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Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

Start date: February 1, 2025

Finish date: February 28, 2025

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What Members Thought

Apr 03, 2012 Franky rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. As other reviewers have attested to, this is a difficult novel to write a review about without giving away spoilers. Therefore, be forewarned that there are major spoilers in this review.

I was wavering on what exactly I thought of this book until I finished the third and final part, which sold me on the novel. Some reviewers didn’t like the way the novel didn’t have that “twist” or “wow factor” at the end, but I didn’t think that was necessarily the point or important. When you come down it, th As other reviewers have attested to, this is a difficult novel to write a review about without giving away spoilers. Therefore, be forewarned that there are major spoilers in this review.

I was wavering on what exactly I thought of this book until I finished the third and final part, which sold me on the novel. Some reviewers didn’t like the way the novel didn’t have that “twist” or “wow factor” at the end, but I didn’t think that was necessarily the point or important. When you come down it, the novel essentially questions what “being human” is, and the subsequent ethics of treating “clones” as less than human. Kathy’s struggle with very human emotions as she witnesses the fates of those close to her, and finds out the information behind Hailsham.

Kathy’s style of narration was distracting at first. She has a chatty, conversational tone, as if you are sipping tea with her as she speaks. The problem with this is that she tends to throw these nuggets of information about significant future events at you, and then drifts off to describing something in the present, leaving you frustrated. The jumpy narrative is for a purpose, however, the picture of this world is slowly being revealed to us, just as it was to Kathy.

The first part of Never Let Me Go establishes the society Kathy and her classmates live under at Hailsham. Kathy meets two classmates, Ruth and Tommy, and develops a friendship with them. Guardians oversee the students, and there is a push for the students to create art. One of the guardians, Miss Lucy , comes to Hailsham and seems a bit different than all the others. One day she reveals to Kathy and the others a bit about the real fate and nature of their existence and purpose, which puzzles them. From here, the second part focuses on Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth’s lives at the cottages and the rivalries and friendships they build. As Kathy has conflicts with Ruth over the relationship with Tommy, as well as their world, she begins to reflect on possibility of being a carer. The nature of Kathy’s position as a “carer”,which she alludes to at the beginning, isn’t completely revealed until the third part, and we see the significance of why she is telling us her story. As a “carer”, she has a job that requires sacrifice and the essentials that a “human being” must have to deal with pain and loss.

There’s a certain level of bleakness within Never Let Me Go, but it is still a fascinating and refliective read, one that examines a scary world where clones are exploited for their organs, deemed not human and devoid of a soul. While there’s certainly a backwardness about how the outside world relies on the vital organs of clones to subsist (irony in that, cruel as it is, it is deemed necessary and humane for the “human” world), I wouldn’t exactly classify the novel as sheer dystopia. Never Let Me Go is presented in a quiet, reflective way, and, because of that and it’s first person narrative, it’s more poignant revelations are in the book’s final pages, and makes one think about this society for some time. Therefore, I don’t think anyone should give up on the novel, as the final revelations make up for some confusion in early going. I know you can’t judge a novel on simply one passage, but the final paragraph of this novel is quite moving and powerful, and pretty much puts into perspective the entire moral of this book.
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5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2015 Shawnie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, library, scifi

2.5
I hadn't realized I watched this movie years ago. Depressing. ...more

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Aug 25, 2013 Michelle rated it liked it

Good book...great perspective!

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2011 Roshio rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopian

As much as I loved this, I definitely will not read it again as I cannot see myself wanting to jump into that book and relive all the experiences. And thats the brilliant thing about this book, you just really really get into this world Kazuo Ishiguro has created, you can almost taste it. Its not exactly an original idea, but its done in such a different way.

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Aug 14, 2018 Beth rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-read

A beautifully written, evocative and quietly devastating novel. The understated narrative and the gently unfolding truth pack a gut punch I rarely find in fiction these days.

Read it, without spoilers or knowing too much about it. Just find yourself irretrievably sucked into the world of these characters and go with it. It is a moving and unique experience.

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