A review by theres_claire
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

God, I love this book. Emotional, dark, reflective, character-driven - all good things as far as I'm concerned! 

Never Let Me Go follows the unwinding memories of Cathy, focusing on her relationship with Ruth and Tommy, through school, early adulthood and their time as carers and 'donators'.

Minor spoilers ahead! 

What I loved:
  •  
    I adore science fiction that's very grounded. It's a world that feels so similar to ours, maybe even a bit closer to something we would recognise from the past, but there's one sci-fi element that has changed everything. The sci-fi elements are explored and unveiled so well throughout the book.
  • Thematically, this book explores heavy topics. It asks what exactly makes humanity, what makes someone human, what's equivalent to a soul. What I love most about it is it doesn't force an answer, it never moralises at you, it just gives you the space to explore these characters and through these characters come to a conclusion about their humanity.
  • The characters are fantastic. Cathy's POV voice is clear and specific, but Tommy and Ruth too feel so real. They're intensely flawed people and they regularly hurt each other, they're regularly thoughtless about each other or selfish about each other, but you can feel how much they love each other and how intensely close they are to each other. I found them so compelling and beautifully written.
  • I personally loved the writing style, the way events unfolded slowly and the feeling the prose evoked of being in a classic coming-of-age novel.

What you may not love:
This is a 5-star for me; I loved everything about it, but there's definitely elements I can see being not for everyone!
  • The pacing and structure. This is a slow-moving story and it unfolds mainly as memory. Like real memories, Cathy's point-of-view tends to slip from one thing to another fairly tangentially. She'll be remembering a conversation she had with Tommy in childhood, but then something from a later time in their teenage years will be relevant and she'll go through that and then back to her conversation with Tommy. I loved this style it felt like real memory, but I could see it also being frustrating.
  • The ending. This is absolutely a sad ending, and not in a bitter sweet, maybe hopeful sad way. Just unapologetically, hopelessly sad. If you hate a sad ending or have to be in a particular mood for it, leave this one!

I loved everything about this book!
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