Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Never Let Me Go

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

56 reviews

modrinkscoffee's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.5

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phantomgecko's review against another edition

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challenging sad slow-paced

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

4.5

First off, it was kinda funny to me how much this mirrors Remains of the Day. Narrator driving across the country and reminiscing. Otherwise, it was more interesting, but also didn't affect me as much emotionally. It totally should have; it just didn't.

This book really takes a very sci-fi idea and delivers an entirely un-sci-fi book. It's a novel about humans and relationships and emotions and only marginally breaches the ethics of things.

The dynamics and feelings captured between Cathy and Ruth resonated a lot with my personal experiences in adolescence. Cathy was a lot more kindhearted than I would be though. I couldn't stand Ruth as a character. Wanting so badly to be liked and important, lying about dumb things, purposely manipulating those around her. I know those people and dislike them, so it was kinda hard to see Cathy giving in over and over.

Perhaps the lack of emotional response stems from the closure offered. Yes, for real, the doomed lives of these children was sad. It's a depressing setting. But by the end of things, things had basically gone as well as they could have. There wasn't a heavy "if only" looming over them. So kinda a happy ending, tbh.

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lilifane's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

This book centers around a really interesting topic with lots of possible discussions... in the most boring and unimpactful way possible.

I usually like literary fiction with speculative elements, but I was really bored here. I liked the school setting at the beginning, and I was intrigued by the premise (never surprised, though. I think this was all obvious and predictable) and some details and questions. But I really didn't like the characters, their toxic friendships and relationships, their boring everyday problems when there was such a huge thing looming over everything. The writing style was fitting but didn't contribute much to my enjoyment of the book, same as the bleak and depressing atmosphere.

I'm really glad I read it, though, and I'm still interested in the author's other works.

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jestro's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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indrabindra's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Narration style in reflective memory. Intimate social interactions foreground, societal conditions and context background, revealed slowly and intensely. Brilliant & fascinating experiential read. Beware: does not give the warm and fuzzies.

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