Book review: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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From Goodreads

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Dayand When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.

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★★★★★

I don’t think I can properly articulate how much I loved this book. There was just something about it that has stuck with me. You know those books that you get completely invested in? You can’t stop thinking about them, and you read them whenever you have spare time, and you don’t want it to end? This was one of those books for me.

I loved the writing. It’s really interesting in that Kathy will mentioned something (an incident, a person) and then say “but we’ll get back to that” and keep talking about whatever she was before. It’s very conversational, but you rarely read it in books. I really enjoyed it and thought it shows how good of a writer Ishiguro is.

I also loved the story. It’s such an interesting concept, and I was completely invested in what was happening. It was all wrapped up very neatly and there were no loose ends, but there was still enough of a mystery for you to want more (which is my favourite kind of ending). I just thought it was so great.

I honestly don’t have anything negative to say about this book. I just completely loved it, and I highly recommend it.

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A fairly short review today! Have you read this book? Are you going to? Let me know!

Thanks for reading! xx