Never Let Me Go in Overdue Podcast

Jan 20, 2011 Emily Park rated it really liked it · review of another edition

http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2011/1...

Never Let Me Go tells the story of three young people (Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth) as they grow up together at an exclusive boarding school called Hailsham. The story is told through Kathy's eyes, and hopscotches through time, covering events in their childhood and adolescence at Hailsham, and events in their late teens and twenties. Kathy forms the center of the group, befriending Tommy when he was a friendless outcast and also befriending Ruth, one of the mo http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2011/1...

Never Let Me Go tells the story of three young people (Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth) as they grow up together at an exclusive boarding school called Hailsham. The story is told through Kathy's eyes, and hopscotches through time, covering events in their childhood and adolescence at Hailsham, and events in their late teens and twenties. Kathy forms the center of the group, befriending Tommy when he was a friendless outcast and also befriending Ruth, one of the most popular girls in the school. From the beginning, it is clear that something is a little bit different in Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth's lives. As the three of them grow up and leave Hailsham, they are forced to confront the meaning of their own destinies and examine the relationships and bonds they've formed with their friends.

Anyone who has seen a trailer for the movie version of this book already knows what the big secret is, so if you really want to know, you can just watch that (I have not seen the movie myself). Also, although it's not explicitly stated until about two thirds of the way through, it's really easy to figure it out in the first quarter of the book. So, if you're the kind of person who gets impatient to find these things out, this book should not present a problem for you.

Stylistically, this book is a little bit different from the norm because Kathy, as narrator, presents the story in a somewhat stream-of-consciousness style. The story is told from the first person perspective, and it's clear that Kathy is speaking directly to someone as she tells her story; who this audience might be is left up to the reader to decide. Kathy tells her story out of order, jumping back and forth through time, as one anecdote might remind her of another anecdote that was five years earlier or ten years later. This does a lot to make Kathy seem like a real person, with a real consciousness. As Emma said in her review, not a lot happens in the book, but the story moves forward based on the strength and realness of Kathy's character and the emotional connection we feel with her.

The book explores some really interesting themes, like the idea of what makes a person a real person and what constitutes a soul. Death and mortality are obviously very central themes in the book, as is the idea that no matter how short or long your life may be, it might never feel like enough time. Although I really enjoyed seeing through Kathy's perceptive eyes, at the end I sort of felt like a lot of these interesting themes were dropped, as if Kathy herself sort of gave up and was just like, "well, whatever, I'm done thinking about this stuff." A final confrontation with a teacher from Hailsham was meant to provide answers to Kathy, but ended up making a great deal of the book feel kind of meaningless to me, while sort of damaging my already dwindling faith in humanity (not much more can be said without revealing a lot of plot points). If I was in Kathy's shoes, I am sure that at some point, I'd sort of give up and accept my fate, but as a reader, it feels sort of frustrating.

My second large complaint is that a lot of the supporting characters never felt quite real to me. Ruth is a fairly flat character, whose main traits are her narcissism and tendency to stretch the truth if it suits her. She's charming and is the natural center of attention, but she's also needy and manipulative, and at several points in the book I found myself wondering why anyone would bother being friends with her. Tommy was slightly less flat, but still came across as being kind of a caricature: goofy, lovable, and a little bit clueless until he grows up. As Tommy's relationships with Kathy and Ruth evolve over time, I found myself a little taken aback as he doesn't seem like a plausible love interest for Ruth and his romantic connection with Kathy sort of comes out of nowhere. (This doesn't count as a spoiler. First rule of dramatic stories: two girls + one guy = love triangle)

In short, I really enjoyed reading this book because of its unusual narration and the realness and emotional intimacy that Kathy brings to the story. I liked the morality and existential topics that the book hinted at, but I kind of wish they'd been explored a little more. I have a few questions I'd really like to direct to the author in terms of plot holes, and the flatness of the other two main characters took away from the story somewhat, but I would still recommend this book to most people.

4/5 stars
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Apr 20, 2016 Heather rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016, pageturners

I saw the movie adaptation of this book several years ago, so I already knew the ultimate end that the Hailsham students were facing. I think that if this bit had still been a mystery I might have liked it a little more. However, most of what I didn't like was the constant navel-gazing and the tone of Kathy H. "telling it like it was" and how she knew exactly what all of the nonverbal communication meant between her, Ruth and Tommy, and everything that was understood without being said. (Maybe I ...more

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Mar 11, 2018 Amy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a story of friendship, love, and loss, and (more importantly) what it means to be human.

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Jul 06, 2015 Colin Gooding rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 05, 2019 Jillypenny rated it really liked it

This was an unsettling and unusual book. Kids are raised from birth for a specific thing. It is a look at adolescent and adult relationships in a weird time and place.

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