Book Review: Never Let Me Go

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Page Length: 288

Summary from Goodreads: As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special--and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

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I will be honest, this book left me pretty blank. Normally I feel really happy/sad/or angry when I finish a book. I felt nothing after this one. It was almost like I hadn't even read it. And then I found out it is a movie with Kiera Knightly. What!? I don't understand. I can think of a million books that are better to be turned into a movie. But whatever. This will contain spoilers because if you haven't already read it I don't think you should and therefore I will let you know why. However, if you want to read this book (why???), don't read this review. 

Here's what I liked about the book:

1. I liked Kathy and Tommy a lot. I HATED Ruth. Ugh that girl. Too bad I didn't read this before I did my characters I hate post. She definitely would have made it on to that list. That being said I enjoyed reading these characters. 

That's it. I don't think I really enjoyed much else. 

Here's what I didn't like about the book:

1. You're literally confused for the first half of the book on what's even happening. Then you start to clue in and find stuff out but you can't even be surprised. And then it ends. Nothing happens. Well, nothing super interesting or important. 

2. I couldn't even tell when the book was set. 1970s? 2070s? Sometime not in the 70s of any millennium? I vote 1970s but it was still weird. Maybe it was harder to relate to because I'm not from England? I don't know. 

3. What is a carer?! Someone who sits with people when they die? From what I could tell they have no medical training. There are nurses and doctors mentioned and they are not them. 

Basically. You're cloned off someone, typically a low person in society. Prostitutes and drug addicts seem to be the norm. You're created to die. You get to live a little. Take care of other people while they're dying. And then you get to die. What!? No. This is dumb. The moral if you will of the story is that they're created to cure the world of major diseases like cancer and heart disease. And this is important. Also, you see some dynamics of people not wanting to deal with the fact that they were basically playing God and creating people willy nilly to then kill. In theory the use of clones like that could be an interesting read, but to me this book did not deliver.  I was disappointed about this book for 2 reasons. 1. I had seen other people who had read this book and really liked it, so I assumed I would too. LIE. 2. The summary has the words special and gift to describe them. I thought they would have like cool superpowers or something. SPOILER, they don't. 

Maybe I'm being too harsh. I mean I didn't necessarily hate the book. But it will definitely leave my memory soon and it will be like I didn't even read it. My advice: Skip it. Read something else. Something better.