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emmagreenwood's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Genocide, Infertility, Abandonment, Ableism, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Murder, Slavery, Child abuse, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Trafficking, and Death
caitlin_123a's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Bullying, Ableism, and Infertility
danicakvcs's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Chronic illness, Medical content, Death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Infertility, Blood, and Body horror
issyd23's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infertility, Medical content, Torture, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Terminal illness
izhjia's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Medical content
Moderate: Ableism, Trafficking, and Medical content
lindseyhall44's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Never Let Me Go follows Kath as past relationships are rekindled, leading her to remember the significant events of Halisham, her old school. Through these memories Kath begins to learn more about the dark truths hidden throughout adolescence, but also truths about herself.
For me, the writing style and formatting are what made the book so unique. Told in 2nd person and non-linearly, readers are only given surface level information until the resolution. Ultimately, this helps cultivate a mysterious mood and makes the payoff more worthwhile.
Still, some elements of the confusion made it difficult for me to follow, which is why I rated it 4.75. The ending was phenomenal and quite a tearjerker, but in a few cases I wasn’t as invested as I would have liked to be.
No shame on the author however, as writing a book is incredible on its own, especially one creative as Never Let Me Go
If you like gradual sad books with character driven elements, this is for you:)
Graphic: Terminal illness, Infertility, Confinement, Medical trauma, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Ableism and Sexual content
skudiklier's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, and Infertility
Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Cursing, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, Torture, Suicide, Sexual content, Slavery, Murder, and Medical trauma
Minor: Infidelity, Vomit, Terminal illness, Stalking, Sexual violence, Mental illness, and Drug use
nialiversuch's review
- 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
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Infertility, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Confinement, Death, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Infidelity
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
As a dystopia it’s quiet, the disturbing details coming in drips and drabs with a sense that Kathy as a narrator assumes the reader knows the system already and so is only paying attention to find out what her place was in it, not to learn what it is altogether. The narrative style meanders in time in order to be mostly clear in thought. It’s not linear, sometimes frustratingly so, but it was usually easy for me to follow because each bit of information is told based on its relevance to some other piece of the past. It has the disconnected quality of a long reminiscence while being generally understandable.
Several of the characters were pretty unlikeable. I enjoy sometimes reading something where I just hate a main character so I had a good time, but Ruth is a consistently unpleasant person for much of the book, and I wish Tommy had room to be more his own person. That said, in a story about how none of them get to be their own people in a larger sense it works really well, but if you're irritated by it early on you should know it doesn't really get better.
Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Ableism, Excrement, Homophobia, Suicide, and Violence
CW for discussion of suicide, major character death.queenfury's review
- 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
"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."
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