Reviews with content warning for Grief - Klara and the Sun

• Melancholic sci-fi novel that focuses on what it means to be human and what it means to love. Other topics covered are class struggle, workers being replaced by machines, religious devotion, how grief is processed, bullying, mental illness, and, most interestingly, the way parents can push their children to the point of illness or even death in the name of a good education and secured future.

• Although it is a dystopian novel, it’s not one that is very different from our present day world.

• The narrator is an AF (Artificial Friend), a type of solar powered humanoid robot. She is exceptionally perceptive and very good at reading people’s emotions, but she has an extremely limited frame of reference. This limited frame of reference is a result of simply having been to few places and, being an AF, not having the same cognitive processing as her human companions. So as readers, we are told about how people are feeling and what they are doing, but WHY they are doing it is a mystery to Klara. Why they are experiencing the emotions are often completely unknown to her. As the book goes on, she become better at interpreting why, but she never really reaches a point of knowing how to respond.

• I found Klara to be very relatable. I can see clearly what emotions people are feeling, but why they are feeling it is often out of my reach. And although I try to be perceptive, I, like Klara, seem to be missing a point of reference that everyone else has. As someone with autism, this felt very relatable.

• Despite the interesting social background, the focus of the book is on interpersonal relationships.

• I thought Klara was an endearing narrator and that the characters had depth and were complex.

• I found that Klara’s formal narration did not take away from the emotional impact of the novel.

• Notes: not everyone will enjoy this novel because of the almost stilted style of narration and content warning for

child death and illness

Content Warnings

sophieduncan's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

booksjessreads's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

So I did really love this in some ways, but in other ways, I wanted more from it. It wasn't as engaging and certainly much more slow-paced than I was expecting, but nevertheless an interesting read.

I love how we were told the entire world from Klara's perspective, and that had both its ups and downs, but an overall interesting perspective. Klara was honestly such a wholesome AF and I think she had such optimistic views of the world that really made me feel for her. The ending for Klara in particular was quite bittersweet and it did pull on my heartstrings a little. I think having things from Klara's perspective also meant we missed a lot of the detail in regards to the dystopia that they live in. The dystopia, and the circumstances as to why AF's exist, as well as the whole 'lifted' trait, is never fully revealed and you only can infer from what Klara tells you. Whilst this does leave a lot of room for you to explore what you think is happening, it also makes it sort of frustrating.

I think this was the main thing that made me mark it down, coupled with its lack of engagement (for me personally), I found that I was left wanting so much more from the society that Josie and Klara live in. However, I will say that the plot twist surrounding Klara's existence was pretty juicy and from when you find this out, it does get quite interesting and picks up for sure, but this isn't until around the 200 page mark so be prepared for it to be slow up until then. I think another slight disappointment for me was the way things ended for Josie.

I just didn't like how Josie was hit by the rays of the sun and miraculously got better super quickly. Unless I have not read that right, I didn't like that rushed recovery for her and such a lack of explanation as to how she actually got better.

I feel like a re-read of this will make me feel a bit more engaged and perhaps I will get more of the references and foreboding of what is to come. Overall, Ishiguro wrote a very interesting novel and I would still recommend it.

Content Warnings

catastrophic's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Did the same thing as Never Let Me Go but not as well. Plot was a bit weird

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literarylion's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

Pros:

Ishiguro never misses, in my opinion. His ability to evoke strong emotion and establish fascinating dystopias is unparalleled.
Vivid description (not wordy or purple, but established through the lens of the narrator) and strong voice make for a compelling read.
The pacing is perfect.

Cons:

Josie and Rick's relationship is very similar to Kathy and Tommy's in Never Let Me Go, just with a different (but still sad) ending. I would like to see Ishiguro expand his interpersonal repertoire a bit
Went just a chapter or two too long. It would have been more powerful to me to end after Josie is healed by the sun

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nstew16's review

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hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

I think I would really like to reread this book before I'm able to settle on exactly what I experienced as a reader.

It was very well written, the characters were well developed, and Klara was the perfect flawed narrator. The ending was bitter and realistic, and I think it was told perfectly.

I'm excited to read other books by Ishiguro.

Content Warnings

steviaplath's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

beccaand's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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