Never Let Me Go in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Mar 19, 2012 Kristen rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club, 2012, drama

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. At first, I didn't have a clue what this book was supposed to be about. I don't read blurbs about my book club selections because I want to be surprised. So at first I was kind of bored because all I could tell was that this was a group of kids at a boarding school of some kind. I watch way too much Criminal Minds because I thought it was going to be a story about a kid or group of kids who all got molested and it was going to be something like Sleepers.

But then...CLONES! OMGWTF. It kind of ble At first, I didn't have a clue what this book was supposed to be about. I don't read blurbs about my book club selections because I want to be surprised. So at first I was kind of bored because all I could tell was that this was a group of kids at a boarding school of some kind. I watch way too much Criminal Minds because I thought it was going to be a story about a kid or group of kids who all got molested and it was going to be something like Sleepers.

But then...CLONES! OMGWTF. It kind of blew my mind because the setting seemed older, not at all futuristic, like it was set in the 50s or 60s.

Going off some of the book club questions in the back of the book...

I think it might have been less mysterious if this had been told from a 3rd person omniscient POV. Telling it from Kathy's POV was fine, and she was really the only character it would have worked well with. Tommy seemed too stupid, even though he probably wasn't so much, and Ruth was a bitch and I wouldn't have wanted to hear from her POV anyway. Miss Emily's POV, now, would have been fascinating, especially once we learn about her dread and revulsion for the clones at the end of the book. Seeing that throughout would have been really interesting.

I think that Miss Lucy was right and the kids should have been told a LOT more than they were. But in the context of the story, it wouldn't have been possible. Just as with religion, indoctrination or brainwashing is vital. If the kids weren't indoctrinated from birth that their lot in life is to become donors and die, the entire premise of the story and the culture within the story would collapse because none of them would stand for it.

Based on that indoctrination, none of the kids tried to escape or do something other than taking their turn at being carers and eventually donors. Without that indoctrination, it simply would not work. The clones would say "fuck you" and refuse to be killed for their organs, like any other sane person. I know if someone out of the blue came to me and said I was a clone and now it is time for me to become a donor, no. I think it would be an interesting story if all the clones had committed suicide instead. That would really throw a wrench in the wheels of that society. I don't know why they didn't do just that, except again it boils down to indoctrination. They probably would never have thought of it. ...more

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Jan 13, 2016 Alison rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own_it, fiction, bookclub

The way the story unravels is very interesting, you don't really learn what's going on in the world of the book - set mostly at an exclusive boarding school - until pretty far in. I think that is to its advantage. In a way, you find out what the deal is as the characters work it out, and as they work through their own relationships with one another. This is the true focus of the novel - the ties between Kath, Tommy, and Ruth as teens and then when they all meet again several years later.

The read ...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Jen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, british-literature, books-that-changed-me

This book is absolutely heart breaking and so subtly written. Characters rarely discuss their feelings up front and that's how the book progresses. There is obviously something different about the students of Hailsham but no one ever says what it is. Yet throughout the book the secrets between the characters and about who they are slowly unravel. To divulge anything would do the book a disservice. All I can say is that it's definitely worth a read and much of the last quarter of this book moved ...more

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