is in many ways an odd novel: on one hand, it presents a dystopian world, where clones ("students") are created and harvested by humans for their vital organs; conversely, Ishiguro focuses mainly on the innocence of three of these students as they grow up in a private school and the love -- and conflict -- that arises between them. Never Let Me Go was certainly a page turner, and I would bill it as "gothic science-fiction": a strange -- yet not too unbelievable -- world is presented through the eyes of Kathy -- a student -- as she tries to comprehend what exactly is going on outside of her sheltered perception. In this unknowing way, Never Let Me Go presents more questions than straight answers until the last 30 pages, and I was left feeling that the story wasn't heading anywhere until that point. Overall, the last 30 pages do make the previous 230 worth it and are great areas for discussion and personal contemplation about the loss of innocence and -- most importantly my opinion -- the sheltering of knowledge and its potentially dreadful excesses. While it's not as frightening as Huxley's Brave New World or Orwell's 1984, as despondent as McCarthy's The Road, or as strictly allegorical as Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Ishiguro does well to create a truly thought-provoking work.

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  Never let this go

  by Chihoe Ho

  • Indigo Employee

  3 years ago

  I have read the synopsis on the back cover countless of times, but it did not seem to be the kind of book I would have been interested in. How wrong I was. I had to read it for a book club and I instantly fell in love with it. Not to spoil the plot too much for those interested, it has a dystopian setting yet it is handled in such an ordinary manner that it is as though reality has presented itself and you are expected to know what it is. Hints are dropped here and there as to what this mystery could be, while an air of secrecy still constantly shrouds the reader's mind till it is directly dealt with. The sociology, mentality, dilemmas, in the context they were set in, lead one to ponder since they are very applicable to our current society itself. Despite the unexpected setting, what the story truly is about at the front and center is the friendship of three friends through time and the revelation of what their lives are about. Memories are recounted, sometimes in a slow and articulated way, sometimes rushed and repeated - isn't that how our minds work when we want to savour a memory or when thoughts of the past come gushing back to us? These anecdotes and the language they were written in really moved me. The final paragraph of the book was so delicately penned that the impact of the words reverberate on beyond the conclusion of the novel. It has been on my mind and will continue to be; I suppose this is what it means by "Never Let Me Go".

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  A rare gem.

  by BookThia

  4 years ago

  There are few books like this in the world. Few stories that can make you ashamed of a world that doesn't even exist. Few characters that you love and pity and ache for this much. The author unravels the truths behind the lives of Kathy and Tommy and Ruth gradually, drawing you in, making you care for them even while you see them at both their best and their worst. You watch them hurt each other -- sometimes intentionally -- and you watch them love each other. And then, when their truths are fully revealed, you wonder why they don't rail against the injustices done against them. A calmly-paced yet gripping novel that is a love story, a mystery, a shocking portrayal of worldly greed and complacency and apathy, an indepth examination of what it means to be human, and a bold reflection of society's fears and prejudices.

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  captivating!

  by Caitlin

  5 years ago

  A wonderful book - I was absorbed in it immediately! The themes and characters intertwined to create a frighteningly real story that I had to finish as quickly as possible. The moral dilemmas presented throughout the text were very relevant to our current social context, and gave much to reflect upon after reading. The book, however, was rather depressing, and the ending was certainly not uplifting, but this did not diminish how powerful a read it was as a whole!

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  Wonderfully Seductive

  by Drea.bot

  5 years ago

  This novel was superb, it created an entire world for me to become submersed in. Everytime I set it down I was plague with questions that could only be answered by reading. The author slowly gives out answers like chocolate mints on my pillow. I would recommend it to all my friends.

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  Haunting

  by Mister Person

  6 years ago

  WARNING: THIS BOOK IS VERY DEPRESSING, AND IT WILL HAUNT YOU FOR DAYS AFTER READING IT Never Let Me Go is a brilliant book. It is perfect in every aspect. Ishiguro's prose slowly builds up to the explanation parts of teh book, and through the whole constantly carries a feeling a dread. I don't know how hed oes, but that's just how it is. Second: DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT READ ANY OF THE OFFICIAL REVIEWS, AS THEY ARE SPOILERIFIC. DO NOT READ ANY OF THE PLOT DESCRIPTIONS, AS THOSE ALSO SPOIL THINGS. I CAME IN WITHOUT ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE PLOT, AND WAS SHOCKED BY THE TWISTS. IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY THIS BOOK COMPLETELY, DON'T READ ANYTHING ABOUT THE PLOT. Anywho, brilliant book overall. It was very affecting and moved me.

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  Worst Book Ever

  by piezy

  6 years ago

  This book is bad. I cannot figure out why there are such rave reviews about it. The characters are annoying, the plot makes no sense in the end. It's a slow read and you will feel as if you wasted your time reading it.