Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Klara and the Sun

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

105 reviews

amsswim's review against another edition

emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This one was very sweet. You read from the perspective of an "Artifical Friend", a robot that accompanies children. I really loved how Klara interacted and saw the world. As well as how her perspective lacked context entirely sometimes, but had too much in other points. I would love to know more about the larger world the story takes place in, but it didn't matter to Klara so it was not in the story. It felt like a sweet, nice episode of Black Mirror (those are rare though). I'd recommend for science fiction people and those who like light science fiction.

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sarah_pvd's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

couldn’t really get into it but really wanting to pick it up again at a later time - i just don’t have the capacity to sit down and take my time with it, as i mostly read while commuting atm

update: finished it and still have mixed feelings. i didn‘t connect to it emotionally and the characters fell flat for me. my favourite was Rick, i wish he was featured more. Klara as a narrator was really sweet though. as the book is written from Klara‘s perspective and she is trying to navigate the world and get an understanding of human emotions, i often struggled to follow her description of some scenes and found myself rereading passages quite frequently (those boxes??). that was probably intentional, as you as the reader are meant to try to follow her thought process. nevertheless, it irritated me. pacing was incredibly slow and the ending felt super unsatisfying and rushed. the themes and ideas are pretty interesting but not explored enough. what exactly happened with Sal? what is Paul‘s life like living with the „outcasts“? it just felt really surface level. all in all a rather tiresome reading experience that did not live up to the hype for me, unfortunately.

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ninahuynh's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

Artificial Friend, or AF, are the thing of this world. The concept of having an artificial entity aid humans has been a point of discussion in various books and films. In this case, Klara, an AF, was purchased to be Josie's companion and ultimately <Spoiler> aid her mother in the grief process that is to come when Josie eventually passes from her illness. While the summary says that the book explores the question of "what does it mean to love?", I think the crux of the story lies more upon how far would one go for love. While an AF, Klara of course has a more mechanical demeanor to things than her human counterpart; however, that does not mean that she is any less human in the way she keeps her loyalty to Josie. From the moment they promised each other in the store to the moment

Josie leaves for college,

Klara expression of 'love' to her human friend is comparable to that of the humans in Josie's life.

I would also say that this book opens up discussion for artificial intelligent/artificial friends' self.

If Josie had not pulled through and did die from the illness

, how would her mother's demeanor towards Klara change? Would Klara still be able to be Klara after 'becoming' Josie for the mother? Would it be a simple reboot or is there something more complex that would need to take place?

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kelsea's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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mirandyli's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A Black Mirror-esque story about the loneliness that comes with artificial intelligence.

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martasshelf's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was my first Kazuo Ishiguro book and I knew nothing about him or his writing. I picked this one because the resume on the back sounded interesting.
I think I liked it overall but found it boring and weird for the first two thirds of the book.
Almost at the end of the book I looked up some reviews and realized this was just the author's style. Some descriptions given by our narrator - Klara - had felt weird for me and I even wondered if my english, not being my first language, was failing me... No, I was just reading a robot's kind of mind.
If one enjoys slow paced books this will be a great choice. And the themes are pretty universal.

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