Never Let Me Go
It’s hard to review this book without going into spoilers, so I’ll save that for the jump. The book is basically about kids who go to a priviledged English boarding school and their life from childhood to adulthood. It’s told in the voice of Kathy, the narrator and the story is revealed through flashbacks and memories.
For a while, I was bored by the formulaic way the plot is revealed: Kathy mentions an event, but has to tell the whole story leading up to the event before speaking of the event again. After a few chapters, I just grew to accept it and the book got much better, especially when more of the plot was revealed.
I’d classify the book as mystery, a little bit of very lite sci-fi, and social commentary. I don’t know if it’s because I had an inkling of what was going on during the first few chapters of the book or what, but there’s always a fog of dread going through the whole book, even in the happy childhood chapters.
I liked the book, but it might be too scary or depressing for other people. It wasn’t scary in the way ghosts or killers are scary, but scary in how real it could be. It even had a hint of dystopia without being too removed from reality.
Spoiler-filled review after the jump
Right before reading the book, I read an article about scientists making the first human clone. I thought, “Wow, that’s cool” at the time, but now after reading the book, I’m kind of scared about the direction that takes.
On one hand, I felt happy that the kids at Hailsham had such a priviledged and happy childhood that most kids wouldn’t have. On the other hand, I felt sad that they were so indoctrinated from childhood about who they were that they didn’t see that they weren’t exactly free.
I kept wondering why the donors and carers wouldn’t just run away and lose themselves in society, but I guess being told what you were and what you were made for from birth tends to screw with how you think about your life.
While that sense of dread I talked about went through the whole book, it wasn’t till the last few chapters that the book got really depressing.
I really liked how the book has a dystopian setting without being too sci-fi or too removed from reality. It wasn’t till the fact that they were clones was specifically stated that it really seemed to branch from our reality.