Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

48 reviews

heatherb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

schmitzy_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Trafficking

sarahshaiman's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Overall, Never Let Me Go is incredibly well written and deserves the praise it received. At times, I found the novel painfully slow but those moments just made the reveals throughout more satiating. Others have said this in reviews, but it is best to go into the book not reading any reviews or anything regarding what the book is actually about.

The science-fiction twist came as a total surprise to me for that reason and I don’t think I would have enjoyed the book as much knowing that it was a dystopian novel. By far, the most satisfying and refreshing aspect of the book is that the science fictiony aspects are tangential to the plot. The book is more about the relationships between the characters and Kathy's reckoning with her past in the context of their lived reality, rather than their lived reality driving the hero's journey.

 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual content

nialiversuch's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Infertility, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Confinement, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Infidelity

ayesharahman's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Chronic illness, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Trafficking, and Terminal illness

nepheloma's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This is a very interesting book that I personally interpreted as an allegory for the course of life.  The main question it focuses on is: why do we do anything if there's no hope, or at least nothing more than this life, in the end? It's basically a reflection on the absurdity that characterizes our existence through the experiences of three very, very human characters. They are all very flawed, sometimes even to an aggravating extent, but I found it kind of comforting how openly their flaws were explored and how they kept being connected, not despite these flaws, but even alongside them.

What I personally realized through this book was that we keep on living life because that's the core of our humanity: to create and to exist, no matter how absurd our existence might really be. We're not different from the students at all -our existence is a path straight towards death, just like theirs. But we keep carrying on, because what matters is that we live until we die.

I think that the only thing that I didn't enjoy very much was the writing style of this book. I do understand that it is designed to reflect that the story is told orally, but I found it repetitive. Sometimes, there was foreshadowing that was too obvious or even repeatedly mentioned, which made me feel that the set ups the writer wanted to create were a little not too strongly built. At times, I also found the narration somewhat emotionless, especially in the beginning of the book, but even though this bogged me, I have to admit that it did contribute to the general morose, yet hopeful, atmosphere that the book had.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

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