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

Jan 01, 2013 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: literary-schmiterary, authors-i-don-t-ever-want-to-read-a, everyone-loved-it-except-me, audio, 1001-books

Recommended for fans of Everything I Never Told You, another slow rambling book that others found deeply emotional, but I just hated.

Everything about this book annoyed me. The funny thing is, I didn't think it was bad, exactly; it's well-written, and different enough to be memorable. But I hated it, hated every moment of it ... hated every character, hated all the endless details, hated the rambling style, hated the Britishisms and constant mentions of Hailsham. This was a hate read for me.

This Recommended for fans of Everything I Never Told You, another slow rambling book that others found deeply emotional, but I just hated.

Everything about this book annoyed me. The funny thing is, I didn't think it was bad, exactly; it's well-written, and different enough to be memorable. But I hated it, hated every moment of it ... hated every character, hated all the endless details, hated the rambling style, hated the Britishisms and constant mentions of Hailsham. This was a hate read for me.

This book is like going to someone's high school reunion as a first date: you don't know any of these people, and you don't give a crap about their reminiscing stories, you're just praying you have enough alcohol to make it to the end.

I admit to rolling my eyes every time she goes on about that stupid song, Never Let Me Go, and every time she goes on about her sexual urges and having sex, in the most ridiculously clinical detail.

I have questions: (view spoiler)

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Review from my first try, back in ~2014ish, when I DNF'ed - my opinion did not change this second time around, in 2017, when I finished it:
I'm having a hard time with the rambling style of this one - I find myself skimming and skipping. I keep hoping that eventually I'll get drawn into the story, but so far (and I'm not really very far in) I hate Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy. ...more

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May 16, 2011 Arianna rated it really liked it

shelfnotes.com

Dear Reader,

Well, this was my first Ishiguro (I have Remains of the Day lined up as well; I had difficulty deciding which audiobook to start with!) and I feel like there was definitely a lot of hype for it to live up to. Well-deserved hype, but...would I have loved this book just a little bit more had I stumbled across it, and not expected so much from it? Probably, yes. Because I think I DID love the book. It was charming and sentimental and I adored the conversational tone that I shelfnotes.com

Dear Reader,

Well, this was my first Ishiguro (I have Remains of the Day lined up as well; I had difficulty deciding which audiobook to start with!) and I feel like there was definitely a lot of hype for it to live up to. Well-deserved hype, but...would I have loved this book just a little bit more had I stumbled across it, and not expected so much from it? Probably, yes. Because I think I DID love the book. It was charming and sentimental and I adored the conversational tone that Ishiguro wrote from Kathy H’s point of view - and I was quite impressed by the author’s ability to write young women! But. There was the expectation built in. Which really upsets me, because I enjoy reading books that people have already read & loved. It makes me feel certain that I will find something worthwhile in between the covers. (I defer often to the “wisdom of the crowd” on Goodreads!) And it does work out well that way - I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that I ended up hating that others adored. But, I have fallen into this situation several times, where too much hype makes me want more from a book than the book can give me. Le sigh!

However. That is not to say I didn’t love this book! It had such a great concept (I feel as if I can’t spoil it, though! - so talking about this book will be mighty difficult). I give Ishiguro a lot of credit for taking a current trend and imagining a truly possible (and somewhat horrifying) future. I just wish I had come up with it, myself! He did a wonderful job with character development; I enjoyed how the reader grew up with the students at their private school. I wanted to befriend Kathy and I wanted to kick Ruth in the teeth for her manipulative ways. Tommy just always seemed rather...slow to me. Perhaps that was just how the reader portrayed him, but I really got the impression he was somewhat dimwitted. Maybe Ishiguro just meant to convey a feeling of innocence around that character, who knows.

And they were all so innocent of their actual futures. It was tragic, and certainly moving when they finally realized what was going on. You want desperately to believe that we, humanity, would never do such a horrific thing, but...it’s frighteningly easy to see that as one possible future for us. Man oh man.

Great slow reveal, and while the climax wasn’t terribly startling, it was a strong resolution to a long-running puzzle. I enjoyed this book and certainly look forward to more Ishiguro!

Yours,
Arianna

P.S. This isn’t related to the review, but wanna know one thing that really bothered me? The fake cassette tape that they sent out to promote the film adaptation looked NOTHING like Kathy H had described it. Why would they not recreate the image that the author had described, since it was his invention?!? So weird.
...more

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Jul 31, 2010 Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, 2010books

I’ve been reading pretty much exclusively for school for the past 10 or 11 months, with a couple quick breaks for “fun” books here and there. I guess when you do a grad program in just a year you ought to spend all your time reading and have no room to complain about it. So with that in mind I will not complain, only say that finishing my program has freed up a major amount of time in my life, time that I'm desperate to commit to reading all the books I have stockpiled on my shelf.

The first book I’ve been reading pretty much exclusively for school for the past 10 or 11 months, with a couple quick breaks for “fun” books here and there. I guess when you do a grad program in just a year you ought to spend all your time reading and have no room to complain about it. So with that in mind I will not complain, only say that finishing my program has freed up a major amount of time in my life, time that I'm desperate to commit to reading all the books I have stockpiled on my shelf.

The first book to come down off that shelf: Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go.” How did “NLMG” get the coveted first nod? Two reasons, really: 1) the film adaptation is coming out soon, and 2) my friend who had read it and loved it really turned up the heat to get me to read it before it gets spoiled by the movie. Having seen the trailer now, I don’t know if the book would have been spoiled, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Regardless of methodology, it turned out to be the perfect book to return me to my happy life of reading freedom: elegant, readable, quick...oh, and sad...forgot about "sad" for a second. Note: by “sad,” I mean really, really sad. Anyway, I gobbled this book; I chugged this book; I inhaled this book. If these metaphors haven’t made it clear already: I was starving for books, real books, not competitive analysis books or process innovation books. As intellectually stimulating as my program was, I was still desperate and ravenous for fiction the whole time. I guess it’s as biological as actual hunger.

But back to “Never Let Me Go,” which proved an easy book to wolf down. The crux of this book is neither in the plot, nor really in the characters for the most part (though there are three particularly careful, loving, nuanced portraits drawn), but rather in the oppressive, mysterious MOOD. One knows from the beginning that something is “off” in the book's world, but everything hinges on slowly understanding just what it is that’s off, and by how much. As my friend warned (strongly admonishing me to avoid the trailer for the movie), the secrets of the book spoil easily. Whether or not spoiled secrets ruin your enjoyment of the book is debatable; I had a pretty good sense of the “twist” before I started reading and was completely engrossed nonetheless. (A word to the wise: if you want to stay away from spoilers on this one, avoid those tiny library classifications at the front of the book at all costs!! Aye yie yie.)

At any rate, it’s a really wonderful book, heart-breaking and ominous, perfectly written and tightly controlled. I can’t imagine any better plotting or pacing in a book – especially given the overarching mystery: one wants the explanation at the same time as one loves the unbearable tension. This kind of book is why I crave novels: the pure expansion of possibility, the tackling of topics in an unimaginable way, the effortless transportation to a strange, sad world. A really, really sad world. ...more

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Mar 04, 2018 Loretta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reading-for-craft

Okay. Yeah. I really should have read this so long ago. Beautiful, brilliant, heartbreaking in this quiet, matter-of-fact voice. The craft involved in this slow reveal of a world, a culture, a love story just blew me away. I'll be collecting and reading every one of Ishiguro's books in the next little while. ...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Isabel rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Meet Kathy H., our first-person narrator. Meet a dystopian version of Britain in the 1970's and 1980's where one has figured out how to 1. clone humans and 2. harvest clones for their organs. Can you see where this is going? Precisely, Kathy H. is a clone. Her job is to care for other clones who have started their "donations" until they "complete" around their third or fourth donation. In the book we follow both Kathy's life in the present and in the past as she remembers her days at Hailsham, a Meet Kathy H., our first-person narrator. Meet a dystopian version of Britain in the 1970's and 1980's where one has figured out how to 1. clone humans and 2. harvest clones for their organs. Can you see where this is going? Precisely, Kathy H. is a clone. Her job is to care for other clones who have started their "donations" until they "complete" around their third or fourth donation. In the book we follow both Kathy's life in the present and in the past as she remembers her days at Hailsham, a boarding school for clones. There she meets Ruth and Tommy, with whom she becomes close friends, but also has a very complicated relationship because, well, you can see where two girls, one guy is going, right? Kathy ends up first becoming Ruth's carer when she starts her donations and then Tommy's. This brings us to the final big element of the book, namely rumors that Hailsham students who can prove they have fallen in love can get a deferral before they start their donation cycle. Kathy and Tommy decide to investigate.

Do clones have souls? That's one of the overarching questions here. There are many more, beyond purely the ethics of cloning. It is an incredibly layered book about cloning, childhood, death and loss, and many, many more things. And it is a completely compulsive read of the "cannot put it down" variety. It moves very slowly, but something about the first person narration and the general atmosphere draws you in and doesn't let you go. There are a few bits I really didn't care too much about-- how many pages of musings devoted to discovering sex do you need?-- and for my taste I would have liked to see more exploration of the clone theme rather than the who's in love with whom theme, but that may just be me. All in all it's a very good, and, because you find out about the whole clone thing only with little hints here and there for the first 100 or so pages, rather creepy. To my shame, this was my first Ishiguro (I've seen the film version of "Remains of the Day," that's it), and it certainly won't be my last. Very nicely done. ...more

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May 14, 2009 Stephanie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I mostly liked it, it was very beautiful, but the end was not nearly as shocking as I had been expecting/hoping. The "reveal" felt a bit pasted on, somehow. And I was disappointed that the characters didn't really change throughout the book when I hoped they would. Still, I couldn't put it down, read it in a day and a half. ...more

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Jul 08, 2008 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: literaryfiction, library-book, 100best21stcen

This book is tricky to review. Everyone is so careful not to put spoilers- but I frankly figured out most of what was going on very early in the book. The "big surprise" of the last few pages... wasn't particularly unexpected.

At any rate, if you go into it unspoiled, but don't expect some big reveal, this really is a lovely tale. I enjoyed the subtle way Ishiguro leads you through the story, and I very much liked the writing. Maybe not a favorite book of all time for me, but I am extremely happy ...more

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Sep 05, 2008 Jill rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, fiction, sci-fi

Couldn't put it down. The writing felt so tight. Lots bubbly beneath the surface at this boarding school. Fascinating characters, interesting setting and atmosphere. Elements of mystery and sci-fi without falling into either genre. It stirred emotions in me and left me wanting to cry at the very end, not because it was an overt tear-jerker, but because of the amazing restraint with which it was written and the allusions to all that was left UNsaid. ...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Lori rated it really liked it

Shelves: on-line-book-club

Definitely strange, but good. Certainly makes you think.

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Jun 03, 2018 Nicole Adrienne rated it liked it

I liked this but, didn't love it. I think perhaps because the characters seemed to act, think, speak, behave etc in a very 1950's dramatic television show way, I just couldn't connect with them on a deep level. ...more

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