Reviews

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

theveryslowreader's review

emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

The book at first was really slow and boring, but towards the end it starts to pick up and it absolutely devastating in a peaceful way. I enjoyed how quiet the book was and how the author was able to make such a sad and angry impact on the audience in such a delicate way. How he questions humanity and what it means to be human. Truly one of the best books I have read this year.

ohhluisa's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

stabilesero's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I thought I'd love this for the sci-fi element, but it was actually the characters and their relationships I fell for.
Tommy was most certainly my most favourite, Ruth my least; but there were still likeable things about all the characters. This hits the mark more on the characters, their personalities and their interactions than what it does as a plot-based novel yet I still adored it.
The sci-fi element did come through, more so towards the middle and end. I did not see the ending coming, I almost cried.
It's another one of those books, alike Handmaid's Tale, that you could see happening in the future. And I really hope we see sense enough to follow Hailsham's example than the grim alternative.

ales_di12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

chaetrain's review

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

found the premise of the book pretty interesting and i liked the slow revealing of what was going on but overall wasn’t moved by the characters, slowness of the plot, or the writing style- kind of bored tbh!!

rhia_reads's review against another edition

emotional reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

3.75

mdlukasik's review

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

devon_stangland's review against another edition

emotional 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

3.25

lonelyasfranz's review against another edition

1.0

Just a lot of pointless, boring rambling that’s supposed to be insightful but is plain and unrelatable. Little suspenseful crumbs are dropped every few chapters to keep you going, and then a ton of dry, unsurprising information is dropped at the very end. It’s the literary equivalent of plain oatmeal. If it had been honest about exploring the characters and less teasing with the science fiction aspects, it might have been good, but it just goes on about event after event, describing them with no emotion. Each one leads to another, no more meaningful one. A character’s death is described with less feeling than a character buying a tape. They didn’t feel like individuals so much as plot devices carrying us from one mundane scene to another. And because they didn’t feel like anything more than cardboard cutouts, nothing they did felt logical. It just went along the way the author wanted it, with no reasonable explanation. And it can’t be argued against because we don’t understand them at all.

notinventedhere's review

emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25