Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

70 reviews

jonsnowsmanbun's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Medical trauma

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

minxtte's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, and Infidelity

scruffie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

queenfury's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

"It had never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders."

"Maybe all of us at Hailsham had little secrets like that--little private nooks created out of thin air where we could go off alone with our fears and longings. But the very fact that we had such needs would have felt wrong to us at the time--like somehow we were letting the side down."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Confinement, and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, and Ableism

aqtbenz's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Bullying, and Medical content

v171's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I shouldn't be surprised that this book absolutely blew me away. Ishiguro's "The Buried Giant" was my favorite read of last year. But despite this being completely different in tone, it was just as powerful and thought provoking. I couldn't help but feel like the plot was a solid contemporary fiction story in a horrific sci fi, almost dystopian setting. I've never felt such rising despondence in my heart as pieces of these students' lives are revealed bit by bit. But while, in many ways, it was heartbreaking, the story is one of friendship, forgiveness, and love. This is truly masterful storytelling from beginning to end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, and Medical content

catol's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Medical content, Infertility, and Grief

I took this book to empathise with child laborers and the clients of their labour. It made me reflect on my views of humanity, how to take action. This book was a personal insight into being born in a situation where your future is a second thought and comes after you have escaped the system that ties you to poverty, unless you donate all the labor you have to give until you die. This book gave an insight into the atrociously inhumane treatments neoliberalism has created. I understand

Madame's fear and distance, being afraid of touching Kathy's cheek. Just as I may struggle to understand a 12 year old suffering, me knowing that he would not have my future of possibilities

this book is hopeful

sfbookgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I knew from this first page that this book was going to be good. Ishiguro’s writing blew me away and I enjoyed spending time with the story’s characters. I was specifically looking for a book about a boarding school, and Never Let Me Go is an appropriate choice. I found the second half of the book to lack a distinct plot, but the story wrapped up well. I think readers who enjoyed this one would like A Little Life, even though these two stories have completely different plots and settings. 

 

Never Let Me Go is about a woman named Kathy who reminisces about her time spent at a boarding school in England called Hailsham. Initially, it is slightly unclear, but the reader is told about halfway through the book why these children at Hailsham are so “special” (sorry no spoilers). The story is part sci-fi, part literary fiction. Most importantly, it tells the story of a woman and how the community she created as a child has shaped the way she lives today.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Medical content

gagne's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Posh "children" who become posh "adults" and remain the same flavor of blandness over the length of the entire novel. Perhaps would have enjoyed more with a better sense of suspension of disbelief.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, and Medical content

sophieduncan's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Bullying