Never Let Me Go

By Kazuo Ishiguro

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes “a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist—a moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 5, 2005
• ISBN: 9781400044832

Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro nació en Nagasaki en 1954, pero se trasladó a Inglaterra en 1960. Es autor de ocho novelas –Pálida luz en las colinas (Premio Winifred Holtby), Un artista del mundo flotante (Premio Whitbread), Los restos del día (Premio Booker), Los inconsolables (Premio Cheltenham), Cuando fuimos huérfanos, Nunca me abandones (Premio Novela Europea Casino de Santiago), El gigante enterrado y Klara y el Sol– y un libro de relatos –Nocturnos–, obras extraordinarias que Anagrama ha publicado en castellano. En 2017 fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura.

Reviews for Never Let Me Go

[jeeps-4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The only reason this is getting two stars instead of one is that it is well-written, from a technical standpoint, and it kept my attention (if only in the way that I couldn't wait to get it over with rather than putting it down and not bothering to pick it up again). I found the characters very difficult to care about, essentially because they exist and behave in complete service to the literariness of the novel. There are three main characters: Kath, the narrator, who is somewhat of an amorphous nothing, personality-wise; Ruth, a classic toxic female friend, whose manipulations I had very little patience for; and Tommy, the only character I found both unique and sympathetic.

I took issue with many things that came and went, but aside from the characters, the thing that was prevalent throughout (and I will try to avoid direct spoilers) was that I could not believe these people would let this be done to them, or would willingly participate in the system of it. Not in the aghast way of being shocked at some strange human behaviour; I mean that the author utterly failed to convince me that these people had any reason for accepting what they were expected to do and endure and be. Somehow I don't think his intention was that the characters be seen as less than human, but that's exactly what they became to me, since one would have to sever some very basic elements of a character's humanity for this to be acceptable (either to the characters or the reader). This can be done either within the text itself to make it believable to the reader, or the author can simply pretend people aren't the way people are in order to say what he wants to say, and I believe Ishiguro did the latter.

Perhaps this is because I'm missing something from the first part of the book, which takes place at Hailsham. Kath tells us about having a sense of always knowing what its students were meant for, that it was revealed gradually to them in a sort of oblique manner so that when the truth is told to them point-blank it's rather anticlimactic. I think this is meant to pass as an indoctrination, but it simply doesn't work. While the Hailsham students' upbringings have an element of strangeness to them, the fact is that they are still growing up with a certain western sensibility that encompasses individuality and autonomy and all the things that make a person not feel like they're, you know, oppressed. In the end, Hailsham is a quirky boarding school, and if I was meant to be especially disturbed by it, it failed spectacularly.

In less of a fundamental disagreement with the premise and more a narrative note, I quickly lost patience with the way the story skips around. It often intentionally gets ahead of itself and then goes back to explain past events, which I have no problem with in principle but could get so convoluted here that a few times, I literally thought the author had mixed up his timeline.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to enjoy this book as it was recommended to me by a senior student who declared, "It's good. It's really, really good". Unfortunately, I can't agree with her. Whilst I thought the concept was compelling and downright disturbing - cloning and the farming of humans for their vital organs, the plot itself was a huge disappointment. I kept expecting something to happen but nothing ever did. What could have been a fabulous story about the social, moral and ethical issues surrounding medical science was nothing more than a dreary, long winded story about three children growing up at Hailsham and their romantic love triangle which had little, if anything, to do with the dystopian setting of the book. There was something fundamentally lacking throughout, maybe it was emotional depth. I wanted to feel anger and sadness and horror and disbelief, instead all I was doing was wishing this book would hurry up and come to an end. I found Kathy's narration dull and unimaginative. Her memories jumped all over the place and her repetition of various words and phrases was irritating. In fact, I found none of the characters likeable. Even the ending, which should have had me in tears, failed miserably.

[belgrade18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An odd story set in a slightly alternative universe, where the English are still very English but they also have farms where they raise children whose organs they can harvest when need be- and the organs are always needed, and the children all die painfully. The narrator, who is one of the donor children, overthinks everything, so that gets annoying at time, but overall it's beautifully written and laid out. But very depressing and creepy.

[breic-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting book, but I didn't find it compelling. The writing is a bit slow, but it is also misleading. At first, the way the narrator talks around the subject makes it seem like she's hiding something, and there's going to be a big reveal, or a twist ending. But this is not a thriller. Thanks to heavy foreshadowing, the reader will have realized any revelations within the first chapters. The twist, perhaps, is the mundanity of the story–that there doesn't need to be a twist, because everyone has been suitably socialized and they accept society and their positions within it. Should that be affecting? For me, it wasn't because I'm not sure that much changed in the novel's second half.

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This starts out looking like a straightforward boarding-school novel, but we soon get hints that there is something seriously wrong with the world in which it is set. Ishiguro is careful only to feed us information only through his narrator, Kathy, who is clearly earmarked to become a victim of the bad stuff, but who lacks a lot of the information and self-awareness she would need to make sense of what is going on around her and put it in some sort of context. And she's also not the most articulate of storytellers, frequently stopping and starting and looping back on herself. Ishiguro manages to play his hand quite brilliantly within these self-imposed constraints but it's still a frustrating exercise for the reader to live through. We get to empathise closely with Kathy and the moral issues she half-unpacks, and probably also to draw some (Dickensian) parallels with our own world - it's not hard to think of schools where most kids have even fewer options in their futures than those at Hailsham - but we're left actually knowing very little about the world in which Kathy lives and how it got to the state it's in. Interesting, but not really the sort of book that I'm likely to get excited about. (Which is perhaps why it spent so long on the pile...)

[jscape2000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn't love it when I read it (4 stars not 5). But in the months between reading it and writing this review, I've recommended it to friends several times. It is compact, compelling, and provocative. Very enjoyable.

[anietzerck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm torn. On one hand, I felt that the book was a slow read, and the connection to the characters was always out of reach. At the same time, that's kind of the point, right? They're a bit socially awkward compared to today's standards, and for good reason. The premise is dark and and can haunt you if you think about it for too long. I think what I struggled with the most AND what later has the most effect, is how it feels so calm and casual while you are reading it, and it isn't until AFTER you finished, maybe even days or weeks later, that your imagination and sense of just how wrong this situation is hits you. It stays with you well beyond the last page. You should read it. LOL

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Never Let Me Go is essentially a fictional memoir with dystopian undertones. It’s a coming of age story, and possibly a metaphor for life. Unfortunately, I hardly ever cared about anyone or anything in the entire book.Right off the bat, you know there’s something strange going on in Never Let Me Go. The narrator, Kathy, talks about being a “carer” and mentions “donations.” However, the majority of the book is her reflections on her childhood Hailsham, a boarding school in the English countryside, with her friends Tommy and Ruth.Never Let Me Go is conversational in tone. It feels like listening to a distant and drifting monologue, maybe of one of your elderly relatives who’s obsessed with telling you stories about their childhood. I may be making this sound worse than it actually is. Despite the emotional distance, I didn’t have much of a problem with the way the book was narrated.Actually, the emotional distance was an all over problem with the characters. The main characters never consider trying to change their own fate or even seem to find it unfair. Instead they placidly except their future with a sort of emotional numbness. In a way, it’s interesting and quite probably a commentary on how culture can convince you to accept all sorts of things. On the other hand, it’s baffling that there are no mentions of anyone ever trying to rebel.A related problem is the weakness of the science fiction concept. It’s very basic, and really only exists to provide a framework for Kathy’s life. If you think about it for more than five seconds, there are all sorts of holes (like would people really accept this in the first place?). One of the only things I found interesting in the entire book was the question of the Gallery. At the school, the children were encouraged to be creative and their best artwork was collected into the mysterious Gallery. I had a guess as to what was going on, but I was completely wrong. The real explanation was disappointingly simple.My main problem was that this was a character based book where I don’t care at all about the characters. There’s nothing in the book that makes me like or root for Kathy, Ruth, or Tommy. When the threat of death hangs over them, I think “whatever.” Take dull characters, add a bland plot and zero action or humor, and you’ve got a boring book.Never Let Me Go is literary and probably a metaphor for life. I found it completely pointless, which might actually have been the point of the metaphor. Life is pointless! We all die in the end!Again, whatever. I still don’t care about this book and would not recommend it. Honestly, I’m sort of surprised I finished it in the first place. Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

[starknits_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book I need to process a bit. It's definitely sad and even sick when you think about it, esp when you think about the ethics of human cloning. I kept wanting them to run away.
Don't get me wrong it was a good book almost like you were reading a letter or talking with the author as she lay dying or completing as they called it in the book.
It was hard for me to accept that how these kids/people were treated was acceptable just b/c they are clones. The fact they are just expected to donate their vital organs as other "real" people need them..... Totally sick!
I'm not sure how people would treat clones it's definitely something to ponder
Anyways it was a good thought provoking read!

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I both love and hate this book. There are many unanswered questions, such as why? I also find the passiveness of the characters not realistic; but some have said Ishiguro writes just short of the magical realism realm. There is also no plot resolution. That being said, the provocative language is the plus of this book. It was at times a boring, at times an emotional read.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this, and the best review I can give is this: I still can't believe it wasn't written by Margaret Atwood.

[liscarey · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Spoilers ahead. There's no way to say much about this book without mentioning some stuff that is, after all, clear to even the slowest reader after the first hundred pages or so.

Kathy H. has been a "carer" for nearly twelve years, and with the end of that life approaching, she has decided to set down her thoughts and memories concerning her privileged upbringing in the exclusive and isolated private school of Hailsham, in some unspecific spot in the English countryside.. She describes a fairly typical, genteel boarding-school life, with some important oddities. There is no mention of families, school holidays, life before Hailsham, or contact with the outside world. There is Madame, who visits periodically to collect the best of the children's artwork, which the children assume to be for inclusion in her Gallery. The teachers at Hailsham are their guardians, and the children know, in a carefully vague way, that they are different in some important way from their guardians, Madame, and all the "normal" people in the outside world. As Kathy and her friends, most importantly Tommy and Ruth, grow older, they are, as one of the guardians says, "told and not told" that they are clones, being raised solely as spare parts for real people. Kathy H., with her career as a "carer"—a sort of combination patient advocate and designated emotional support for "donors," clones whose organs are currently being harvested—coming to an end, is about to begin her own few years of donating vital organs until she "completes." (The word "die" is never used in relation to the clones.)

In many ways this is a good book Life at Hailsham and afterwards is beautifully described, exquisitely detailed, touching but not cloying, with a creepy undertone that's fairly effective. Kathy, the passive good girl whose more stubborn or more persistent than she seems; bossy, manipulative Ruth; Tommy, with a temper he can't always control and baffled by some of the social demands on him; these are kids I knew, though I avoided some of them. The problems here are different, and all the more maddening because some of them would be so easy to fix.

I don't have a problem with the fact that Kathy and her friends don't rebel against their fate. They've been carefully raised to believe it's their natural place in life, they're not taught or encouraged to think critically, and they're given very comfortable lives. Once they leave Hailsham, they go to the Cottages—somewhat less comfortable physically, but almost as sheltered, for their gradual transition from students to carers. What does strain my credibility considerably is that, once they're at the Cottages, living with clones raised in other facilities, some of them far less privileged than Hailsham, and able to watch television, read newspapers, and get out into the "normal" world to some degree, the myriad floating rumors don't include any stories at all of any clones having resisted. There is speculation about who they were cloned from, there are daydreams about the lives they might live if they were "normal," there are rumors about "deferrals" that allow two clones who can prove they are really in love to put off the start of their donations for a few years. There are no rumors at all about clones actively resisting or attempting to escape—no romantic daydreams of successful escape, no cautionary tales of failed escape or resistance, no stories of some carer—provided with a car and necessarily traveling around the country without close supervision, in pursuit of their duties—mysteriously disappearing or attempting to disappear. Nothing. Given that the main burden of the book is that the clones are just as human as we are, and are being used in an inhuman way, this is utterly beyond the bounds of possibility. Human beings everywhere tell themselves and each other stories that both comfort and frighten them. It's what we do. It's what distinguishes us as a species; there is virtually no other human behavior that hasn't been found in some form in other species. Human beings who aren't telling each other stories in order to frame and manage the most important fact of their lives are just not credible.

There is also, apparently, no real outside resistance to the fate of the clones. There is a terribly genteel and polite movement of which Hailsham is a part, making speeches, raising money, and creating foundations to raise the clones in more humane and pleasant conditions, rather than the factory conditions that prevailed before Hailsham and other foundations of its type, and apparently still the norm for most clones. But, in the land of the anti-vivisectionist movement, animal rights activists, and people willing to demonstrate and even riot over genetic engineering on plants and the creation of "Frankenfoods," there apparently isn't and never has been any more vigorous movement against human cloning itself—either on behalf of the clones, or out of fear of damage to the human race generally. I harbor no excess confidence in the human race; I see no reason why such a movement would have to be successful. It's perfectly plausible that it would attract nutcases who would do something seriously counterproductive. What I don't believe in is an England where such a movement does not exist at all—especially not since the cloning began in the 1950s, in the aftermath of the end of World War II and revelation to the general public of Hitler's concentration camps. That no such movement ever existed in Mr. Ishiguro's fictional England is another item in the "completely unbelievable" category. And it could be so easily fixed—the Great Revelation that the book slowly builds toward would be much stronger if the "scandal" that did the damage were rooted in a real resistance that backfired badly rather than what it's linked to here.

The final difficulty is Mr. Ishiguro's failure to think seriously about the underpinnings of his fictional world. It's the 1990s, and we've got large-scale human cloning for spare parts going on. It's been going on for decades; in fact, it started in the 1950s. Now, in the real 1950s, we had barely begun to even ask the right questions. It was four decades later that the first successful animal clone was created. We're still finding that cloning is different for each species—Genetic Savings & Clone, a real company, is really offering commercial cloning of your deceased pet cat, but they can't do dogs well enough to offer dog cloning yet. (Next year—they hope.) And not only is the failure rate in cloning quite high; the failure mode is pretty horrific. And even in "successful" clones, significant and life-shortening health problems that didn't exist in the original are extremely common. We're not even close to being able to clone human beings who would live to be born, much less human beings who would live to adulthood and be healthy organ donors. So how does Mr. Ishiguro explain this major departure in the history of science? He credits it to the "great burst of scientific progress" after the war. Oh, right. Sure. Without major differences in the direction of science before that, it's not possible. The least-major change that would provide a fig leaf of cover for 1950s human cloning have to involve Dr. Mengele making several major breakthroughs in the course of his medical experiments. And that brings us right back to the implausible lack of any resistance to cloning humans for spare parts, and now we need to consider that lack in the light of the science of cloning stemming directly from Hitler's death camps and Mengele's experiments. And we don't even have a token, lunatic-fringe resistance to the idea of cloning humans for spare parts? Utter nonsense.

Interesting but seriously flawed.

[margaretfield · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

semi science fiction; children brought up solely to be harvested for parts when they are adults

[novelcommentary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ishiguro's now famous novel is told in the first person by Kathy H. She begins enigmatically telling the reader she is a carer; we then become, like she and her friends were, slowly aware of what this life is like. She reflects back on her days in a special school called Hailsham,(emphasis on the sham), where she and her best friend Ruth vie for the affections of a kind hearted kid named Tommy. The narrative is masterful at depicting the push and pull of friendship/jealousy and in its ability to slowly reveal the horror behind the school's intentions. The idea of knowing without really knowing what's in store becomes the mystery solved by this disillusioned trio. It would be wonderful to read this book without knowing anything about it so I will end here in hopes that this recommendation can find such an audience.

[jlharmon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was weird. I was left with almost as many questions at the end as I had at the beginning. I just picked this book up at a bookstore because it had one of the "employee recommendation" tags. I didn't know the plot. I hadn't seen the movie. I was aware that it was scifi, or at least had something weird going on, but I didn't really know what to expect. Well, this book is even more angsty than teenage Harry Potter, and the boarding school setting doesn't even have the benefit of magic. But it was interesting to see Western culture through an outsider's (the clones') lens. And there were big questions about what it means to be a human, or whatever. I think this book was a little too pessimistic for me. I don't know. This is why I should always wait before reviewing books. It takes a while for something like this to sink in, especially something weird like Never Let Me Go. I can tell this is going to be the kind of book that I think about on and off for a long time. But I also feel like I didn't understand the point. It was written as a memoir of sorts, but, as much time as I had spent inside Kathy's head, I was left questioning her humanity in the end as in the beginning. Takeaway: it was interesting to read, but I'm not sure I changed as a person by reading it, even though I think I should have? Maybe time will reveal the true impact of this book.

[erickas-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I posted this review on Amazon. Even though I hadn't written a review since 2006, I felt compelled do so with this one!

I won't rehash the book's plot - or lack thereof, as some reviewers complain - because to do so would reveal too much that would detract from your enjoyment of the story. The story is mysterious and confusing and eerie, but it's completely captivating. I found that the author dwelled for a long time on seemingly insignificant details, but these details are relevant, even necessary, to understand the characters and how they're reacting to the situation of their lives.
This book may not appeal to everyone, but I was completely enraptured with the idea of Hailsham and what it means to be considered a human being. It's the most introspective book I've read in a long time. I was hesitant to read it after reading so many reviews that said the book was "boring" or "tedious." This couldn't be farther from the truth for me. I usually need plot-driven fiction and cringe at books that center around character development, but this book is original and far from banal. There is just as much story in what is said as in what is not said and it takes some pondering to hash out what your personal take is on what is happening to these children.
I finished the book two weeks ago and I'm still thinking it about it every morning when I commute to work. If you like books that stay with you, this one is the best.

[motorbike_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As I was reading this book I wondered why I was continuing to read it. I did finish it and I must admit that the ending was far better than the body of the book. Perhaps it was that the story was told by the one person Kathy H, reminiscing on the past and putting events together, that made it flat. It seemed to lack a dynamism that a story told forward would have. Nevertheless, the story generated suspense about what was going on, and the circumstances of their lives, that provided much of the momentum of the book. In the end it did highlight the book's basic message of the role of memories in making us human. At the start of the novel Kathy H appears as a successful 31 year old carer that is facing a change in here working life. She starts to tell us her life history to explain how she has come to be what she is. Immediately more questions arise - a carer to whom and for what? Caring for donors; but for what? In the idyllic private school she went to there is no contact with the wider world, no mention of parents or families. Teachers are called guardians. Its all rather mysterious and the situation is slowly revealed episode by episode. This method does give you the perspective of trying to understand the world from the limited amount of knowledge you have and with the skills you have at that age of your life. Its enough to keep you reading but it never overcomes that feeling of dissatisfaction with the story and the writer. There is some sense of Ishiguro's earlier successful novel The Remains of the Day - going over the past and making connections you could have made at the time but didn't and realising how your life was a little poorer for it, but nevertheless, you are here in the present, coming to terms for whatever shortcomings you had in the past, standing on confident ground and ready to move forward. Never let Me Go is not in the same league.

[m_mozeleski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Within the first few pages of this book, I knew who was important to the narrative. I also knew I would probably be crying by the end of it, that there would be feels. I kept reading anyway. The story did not disappoint. It is a beautiful yet brief story. It doesn't attempt anything fantastic or anything that really requires suspension of disbelief, and in fact was very grounded in a kind of solid reality. I had a few hang ups, but those were minor and can be overlooked. In terms of depth, I feel like this book was wanting just a little bit-- I feel it could have gone deeper into the exploration of the societal set-up and what it really meant, but what was mentioned was very well-handled and relevant to the plot, so I can't complain too much.

The tone of this book is very conversational, like the reader asked the narrator a question and the book was the answer. Absolute genius, and never once did the style take me out of the story.

I highly recommend this book. 5/5. The feels will get you in the end though.

[foof2you · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A disturbing book about children whose life is never really their own. I found the book slow and the end not really complete. I seemed to always wanted more and found I got less.

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Dithering between 2 and 3 stars. I read this because I heard the author on the radio and he sounds like a really nice man, and he is obviously well regarded. However I was pretty disappointed. You can guess the direction and the central point of the book as soon as the word 'donation' is used - which is page one. So no mystery there. He writes well but it's pretty repetitive and the tone never varies. Yes the protagonist is looking back, from a single point in her life, but you'd think her mind would be a bit more than a dull monotone. The worst problem is that he does not construct a world that is believable in any way and even within the bounds of what he does construct you keep yelling at him that the characters wouldn't behave like that. And the worst worst problem is that there is no politics. You can't center your book on this issue and get away without that.

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A moving, suspenseful literary-science fiction tale of innocence, regret and lost love. Not as disturbing as some futuristic literary fiction such as Oryx and Crake or The Handmaids Tale but I loved the way Ishiguro unwinds the narrative slowly, detail building upon detail until the whole truth is laid out bare. I felt a real sense of loss and tragedy over the characters' wasted lives and lost potential for happiness and meaning in their lives.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Atmospheric. Partially freaky when u think about it. Heartbreaking. Spooky. Goosebumps

[reneepaule · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm not going to say much about this book, but WOW ... what a powerful, thoughtful and insightful way to think about what it means to be a human being.

[kplatypus_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd like to follow in the footsteps of so many others here, and avoid giving any kind of plot synopsis, since I do agree that the book works better the less you know going in. I liked this book, but it left me feeling a bit . . . blah. The style of writing worked well with the characters and concept, but it left me not caring all that much about anyone in the book. Don't get me wrong- the story itself is very moving, but somehow, I couldn't ever quite forget that it was just a book. For example, I noticed that the author/publisher had chosen to use an usual font. The choice worked, and was interesting, but I found myself drifting back to thinking 'what an unusual font choice' during the book. A few scenes were really beautiful, and moved beyond that barrier- the ones relating to the cassette, in general, did that for me- but, as a whole, I felt like something was just missing. Like this could have been an amazing book, if it just had that one more thing. The same feeling as you get when you're cooking, and you can tell that the sauce would be perfect if you could just figure out one last spice that it needs. You know?

[dlitwack_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book has been inappropriately characterized as science fiction. It's not. The author neither explores nor explains the technological foundation of this mildly dystopian world. Nor, I believe, was that his intent.Using a haunting, first person point-of-view, we see the greater tragedy of three young characters, Kathy (the narrator), Ruth and Tommy, through the smallest minutia of everyday life and interpersonal relationships. The mystery of who they are and how they are different is sprinkled throughout the book, so that we only understand their situation near the end--and then never fully. Backstory is delicately bled out through the story, starting with the initial, unexplained reference to "carers" and "donors." This approach maintains the reader's curiosity despite the widely publicized premise (I'll try to avoid spoilers, not an easy task).But the mystery and world building are secondary to the success of this novel. As the author said in an interview: "There are things I'm more interested in than [the technological foundation].How are they trying to find their place in the world? To what extent can they transcend their fate?"These are universal questions that transcend genre. What's the greatest difference between scifi and speculative fiction? Scifi explores the limits of the possible? Speculative fiction changes one or two elements of the world as we know it to highlight some aspect of the human condition.Never Let Me Go does this so well that that it's mood will follow you for days after finishing and the story will come back in your dreams.

[richak_34 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book that completely shakes you!! I frantically searched for the song "Never Let Me Go" only to realize that is also fiction! So u realize Ishiguro had created a completely fictional world so skillfully that you are completely convinced of its verity and are so involved with the life of the protagonist. So when the world completely crumbles at the end of the book you are left bereft with no comfort, not even a title song that you were made to believe existed!!

[barbora8m · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Definitely THE book. Great story, interesting characters (not the "good" or "bad" ones), great setting.

[akmargie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Always wonder when I watch the movie before reading the book how much it changes my experience good or bad. I liked the movie so much I wanted to read the book. The movie was very faithful to the story so I knew what was going to happened so I think that took away some of the emotional punch. It's still a very well-written book about growing up and changing but also in a larger sense of place in the world especially when society had a rigid and inescapable structure. Still highly recommend both the book and movie.

[whitebalcony · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliantly written. I couldn't put it down. But a disturbing topic none the less.

[jessicastatzer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Never Let Me Go has so much potential. Sadly there is no twist, no climax, no unexpected ending. The characters go about life as it is mapped out for them. I wanted so badly for them to rebel or attempt to make their own path, to no avail. Never Let Me Go leaves you asking "Is that it?".