Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

\Alright, where do I begin? Well, this was a tedious novel to begin with because the pace of the plot was rather slow…if you are the type of person to read a few chapters and put it aside because it bores you, then this will be the type of book that you will most definitely give up on during the beginning. Here, I will warn you, do not put it aside. The story will slowly entice you as it gets more fascinating while the plot slowly reveals itself. When I read up to PART 2 of the novel, I literally stayed up all night trying to finish the story. You know the feeling where you tell yourself when you will stop reading after the next chapter, but then it leaves you hanging and pondering even more so you must finish the following chapter…and then the next? Yeah, well that’s exactly how I felt when the story started piecing itself together. Kazuo Ishiguro is a rather talented author that wrote Never Let Me Go in first person narration, using Kathy as a character. This was an ingenious idea because there was almost no bias inflicted upon me since Kathy is a passive and calm narrator, allowing the readers opinion to show. As a result of how she is not opinionated, this also lets the readers step into her shoes and experience everything she had been or is still going through…which is very tough.

I must say I hated this book at the beginning, but as the story progressed and grew, my emotions grew with it, thus I felt strongly connected to the characters. This novel will teach the readers what is morally right or wrong and how being wilfully ignorant will have future consequences.

Here is the summary of the story: Kathy, who is thirty one years old, lived her past at a boarding school called Hailsham, which was secluded on the English countryside. This acted as a barrier to prevent every student, as people liked to call them, from entering into the real world and learning about what is happening out there. Kathy gets separated between her two childhood friends, Ruth and Tommy, as they all finally grow up, but when they all enter the outside world and somehow begin to renter into one another’s lives again, they can’t help but to look back upon the past. “And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham.” –Goodreads. As the story unravels and the truth behind their past is told, it is hard to not feel any connection to the characters. That is my little blurb without trying to reveal too much of the story or to give away too much…but I must say, this book is filled with love, romance, friendship, and childhood, you would not want to miss. A rather fascinating read towards the end, which was totally worth waiting for. Enough said, here is the trailer:

By the way, Kazuo Ishiguro is also the author of The Remains of the Day if anyone is interested.