My take is that this book is not about clones at all, but rather that we all need a narrative structure to ground our existence into moral structures within which our actions make sense, structures within which we matter. Clones, with their limited life spans are ultimately concerned with hope, that's the core of their motivations, that there is hope, or at least a reason for reprise or delaying their fate. On a larger scale that is the reason for our own fears and concerns with life. Even meeting the principal and hearing from her own mouth that there is no hope, no reason, no excuse, they still press on, knitting new reasons and justifications, its their life after all. Even while she was dying, Ruth is described as searching for something inside, an excuse to delay the inevitable, a reason, then we are shown a memory of her as a 5 year old and playing with imaginary horses, keeping them, naming them..I don't think I ever sobbed out loud while reading a book until I read that part. The big reveal by the principal near the middle sort of mimics the way science debunks our own conceits of divine origin or purpose, which doesn`t really stop us from finding a purpose for it all, from knitting our own little dramas within which we play a central role. Well, I thought it was a sweet, important book, I enjoyed your rant nonetheless :)
I think you criticized the book on what made it special. It's not some other science fiction novel that pulls you in by shocking you with dramatic description and tension (although its a very dark dystopian concept). The book is written completely in Kathy's perspective in a way the way that it is written as though she is actually choosing the words Ishiguro writes. She avoids using the word clone because it hurts her too look into herself like that, as she does not wish to see herself as born to die. This is why she spends hours talking about her relationships with her friends rather than choosing to talk about how important it is to find her 'possible', which she searches for in the magazine's intently. She does not wish to touch the subjects which heavily affects the pace and writing style to an arrangement which may not please the average thrill seeking reader
You bring up good points about why the book was written the way it was. It's a different style of Sci-Fi/Dystopian and that seems to split its readers' feelings: half of them really enjoy it and the other half have feelings like mine.
Thank you for taking my opinion, I agree that the chosen style overrides many things people look for in dystopia: so perhaps it was a let down in some ways.
I disagree with everything you said :D. Here are some of my responses to your discussion/rant. I got really carried away but I never really had a chance to discuss this book before LOL First of all, the book literally tells you the years it is set (1980s-90s) right at the beginning. I wasn't bored by the way she talked about her friendships at all. I love character focused books and I'm not a fan of sci-fi at all. I would not have picked up this book if it was heavily in the genre. I feel like people classify it as such because they don't know where else to put it. About Ruth, Tommy, and Kathy. Tbh I wouldn't really call their situation a love triangle. None of it was written in a romantic way. Kathy's feelings never really were stated, everything felt very factual about the way she spoke. I know in the movie, they played up her feelings for Tommy way more than in the book so I don't know if that's clouding your judgement at all. As for the characters themselves, yes Ruth was unlikeable but I didn't find either Tommy or Kathy to be. I thought they were very well developed characters, each with growth. Kathy and Ruth's growth was more subtle, yes, but it was there. I found the confrontation with Miss Emily and Madame to be devastating. Unlike the movie, which is depressing and colourless from the beginning, the book has a lot of happy moments. This girl is growing up and has her own world. They build up so much hope and then to have not only their hopes crushed but to know how clones are seen by the world is so upsetting. They are well-rounded characters with their own dreams and interests and hobbies but they can't do anything about them. They will die. They have no other choice. It is this absolute defeat, this complete lack of hope, and the fact that schools like Hailsham won't actually continue to exist that destroys Kathy and Tommy completely, moreso than the actual donations. To me, the book just made me think about humans in general, how much we dissociate from others, how we dehumanize entire groups and civilizations. Never Let Me Go wasn't about sci fi or world building, and I'm glad for it. I didn't feel like it needed it. We know that cloning was made possible after the war, we know why institutions like Hailsham fell. It was really all we needed, in my opinion and it's rare to have so much character study in this weird world (dystopia within a utopia?) The book was about PEOPLE. And that's what I like to read about and I loved it.
Faryal S It's hard to say you like the book or not. I love the way all.the sadness be expressed, not in an intensive and sudden way, but a way which is slowly but strongly. Although i hate their attitude towards the problem they faced. Why don't they fight? Why Ruth don't even try to persuit the life she want, sitting in the office behind the glass window. Why Kathy never try to express the feeling about Tommy? Why the young couple in the cottage don't try to fight for crossing the line to let people kbow they want different liives not.just deferral. All of them, they can get together to search for the new end of the story if they tried.
The book is very clearly made for people who don’t like Scfi and therefore have never known that the most poignant moral messages come from this genre. It gives people who snootily deride sci-fi and “out” to actually enjoy the concept. There is nothing new in this book at all, except that it’s written in the most boring slice of life memoir way possible. If your life is super fucking boring and the concept of hearing gossip 3 parts removed is interesting to you, this is the book to read.
I really enjoyed the book, mainly because from my own experience being of the smallest minority within the United States... I kind of understand that feeling of living in a vague, controlled society. Watching everyone else in the world go about their own business, while never really having much control over my own. The history to me doesn't matter, the world building to me doesn't matter. Because no one else in this society really asks why they never see Native American's in their lives, and when we do appear. A lot of people don't want us to be there, in their perfect world. To remind them of past crimes, or to make moves to get historical land bases back. I've had teachers speak to me like the way Lucy spoke to Kathy and her class. Telling us that we had no future, because we would all become addicts, die in violent ways by family members or accidents. Become teen mothers and never become "productive citizens". That on some level, we were regarded as inhuman by non-native teachers and farmers and people we encounter in the border towns. That's what the book reminds me of anyway, and the movie scene where they awkwardly order things off the menu... That was me at one point.
First thing first, the subtle atmosphere was what makes this book unique...so you won’t be able to completely appreciate this book if it was being “obvious” . The scattered pieces of Kathy’s memories were a revelation of the most realistic part of what it is to be a human, the bright side as well as the dark side. Learning from Kathy’s memories allow us to slowly places bits by bits together and finally get to the truth, which I think it was intriguing and the beauty of Ishiguro’s writing that it just draws you in and provoke a lot of thinking along way. There was a Sci-fi element in this book but it certainly wasn’t the focus of the book at all, I guess putting it under the genre sci-fi was misleading, if you come in and expecting a full on sci-fi novel and thinking “cloning” was the focus well you didn’t understand the message behind the story at all and indeed you did waste your time. The characterisation, the subtle atmosphere and the way the writer portrays humanity by describing the absurdity behaviour of Hailsham students were the most important and beautiful elements in this book.
Also the way that information is unveiled very intentionally makes sure that you understand without understanding. It intentionally forces the reader to take the journey with the same sort of psychological mindset as the children growing up. You know their fate but you don't fully understand what that means just like the students. It's really brilliantly written. Especially because so many different people who has so many different takes from it.
I think most reviews on this amazing book kind of miss what I believe to be the true and important point of it: The contrast between logical behavior in their micro world and the absurdity of it all from a macro perspective. Imo this does not only refer to these specific characters but to all of us. We all think we have good reasons for our daily behavior, and it all makes sense to us - go to work to earn money, buy things because we believe to need them etc. etc. By this we explain our micro worlds and make sense of it, however, as a society we destroy our planet, fight wars and create so much absurd misery. We often fail to translate our little understanding of the big picture into action in our personal environment, just like Kath fails to translate her understanding of the system into protest. Showing this inability and how it is incorporated into our lives, is the great gift carried by "Never let me go"!
I just finished the book. I think I enjoyed this book for the reasons you disliked it. I loved the narration of Kathy H, and the vagueness of the society and history. I think if Ishiguro gave us more plot and explanation, then it would be a completely different story. I enjoyed the over analysis of the scenes, and I think this is one of those story's that offers the reader so many questions about life, society, and relationships. (Spoilers) The scene with the Madame and Miss Emily at the end I found very important. It was different than the movie. Miss Emily is revealing such important elements of the plot and characterization, while at the same time shows us her own character as she is anxious and appears to care more about her wood cabinet that she is trying to sell for a good price. The absurdity of it! lol Anyway, I've read books about clones escaping and trying to survive, and uprises in dystopian societies. To me, that plot line in Never Let Me Go is secondary.
Haha! I did find it boring at times too (and I didn't like the characters either), but somehow I didn't hate it. I expected to love it, but I didn't do that either. Just meh.
I'm so relieved, I thought I was the only one who didn't love this book. I can't even keep track of the instances I mentioned to someone I didn't enjoy this book and they looked at me like I murdered their baby. And I have enjoyed slow burning, "plotless" books many times before so it wasn't the fact that it wasn't fast paced that got to me, I just didn't enjoy almost anything about this book: the characters annoyed me when I was supposed to empathize with them and their condition, the setting was too underdeveloped for my taste and the writing style didn't immerse me into that world, I often found it quite manipulative. I loved the concept of the book and the themes it was trying to bring out, I just didn't like the way it was done.
I didn’t like it either. I thought it was really boring and like it was being made up as he went along. It’s a cool idea though but wasn’t executed that well in my opinion, love Remains of the Day though.
I love Kathy's narration style because it shows her way of thinking and seeing the world to be a result of her growing up in such a controlled, sheltered environment, separate from the 'rest of the world'.
Thank goodness I am not the only one. I HATED this book and genuinely felt baffled that so many people list it as a 'must read'... I really don't get it!
The way of writing is actually ishiguro's style and all the little stories are important for further analysis of the characters and the way life was for the clones.
I Loved this review! Here's why. I finished reading 'NLMG' a couple of hours ago and it left me in a rather bleak and unhappy frame of mind. I decided to come to TH-cam and see what other readers had made of it, and this review really cheered me up. I loved this reviewer's take because is shows how two people can read the same book and come to conclusions so utterly different. I smiled through the entire 10 minutes, hardly agreeing with a single word - but at the same time loving every comment. I could easily imagine the author having the same reaction. I say that because (this may not be a common view) I think, despite the overall tragic story of the Stevens character in Remains Of The Day, Ishiguro must frequently have laughed as he concocted Stevens' view of events and their meanings. I think despite the seriousness of his books in general, Ishiguru appears to have a very acute sense of the ironic and would therefore enjoy this unusual critique of NLMG - just as I did. The students did not get parental quality affection from The Guardians so they were desperate to keep hold of each other. Incidentally whilst thought Cathy was the most likeable character at the beginning, I began to feel as things reached a denouement and reality encroached, she was the one who was most thoroughly the prisoner of her conditioning to accept and obey. In many ways, I thought, she was just like Stevens in her inability to think outside her rules and conditioning. Of the Ishigurus I've read (NLMG, Remains, & Klara) I feel NLMG is the most unremittingly bleak and without hope. PS. It is always a mistake to see the movie before reading the book.
The book very clearly says at the start that it's England 1990s. Obviously alternate reality we can surmise as the story progresses. Think you missed the point of the difference in the lack of rich experiences of their lives because of how they are forced to live as not really people.
Man, I'm sorry you didn't like this book! I understand why not based on what you thought the book would be. I guess depending on your expectations going into it, that could change how you see the book. I absolutely LOVED it because I thought it had a lot to say about friendship and memory and most of all yearning for a life you'll never have, which is one of my biggest struggles in life, and one of Ishiguro's main thematic interests. I love all his books for this reason. I, however, had not seen the movie, and was stunned by the sci-fi twist when it came, so I was mostly reading it as literary fiction with a random sci-fi twist at the end, so my expectations were ENTIRELY different.
I deeply love what other people would think of as "boring", quiet, slice of life books. If there's one thing I couldn't care less about with books it's plot.
Sounds like this book was the perfect fit for you! Your crowd was why I had high expectations - they loved it for its themes and embraced the pacing but I was hoping for something a little more.
I think having zero expectations going in to this book would work better. It's kinda difficult to go through the first 100 pages if you have seen the movie already. But if you have no idea what the story was about, then Part 1 would be more enjoyable. I love this book so much. I would definitely recommend it to friends.
Sci-Fi doesn't always mean spaceships and aliens. I was expecting a bit more on how society got to where it was, harvesting clones. Also, if you look at the genres listed for the book on Goodreads, Fiction is first, followed by Sci-Fi. I'm not being unreasonable.
Society doesnt matter because it's a metaphor for things in our life we do not control. (Thats why no one in the book even mentioned any form of resistance) The clones were sentenced to death just like all of us, and they invented some vague story that one can be saved through art and/or true love by an authority just like human beings invented similar stories aka religions.
everything you had against this book left me saying... "thats the point" everybody is different and we all like different things but I think mostly you just didnt get the point of this story. particularly if you saw the movie and based any expectations off of that. none of the sci fi elements matter. its just a story about how life passes you by and youre left at the end of it reflecting on all of your experiences no matter how mundane they might seem. kathy is a tragic character who ultimately accepts her life despite having regrets and not being about to "let go" of her memories. all of the characters are flawed, but in realistic and complicated ways. its a character study, NOT a sci fi story about clones...
I understand the point (at least now, if I didn’t fully then) as it’s been a number of years since I read the book and uploaded this video. It’s safe to say this book just wasn’t for me.
So, you're saying you thought the book was fun and it turned out to be dark, depressing and lonely? Since, you know, it's about children cloned for organ harvesting. Who could have foreseen it? You heard 'boarding school' and 'three kids' and 'bits surreal' and confused it with Harry Potter? Maybe stick to New Yorker bestseller lists of famous people-turned-writers and YA. And it's pronounced 'kazoo-oh..
I haven't had a condescending comment in a while! Woohoo. Hmmm, well, I never thought it would be fun. I knew the general story line before reading, but I didn't enjoy how the story was written - it wasn't for me. I find it amusing that you're trying to insult my reading tastes when you obviously haven't looked at the other books I've reviewed on this channel. Thanks for gracing my comments section with your presence.
I agree with the original poster. I just finished the book this evening and it profoundly touched me. This book may not be for everyone, my wife also found it a bit boring, but the reason I feel you have been responded to with such passion/disgust from the original commenter is due to the way it does touch some of us. Which can, of course, be said for many books and pieces of art that touch this or that part of each’s own soul. The reason it touched me, was the way that it ended in that Kathy (she irritated me as well at times, very much so) though she felt glimmers of emotions that we in the real world feel, somehow, after all that happened, and all she lost, she was still unable to let go and let it out. Tommy was able to in the screaming field scene, but then he just gave up. There was never even a thought to fight back. This is just what it is for these beings. They don’t know anything else. It speaks to the brainwashing that takes place all over the world of children (think African warlord or the whole ‘Kony’ thing) they have never known anything else. “This is it, this is my destiny and there isn’t a god damned thing that can change it so god forbid I even think it to be different.” I want there to be an uprising, which would have been predictable and cliche, yes. But there simply just wasn’t. The book just ends as it began with things going on as they have. It’s about the middle of the road individual within a profound circumstance who sees things through a cloudy lense - just almost clearly, ever so faintly - almost pieces it all together; but then realizes it’s too late and so simply “f**k it, it’s fine.” The ending made me tear up, thinking about how many circumstances this applies to my own life, the things I’ve seen, and the thoughts of circumstances all over the world. It relates to those things - to me anyway - in a very intimate way.
Yeah, it did become a rant, didn't it? Thanks for sharing how you felt about the book. I get the idea the movie might have spoilt it a bit for you because as someone who had no idea there was a movie until after I finished reading the book I came into it with a complete blank slate for expectation. It started reading like three kids in a boarding school house and I nearly lost interest, but then the little hints about who or what they were started to kick in and got me intrigued. And I never came into the novel expecting the sci-fi element at all because a)the cover of my copy, which is not at all sci-fi but literary in nature, and b)the novel really keeps those elements to a minimum. I do agree that Ruth is an unlikeable character and annoying because of her interference between Tommy and Kath. The sense of frustration over the relationships between the three for me are tempered by the regular reveals and mini-cliffhangers at the end of each section; it didn't bother me that the sci-fi was really a thin veneer for the real themes of friendship and life purpose in the frame of short lives, and the acceptance of the life they've been taught to accept as normal. I can understand if some don't find the happenings interesting because frankly not a lot happens that is that dramatic or spectacular. But you have to take the novel on what expectations it creates in itself, and what it promises from the start is a subtle slowburner of friendships between institutionalised humans trying to find significance in their own floundering way - not sci-fi, not action or rebellion against clone creators, no, those ideas are deliberately not made important because they were never meant to be. I think to enjoy the book you have to throw out any ideas of the 2010 movie altogether and take the novel on what it did suggest it would be and not what you demand of it. Kath's voice is intriguing to me because it is imperfect and to me a little lobotomised, and I found myself trying to work out from the details she does remember what actually happened. Her voice creates the sense of someone who is off in a way I can't place, and with each reveal I'm trying to place the things that led to their reality. She is intelligent in some respects but socially stunted in others, insecure and desperate to keep Tommy and Ruth as her friends without fully getting why Ruth is manipulating her. I was surprised at how well Ishiguro could get a girl's voice and thinking because it was doing my head in the same way it does my head in when I try to understand girl thought patterns - real or not, it impressed me. I do have some questions, namely, why they never really even thought of fighting back and trying to live forever or running away. Their total resignation or acceptance of their lives as clone donors is probably a comment on their conditioning at Hailsham, and an indirect comment on ours. I also wondered what the nature of those donations were - a kidney? Stem cell multiple organ growing? I understand they weren't important but their sketchedness left me wondering. Ishiguro has said that the uprising and questioning of the system were never his concerns, rather the way we don't question them, so fair enough. I don't quite agree the idea of cloning was danced around. Between talk of possibles, Kath's search for her own face among the porn mags to explain her sexual promiscuity, and at least 2-3 mentions of the word clone, it was subtly hinted at, enough to know and not too much that it would overtake the main themes of friendship and significance. Not everyone will like this book, I can see that. You don't get the upbeat ending but it does for me have that effect of being satisfying and uncontrived. It left me wondering about the nature of their transient lives and how one can make meaning in lives that were deemed from the start to be less then human when they obviously were human. And numerous other thoughts that are hard to put into words.
Ohh yesss! I agree with you on this hundred percent. Also, there was so much repetition on few words....like i literally skipped to next pages. Kathy used to talk about sex for ten times in one chapter that it made me lose intrest in sex. Duh. And the word hailsham....Oh God....how many times more do we need to read that wordddd???? Horrible writing. I hated it nd i used to fall asleep after 5 pages literally. Just Let me go😫
I ABSOLUTELY AGREE, i have to read this for school and my god is it hard. The writing style is ridiculously dull, Kathy is just plain annoying and the way the narrative is presented is unbearable. The way every story breaks up into another story ends up making one feel restless and there's just no pay off. Really don't like this book.
This is a book about MOOD. If you don't have the inner mechanics to revel in a book that creates mood, then naturally you will focus on the characters and pace and the information given.. but that's not what makes this brilliant. It's the mood.
Yes people who dislike the book get the mood. But some people need more than just mood to enjoy the book. I need more substance than just a specific mood to enjoy a book although mood is important and enjoyable as well.
I AGREE WITH THIS WHOLE VIDEO. THIS BOOK KILLED MY SOUL! Jeez I died like 10 times while reading. 288 pages took me 18 days!!! Kathy was so bad, and the writing was so annoying and very hard to follow at times. It was so bad how I was expected to remember a random person, like 100 pages after they are mentioned! And all that branching off every time she had to say something. Also she was NEVER sure about the course of events ("how I remember this happened..., but Ruth says otherwise"). Ruth!!!! RUTH! I wanted Kathy to call her out so BAD! She was so mean! UGH, Really didn't like this book.
OMG! my review for the book is scheduled for tomorrow and I'm laughing so hard at your video because I also go into a rant in my video. 😂😂 I was so bored reading it, even though I knew I should have DNF'd it.
I think that the reason we don't find out much of the 'interesting sci-fi' element in the beginning is because the book is taking the reader on a journey through the loss of innocence, just like Kathy experiences as she moves through her life
I just finished this book last night and was relieved to find a negative review because everyone on Booktube seems to fawn all over it! I think I agree with pretty much everything you said. (For your comment on the clone thing, I was skimming the Reader's Guide that came in the back of my copy, and they quoted Ishiguro saying he wished people wouldn't focus on the clone part so much. THEN WHY HAVE CLONES BE A CENTRAL PART OF THE BOOK?!) Ruth...why was anyone her friend? I had someone exactly like her in my peer group as a kid, and reading about her made me almost viscerally angry remembering how adults rarely stopped/corrected the behavior. I wanted to shake Kathy and be like, this girl is not your friend! Also, while I know this is more literary, the lack of development of the donation process prevented me from truly suspending my disbelief. It seems like the clones function as humans, so how do they donate vital organs and still live? Do they get some sort of shoddy replacement? If the clones are seen as non-human, why not just terminate them all at once and harvest all the organs in one go? That seems way more affordable and logical. And that stupid "twist" with the "Gallery" at the end. I had a feeling from the start the art was to prove the clones had souls, and it was so frustrating when that was exactly the twist. (And I had no knowledge going into the book of what the story was at all.) Even if I can guess a twist ahead of time, I still want the reveal to be satisfying or add some additional information. It's too bad because I think the book explored some interesting things. The ideas of death and how you live your life within the parameters set by society are good, but why weren't they explored in a more entertaining way?
This is such a refreshing review, I agree with everything being said - frustrating format, unlikeable characters, and worst of all just so boring. This book is part of our English course in school meaning we’ll have to go into painful detail over a long time and I can’t even bring myself to finish the book so I’m not looking forward to any discussions 🙃🙃
Oh I really resonate with this video. I am currently around 150 pages in and it is soooo boring. I mostly see high praise for the book though and I really wanted to like this book but it's a drag to finish. It's enjoyable to see someone who dislikes the book too I always love a good rant about a book, show or movie.
Thank you for your honest review! I've taken this off of my TBR list, there are too many really awesome books out there to read, I don't need to read any so so ones. The reviews on Goodreads are either love it or hate it, from your review I think I would be in the latter category :)
Sounds like you need some homework help. I read this too long ago to provide any real insight (and I've since given the book away). You'll have to keep searching for help because I can't provide any, sorry!
I doubt u enjoy literary fiction as you claimed. ..this is a beautiful book. You missed the point that it attempts to humanize the ‘clones’ with Kathy’s intimate narrative. I would give 3 stars out of 4.
Oof -- I've known Becs more than half my life and even I wouldn't suggest she doesn't know her own literary tastes. If you are looking for a review of this book with the entirely opposite perspective to hers, I'd suggest mine on this channel! -Les
Thanks for your emphatic critique. I just finished listening to the audio book. I picked it up because I loved his latest book ' The buried Giant'. I do like his way of writing, this book is a pleasant read in the beginning. He is good at taking a magnifying glass to details and miniature moments. I could relate to most of his descriptions of living in a boarding school. I have been in several myself. These institutions provide enough horror and nightmares, without the author having to plop on this sickening, twisted, but weakly explained undercurrent of kids being cloned and raised to be organ donors, doomed to die at an early age. I also feel the characters of these women/girls raised without 'real' families were badly developed. They act almost like 'normal' people, which makes no sense. Male writers should stick with their own gender and not pretend to know about females. I felt cheated as I had to keep guessing and guessing. In the end this book left me feeling sick to my stomach. If he wants to explore the reality of death, which we are all facing at one point or another, he could have more honest about this topic. But perhaps that was his point, that we are all pretending it will never happen and waste away our lives thinking about silly, superficial stuff instead. (Like writing a review.)
Calling something boring is weak criticism. Next time, explain the mechanics that didn’t work for you cuz it’s amateur to say “I didn’t like it cuz it was boring.” Yawn.
I agree with the vid. The mechanics are this: passive protagonists, low stakes, banal interactions between characters, bland narrative voice, etc. Simple question: what do Kathy/Ruth/Tommy want? (Apparently not much) and what do they do to pursue this (even less!)?
great video! luckily I bought never let me go on ebook so it wasn't expensive but it doesn't sound like my type of book at all. I only bought it because I heard only great things but I might check it out
I agree with the pacing, it's a slow book, the sci-fi element, well, it's there but I would not consider it a sci-fi novel. Here's my take on it: You figure out they are clones pretty early in the novel, so that's not really a huge mystery. But then again, it doesn't matter that Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth are clones meant to be harvested for their organs. That's incidental. The theme of the novel is death, and its inevitability. These clones are stand-in for normal humans that experience the exact same obstacles. One of them being Time, and how there's never enough of it. You can try to deny it, you can hope and bargain and rage, but one day you will die, and there's no escaping it. This novel explores that very universal theme using a different setting. It also has bits of platonic philosophy sprinkled here and there, but maybe that's just me over interpreting.
THANK YOU! I agree with everything you've said. I was so frustrated finishing the book. If Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize with this quality of literature, the committee should send prizes to more competent authors like Oprah gifting cars. 🙃It just doesn't make any sense for Kathy to casually read War and Peace or The Odyssey as a pastime while being completely oblivious and unreflective of their absurd situation as clones. Rather than discussing how the characters perceive their shortness of life or how love and mortality affect humans as the author claimed in interviews, the book instead focuses on petty relationships and teenage jealousy. Such a waste of material!
Where's the music in the beginning from? It sounds like a song I know th-cam.com/video/ot3rnyMoPpQ/w-d-xo.html except this song came out in January and yall have had the intro for a while
The book has a concept I could get behind, but the writing, world and characters ruined it for me. I can enjoy slice-of-life-type stories just fine, and the story brings interesting things to the table, such as questions like: Do we have a soul? Do things we create have one? How could we figure it out? etc, but the author doesn't even seem to do much with anything except for teenagers' sex drive, which is honestly not something I enjoy reading.
I loved this book, really well written and the charecters were incredibly real and human to me. I like that the science fiction takes a back seat and it focuses more on people.
OK, I am 100+ pages into this book and I am about ready to give up on it. I watched about 3 minutes of your review and agree with you. I am finding this book so boring! Also, I don't care for the main characters and don't particularly like them. I will watch the rest of your video and then see if I can get through the rest of this tedious book.
It's refreshing how passionately you seem to loathe this book. :) I do however not feel the same. I just finished reading it yesterday and think part of the reason why it was so slow was because I already knew the movie and therefore I already knew all the things that actually happened. The story is not mainly about what happens to Kathy, but how she feels about it now everything is over. Kathy is a coward, but she is sweet and forgiving. Ruth was a real bitch, but that turns out that's because she was afraid to be alone and irrelevant. Tommy never hides the way he feels and is constantly taken advantage of. The way Kathy tells her story was like it was not for the one who's reading it, but purely for herself. She regrets a lot, the things she would have done differently, the lack of time she had with Tommy, the way she and Ruth competed.. I guess it's not interesting, but I do find it beautiful. Maybe it's just me identifying with Kathy, because I tend to overanalyse situations and people as well.
i'm reading it for school right now and i FEEL you. i couldn't empathize with really any of the characters and I thought that was just me! I've been tearing through it waiting for something to happen and yet, nothing has happened yet. Dear God.
I wasn't impressed by this book at all, by the end I lost all interest in the story... I found it bizarre as Ishiguro is the author of one of my favourite books, The Remains of the Day!
Look , if a book takes you two months to read - then don't bother, whereas you say most 300 page books you 'blew through' (rather like an intersection) then just keep blowing through your novels....and maybe 'fess up that you finished this book just so you could dump on it.
I read the book 7.5 years ago, so a little hard to say exactly what I was thinking then. Many people want to share when something annoys them. Maybe I should have put the book down... but I also wanted to give my thoughts having actually finished the book.
Yup. I agree totally. Pretty boring, nothing much ever happens except inconsequential small talk. Like a poor man’s Handmaid’s Tale with a big missed opportunity not discussing the dystopian cloning part
Haha thanks for your review, it made me laugh. I definitely enjoyed the book more than you, but I also picked up on a lot of your criticisms in my review video as well. I actually quite liked Kathy mentioning lots of different characters - I think that's kind of what it's like when you're at school, there's just a lot of people who are only vaguely interesting to you. But yeah, Kathy overanalysed a lot of things and I also didn't like how much she directed the narrative, as you say, 'I'm going to tell you this, and now this, and now this'... urgh no that was really annoying. I thought all the characters were dislikable as well, but I thought that made them a bit more real and lifelike. I wish I could have been in Ruth and Tommy's heads for some of the timeto see why they acted the way they did, eg. why was Ruth always so mean? Why didn't Tommy act in a different way? Like, why was he dating Ruth if he knew he should have been with Kathy? Doesn't make sense. Love triangle was annoying. Why was this is a plot device. No. A good friendship would have been way more moving in my opinion. Haha this comment got really long but yes, I'm glad I'm not the only person in the world who had criticisms of this book haha :)
Thank god there is another one who doesn't like that book! I had to read it for school and I read it within 4 days, not because it was so amazing but because I wanted to come to an end with it. I thought some parts were just some fillers so the book wouldn't be only like 20 pages, because I think this is the amount of text that would be really "needed" to tell what is going on there. The rest is just some talking about things that aren't important at all, for example this thing with the pencil case or all this talking about how they dealt with s*x, my god I DON'T CARE! After reading that I don't understand why so many people love this book and I probably had not finished it if it wasn't for school. (sorry if my Englisch isn't perfect, I'm from Germany :))
Your criticism isn't really with the book, but moreso with how the book didn't fit with your expectations. This obviously isn't a valid criticism with respect to the quality of the book. You wanted a Hunger Games style dystopian book where as this is more of a slow burn character/society study. I think if you had read this book without any prior knowledge of the plot or preconceived expectation, your experience would've been different. Just by way of example, take your odd desire for them to use the word clone. Words as descriptors play an important role in how this story unfolds as it does. As the reader you are given information in drips (through very clever storytelling devices). Using the word clone would spoil this experience because you do grow with this novel. That word carries with it a lot of societal/ethical baggage and the author was wise to stay away from it here. Your anger is understandable though because you deprived yourself of a very, very beautiful story by learning the twists beforehand.
I enjoy slow literary books with annoying characters BUT this book failed in every way possible in my opinion. People go to all these mental acrobats to prove how exceptional it is but really, I’m surprised I even finished it. I don’t hate boring stuff but this one is just pointlessly boring, the writing is shitty( Deliberate or not), couldn’t care less about the characters(and I really wanted to, especially Tommy)
I did not read that book, but the issues you have with 'never let me go' I actually have with 'station eleven'. Of course the story has some interesting elements, but the book's pacing is so unbelievably slow, nothing really happens. Yes it has all the flashbacks, and they are slightly intetesting, but during the '20 years later' segment literally nothing happens. It's like reading a reality show. Everything that happens does not really matter. I did not care for the flat characters either. The book has been a disappointment to me, I don't understand why so many people love the book that much
I've read Station Eleven as well and I can understand where you're coming from. However, I did find the writing and general feeling of Station Eleven to be much more enjoyable. I would steer clear of Never Let Me Go, it's much worse!
I agree 💯. This book isn't what it promised to be, and THAT'S why it gets a poor score from me. There was nothing to care about. I was interested in clones, sci-fi, dystopian world. But it just didn't build on that. It was a diary and a memoir of a person who did nothing significantly remarkable, even gir a f**king clone!!!! 😡
In other words, give this one a miss. U look like u need a Horton's coffee. Cheers for Canada! How do u feel about your home & not quite native land these days?
Agreed, top 10 most over-rated books .....not just boring, first 80 pages very poorly written. Margaret Atwood might have turned this into something more engaging, but this is just a very average book.
I do follow you on goodreads, and I was anticipating this review/rant because I realized there was someone else that didn't like this book. It was boring, Kathy had such a weak voice, and despite all of her analyzing, she didn't seem very perceptive. I trudged through it also, and when I was done, I felt like I had read a 1,000 page tome.
I know I'm 8 years late but wow, you didn't understand that book at all lol You missed the entire point of it !Maybe you should read it again now that some time has passed
I believe this one just really wasn't for me, which is why many commenters think I missed the point. Too many books out there to re-read something I didn't appreciate!
My take is that this book is not about clones at all, but rather that we all need a narrative structure to ground our existence into moral structures within which our actions make sense, structures within which we matter. Clones, with their limited life spans are ultimately concerned with hope, that's the core of their motivations, that there is hope, or at least a reason for reprise or delaying their fate. On a larger scale that is the reason for our own fears and concerns with life. Even meeting the principal and hearing from her own mouth that there is no hope, no reason, no excuse, they still press on, knitting new reasons and justifications, its their life after all. Even while she was dying, Ruth is described as searching for something inside, an excuse to delay the inevitable, a reason, then we are shown a memory of her as a 5 year old and playing with imaginary horses, keeping them, naming them..I don't think I ever sobbed out loud while reading a book until I read that part. The big reveal by the principal near the middle sort of mimics the way science debunks our own conceits of divine origin or purpose, which doesn`t really stop us from finding a purpose for it all, from knitting our own little dramas within which we play a central role. Well, I thought it was a sweet, important book, I enjoyed your rant nonetheless :)
I think you criticized the book on what made it special. It's not some other science fiction novel that pulls you in by shocking you with dramatic description and tension (although its a very dark dystopian concept). The book is written completely in Kathy's perspective in a way the way that it is written as though she is actually choosing the words Ishiguro writes. She avoids using the word clone because it hurts her too look into herself like that, as she does not wish to see herself as born to die. This is why she spends hours talking about her relationships with her friends rather than choosing to talk about how important it is to find her 'possible', which she searches for in the magazine's intently. She does not wish to touch the subjects which heavily affects the pace and writing style to an arrangement which may not please the average thrill seeking reader
You bring up good points about why the book was written the way it was. It's a different style of Sci-Fi/Dystopian and that seems to split its readers' feelings: half of them really enjoy it and the other half have feelings like mine.
Thank you for taking my opinion, I agree that the chosen style overrides many things people look for in dystopia: so perhaps it was a let down in some ways.
I disagree with everything you said :D. Here are some of my responses to your discussion/rant. I got really carried away but I never really had a chance to discuss this book before LOL
First of all, the book literally tells you the years it is set (1980s-90s) right at the beginning.
I wasn't bored by the way she talked about her friendships at all. I love character focused books and I'm not a fan of sci-fi at all. I would not have picked up this book if it was heavily in the genre. I feel like people classify it as such because they don't know where else to put it.
About Ruth, Tommy, and Kathy. Tbh I wouldn't really call their situation a love triangle. None of it was written in a romantic way. Kathy's feelings never really were stated, everything felt very factual about the way she spoke. I know in the movie, they played up her feelings for Tommy way more than in the book so I don't know if that's clouding your judgement at all. As for the characters themselves, yes Ruth was unlikeable but I didn't find either Tommy or Kathy to be. I thought they were very well developed characters, each with growth. Kathy and Ruth's growth was more subtle, yes, but it was there.
I found the confrontation with Miss Emily and Madame to be devastating. Unlike the movie, which is depressing and colourless from the beginning, the book has a lot of happy moments. This girl is growing up and has her own world. They build up so much hope and then to have not only their hopes crushed but to know how clones are seen by the world is so upsetting. They are well-rounded characters with their own dreams and interests and hobbies but they can't do anything about them. They will die. They have no other choice. It is this absolute defeat, this complete lack of hope, and the fact that schools like Hailsham won't actually continue to exist that destroys Kathy and Tommy completely, moreso than the actual donations.
To me, the book just made me think about humans in general, how much we dissociate from others, how we dehumanize entire groups and civilizations.
Never Let Me Go wasn't about sci fi or world building, and I'm glad for it. I didn't feel like it needed it. We know that cloning was made possible after the war, we know why institutions like Hailsham fell. It was really all we needed, in my opinion and it's rare to have so much character study in this weird world (dystopia within a utopia?) The book was about PEOPLE. And that's what I like to read about and I loved it.
Faryal S
It's hard to say you like the book or not. I love the way all.the sadness be expressed, not in an intensive and sudden way, but a way which is slowly but strongly. Although i hate their attitude towards the problem they faced. Why don't they fight? Why Ruth don't even try to persuit the life she want, sitting in the office behind the glass window. Why Kathy never try to express the feeling about Tommy? Why the young couple in the cottage don't try to fight for crossing the line to let people kbow they want different liives not.just deferral. All of them, they can get together to search for the new end of the story if they tried.
completely agree
The book is very clearly made for people who don’t like Scfi and therefore have never known that the most poignant moral messages come from this genre.
It gives people who snootily deride sci-fi and “out” to actually enjoy the concept.
There is nothing new in this book at all, except that it’s written in the most boring slice of life memoir way possible.
If your life is super fucking boring and the concept of hearing gossip 3 parts removed is interesting to you, this is the book to read.
I really enjoyed the book, mainly because from my own experience being of the smallest minority within the United States...
I kind of understand that feeling of living in a vague, controlled society. Watching everyone else in the world go about their own business, while never really having much control over my own.
The history to me doesn't matter, the world building to me doesn't matter. Because no one else in this society really asks why they never see Native American's in their lives, and when we do appear. A lot of people don't want us to be there, in their perfect world. To remind them of past crimes, or to make moves to get historical land bases back.
I've had teachers speak to me like the way Lucy spoke to Kathy and her class. Telling us that we had no future, because we would all become addicts, die in violent ways by family members or accidents. Become teen mothers and never become "productive citizens".
That on some level, we were regarded as inhuman by non-native teachers and farmers and people we encounter in the border towns.
That's what the book reminds me of anyway, and the movie scene where they awkwardly order things off the menu...
That was me at one point.
First thing first, the subtle atmosphere was what makes this book unique...so you won’t be able to completely appreciate this book if it was being “obvious” . The scattered pieces of Kathy’s memories were a revelation of the most realistic part of what it is to be a human, the bright side as well as the dark side. Learning from Kathy’s memories allow us to slowly places bits by bits together and finally get to the truth, which I think it was intriguing and the beauty of Ishiguro’s writing that it just draws you in and provoke a lot of thinking along way. There was a Sci-fi element in this book but it certainly wasn’t the focus of the book at all, I guess putting it under the genre sci-fi was misleading, if you come in and expecting a full on sci-fi novel and thinking “cloning” was the focus well you didn’t understand the message behind the story at all and indeed you did waste your time. The characterisation, the subtle atmosphere and the way the writer portrays humanity by describing the absurdity behaviour of Hailsham students were the most important and beautiful elements in this book.
Also the way that information is unveiled very intentionally makes sure that you understand without understanding. It intentionally forces the reader to take the journey with the same sort of psychological mindset as the children growing up. You know their fate but you don't fully understand what that means just like the students.
It's really brilliantly written. Especially because so many different people who has so many different takes from it.
Not really.
I think most reviews on this amazing book kind of miss what I believe to be the true and important point of it: The contrast between logical behavior in their micro world and the absurdity of it all from a macro perspective.
Imo this does not only refer to these specific characters but to all of us. We all think we have good reasons for our daily behavior, and it all makes sense to us - go to work to earn money, buy things because we believe to need them etc. etc. By this we explain our micro worlds and make sense of it, however, as a society we destroy our planet, fight wars and create so much absurd misery.
We often fail to translate our little understanding of the big picture into action in our personal environment, just like Kath fails to translate her understanding of the system into protest.
Showing this inability and how it is incorporated into our lives, is the great gift carried by "Never let me go"!
I just finished the book. I think I enjoyed this book for the reasons you disliked it. I loved the narration of Kathy H, and the vagueness of the society and history. I think if Ishiguro gave us more plot and explanation, then it would be a completely different story. I enjoyed the over analysis of the scenes, and I think this is one of those story's that offers the reader so many questions about life, society, and relationships. (Spoilers) The scene with the Madame and Miss Emily at the end I found very important. It was different than the movie. Miss Emily is revealing such important elements of the plot and characterization, while at the same time shows us her own character as she is anxious and appears to care more about her wood cabinet that she is trying to sell for a good price. The absurdity of it! lol Anyway, I've read books about clones escaping and trying to survive, and uprises in dystopian societies. To me, that plot line in Never Let Me Go is secondary.
Haha! I did find it boring at times too (and I didn't like the characters either), but somehow I didn't hate it. I expected to love it, but I didn't do that either. Just meh.
I'm so relieved, I thought I was the only one who didn't love this book. I can't even keep track of the instances I mentioned to someone I didn't enjoy this book and they looked at me like I murdered their baby. And I have enjoyed slow burning, "plotless" books many times before so it wasn't the fact that it wasn't fast paced that got to me, I just didn't enjoy almost anything about this book: the characters annoyed me when I was supposed to empathize with them and their condition, the setting was too underdeveloped for my taste and the writing style didn't immerse me into that world, I often found it quite manipulative. I loved the concept of the book and the themes it was trying to bring out, I just didn't like the way it was done.
I didn’t like it either. I thought it was really boring and like it was being made up as he went along. It’s a cool idea though but wasn’t executed that well in my opinion, love Remains of the Day though.
I love Kathy's narration style because it shows her way of thinking and seeing the world to be a result of her growing up in such a controlled, sheltered environment, separate from the 'rest of the world'.
Thank goodness I am not the only one. I HATED this book and genuinely felt baffled that so many people list it as a 'must read'... I really don't get it!
Chapter 6, and I nearly fell asleep 😴🤣🤣😅 slow very slow book.. you’re so right 😂😂
The way of writing is actually ishiguro's style and all the little stories are important for further analysis of the characters and the way life was for the clones.
Definitely think this one was just not for you! Because the things you pointed out were things I loved about the story.
Definitely not for me, but I'm glad you liked it!
I Loved this review! Here's why. I finished reading 'NLMG' a couple of hours ago and it left me in a rather bleak and unhappy frame of mind. I decided to come to TH-cam and see what other readers had made of it, and this review really cheered me up. I loved this reviewer's take because is shows how two people can read the same book and come to conclusions so utterly different. I smiled through the entire 10 minutes, hardly agreeing with a single word - but at the same time loving every comment. I could easily imagine the author having the same reaction. I say that because (this may not be a common view) I think, despite the overall tragic story of the Stevens character in Remains Of The Day, Ishiguro must frequently have laughed as he concocted Stevens' view of events and their meanings. I think despite the seriousness of his books in general, Ishiguru appears to have a very acute sense of the ironic and would therefore enjoy this unusual critique of NLMG - just as I did. The students did not get parental quality affection from The Guardians so they were desperate to keep hold of each other. Incidentally whilst thought Cathy was the most likeable character at the beginning, I began to feel as things reached a denouement and reality encroached, she was the one who was most thoroughly the prisoner of her conditioning to accept and obey. In many ways, I thought, she was just like Stevens in her inability to think outside her rules and conditioning. Of the Ishigurus I've read (NLMG, Remains, & Klara) I feel NLMG is the most unremittingly bleak and without hope. PS. It is always a mistake to see the movie before reading the book.
The book very clearly says at the start that it's England 1990s. Obviously alternate reality we can surmise as the story progresses. Think you missed the point of the difference in the lack of rich experiences of their lives because of how they are forced to live as not really people.
Man, I'm sorry you didn't like this book! I understand why not based on what you thought the book would be. I guess depending on your expectations going into it, that could change how you see the book. I absolutely LOVED it because I thought it had a lot to say about friendship and memory and most of all yearning for a life you'll never have, which is one of my biggest struggles in life, and one of Ishiguro's main thematic interests. I love all his books for this reason. I, however, had not seen the movie, and was stunned by the sci-fi twist when it came, so I was mostly reading it as literary fiction with a random sci-fi twist at the end, so my expectations were ENTIRELY different.
I deeply love what other people would think of as "boring", quiet, slice of life books. If there's one thing I couldn't care less about with books it's plot.
Sounds like this book was the perfect fit for you! Your crowd was why I had high expectations - they loved it for its themes and embraced the pacing but I was hoping for something a little more.
I think having zero expectations going in to this book would work better. It's kinda difficult to go through the first 100 pages if you have seen the movie already. But if you have no idea what the story was about, then Part 1 would be more enjoyable. I love this book so much. I would definitely recommend it to friends.
😂 I love when you say "good god!" I felt the same way reading this book.
I totally agree with you. I tried so hard to read this book. I really wanted to like it but it was just not it for me. I was so bored.
The book is about (among many other themes)
1. dealing with death and religious hope
2. "what if" nostalgia.
So... why did you expect scifi in it????
Sci-Fi doesn't always mean spaceships and aliens. I was expecting a bit more on how society got to where it was, harvesting clones. Also, if you look at the genres listed for the book on Goodreads, Fiction is first, followed by Sci-Fi. I'm not being unreasonable.
Society doesnt matter because it's a metaphor for things in our life we do not control. (Thats why no one in the book even mentioned any form of resistance) The clones were sentenced to death just like all of us, and they invented some vague story that one can be saved through art and/or true love by an authority just like human beings invented similar stories aka religions.
Wow it seems like you've voiced my thoughts!! Lovedddd your review !! 💙💙💙💙
everything you had against this book left me saying... "thats the point"
everybody is different and we all like different things but I think mostly you just didnt get the point of this story. particularly if you saw the movie and based any expectations off of that. none of the sci fi elements matter. its just a story about how life passes you by and youre left at the end of it reflecting on all of your experiences no matter how mundane they might seem. kathy is a tragic character who ultimately accepts her life despite having regrets and not being about to "let go" of her memories.
all of the characters are flawed, but in realistic and complicated ways. its a character study, NOT a sci fi story about clones...
I understand the point (at least now, if I didn’t fully then) as it’s been a number of years since I read the book and uploaded this video. It’s safe to say this book just wasn’t for me.
So, you're saying you thought the book was fun and it turned out to be dark, depressing and lonely? Since, you know, it's about children cloned for organ harvesting. Who could have foreseen it? You heard 'boarding school' and 'three kids' and 'bits surreal' and confused it with Harry Potter?
Maybe stick to New Yorker bestseller lists of famous people-turned-writers and YA.
And it's pronounced 'kazoo-oh..
I haven't had a condescending comment in a while! Woohoo. Hmmm, well, I never thought it would be fun. I knew the general story line before reading, but I didn't enjoy how the story was written - it wasn't for me. I find it amusing that you're trying to insult my reading tastes when you obviously haven't looked at the other books I've reviewed on this channel.
Thanks for gracing my comments section with your presence.
I agree with the original poster. I just finished the book this evening and it profoundly touched me. This book may not be for everyone, my wife also found it a bit boring, but the reason I feel you have been responded to with such passion/disgust from the original commenter is due to the way it does touch some of us. Which can, of course, be said for many books and pieces of art that touch this or that part of each’s own soul.
The reason it touched me, was the way that it ended in that Kathy (she irritated me as well at times, very much so) though she felt glimmers of emotions that we in the real world feel, somehow, after all that happened, and all she lost, she was still unable to let go and let it out. Tommy was able to in the screaming field scene, but then he just gave up. There was never even a thought to fight back. This is just what it is for these beings. They don’t know anything else. It speaks to the brainwashing that takes place all over the world of children (think African warlord or the whole ‘Kony’ thing) they have never known anything else. “This is it, this is my destiny and there isn’t a god damned thing that can change it so god forbid I even think it to be different.” I want there to be an uprising, which would have been predictable and cliche, yes. But there simply just wasn’t. The book just ends as it began with things going on as they have. It’s about the middle of the road individual within a profound circumstance who sees things through a cloudy lense - just almost clearly, ever so faintly - almost pieces it all together; but then realizes it’s too late and so simply “f**k it, it’s fine.”
The ending made me tear up, thinking about how many circumstances this applies to my own life, the things I’ve seen, and the thoughts of circumstances all over the world. It relates to those things - to me anyway - in a very intimate way.
This is becoming somewhat a classic. I don't know how you can't appreciate this work but gush over y/a rubbish on other videos.
Something that occurred to me while I was reading it is it's a sharp subversion of the whole Hogwarts ideal.
I have to study this in English Lit..
Rip. Sure it wasn't a bad book imo but I completely agree with your points...
Me too, but this book was really boring for me. The secret life of Bees was more interesting than this book to me.
I was terribly board listening to the audio book. 3 hrs in and all I got was that they were in school and something about art. I stopped listening.
Yeah, it did become a rant, didn't it? Thanks for sharing how you felt about the book. I get the idea the movie might have spoilt it a bit for you because as someone who had no idea there was a movie until after I finished reading the book I came into it with a complete blank slate for expectation. It started reading like three kids in a boarding school house and I nearly lost interest, but then the little hints about who or what they were started to kick in and got me intrigued. And I never came into the novel expecting the sci-fi element at all because a)the cover of my copy, which is not at all sci-fi but literary in nature, and b)the novel really keeps those elements to a minimum.
I do agree that Ruth is an unlikeable character and annoying because of her interference between Tommy and Kath. The sense of frustration over the relationships between the three for me are tempered by the regular reveals and mini-cliffhangers at the end of each section; it didn't bother me that the sci-fi was really a thin veneer for the real themes of friendship and life purpose in the frame of short lives, and the acceptance of the life they've been taught to accept as normal.
I can understand if some don't find the happenings interesting because frankly not a lot happens that is that dramatic or spectacular. But you have to take the novel on what expectations it creates in itself, and what it promises from the start is a subtle slowburner of friendships between institutionalised humans trying to find significance in their own floundering way - not sci-fi, not action or rebellion against clone creators, no, those ideas are deliberately not made important because they were never meant to be. I think to enjoy the book you have to throw out any ideas of the 2010 movie altogether and take the novel on what it did suggest it would be and not what you demand of it.
Kath's voice is intriguing to me because it is imperfect and to me a little lobotomised, and I found myself trying to work out from the details she does remember what actually happened. Her voice creates the sense of someone who is off in a way I can't place, and with each reveal I'm trying to place the things that led to their reality. She is intelligent in some respects but socially stunted in others, insecure and desperate to keep Tommy and Ruth as her friends without fully getting why Ruth is manipulating her. I was surprised at how well Ishiguro could get a girl's voice and thinking because it was doing my head in the same way it does my head in when I try to understand girl thought patterns - real or not, it impressed me.
I do have some questions, namely, why they never really even thought of fighting back and trying to live forever or running away. Their total resignation or acceptance of their lives as clone donors is probably a comment on their conditioning at Hailsham, and an indirect comment on ours. I also wondered what the nature of those donations were - a kidney? Stem cell multiple organ growing? I understand they weren't important but their sketchedness left me wondering. Ishiguro has said that the uprising and questioning of the system were never his concerns, rather the way we don't question them, so fair enough.
I don't quite agree the idea of cloning was danced around. Between talk of possibles, Kath's search for her own face among the porn mags to explain her sexual promiscuity, and at least 2-3 mentions of the word clone, it was subtly hinted at, enough to know and not too much that it would overtake the main themes of friendship and significance.
Not everyone will like this book, I can see that. You don't get the upbeat ending but it does for me have that effect of being satisfying and uncontrived. It left me wondering about the nature of their transient lives and how one can make meaning in lives that were deemed from the start to be less then human when they obviously were human. And numerous other thoughts that are hard to put into words.
Ohh yesss! I agree with you on this hundred percent. Also, there was so much repetition on few words....like i literally skipped to next pages. Kathy used to talk about sex for ten times in one chapter that it made me lose intrest in sex. Duh. And the word hailsham....Oh God....how many times more do we need to read that wordddd???? Horrible writing. I hated it nd i used to fall asleep after 5 pages literally. Just Let me go😫
I ABSOLUTELY AGREE, i have to read this for school and my god is it hard. The writing style is ridiculously dull, Kathy is just plain annoying and the way the narrative is presented is unbearable. The way every story breaks up into another story ends up making one feel restless and there's just no pay off. Really don't like this book.
My god, first time I hear you rant like that. Kind of liked it!
Hahaha, thanks? I've never shared a "rant" video before but sometimes it should be done!
A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
I'm so glad you brought these points up. Definitely glad I didn't buy this book and just borrowed it from the library.
You verbalised my thoughts exactly. Great review
I'm not alone? I thought I was the only one! Oh thank God............
"It might become a rant"
> checks description.
"It became a rant"
I know this is an old review, but I just now read the book, and I agree with you. Thanks!
This is a book about MOOD. If you don't have the inner mechanics to revel in a book that creates mood, then naturally you will focus on the characters and pace and the information given.. but that's not what makes this brilliant. It's the mood.
Well that’s subjective, let’s not look down on others for simple difference in preferences
Yes people who dislike the book get the mood. But some people need more than just mood to enjoy the book. I need more substance than just a specific mood to enjoy a book although mood is important and enjoyable as well.
I AGREE WITH THIS WHOLE VIDEO. THIS BOOK KILLED MY SOUL! Jeez I died like 10 times while reading. 288 pages took me 18 days!!! Kathy was so bad, and the writing was so annoying and very hard to follow at times. It was so bad how I was expected to remember a random person, like 100 pages after they are mentioned! And all that branching off every time she had to say something. Also she was NEVER sure about the course of events ("how I remember this happened..., but Ruth says otherwise"). Ruth!!!! RUTH! I wanted Kathy to call her out so BAD! She was so mean! UGH, Really didn't like this book.
OMG! my review for the book is scheduled for tomorrow and I'm laughing so hard at your video because I also go into a rant in my video. 😂😂 I was so bored reading it, even though I knew I should have DNF'd it.
Sounds like we had a very similar experience!
Thanks for this. I have picked this up, put it down, picked it up, put it down in the bookstore many times. I won't give it a second thought now. :)
Glad I could help!
I think that the reason we don't find out much of the 'interesting sci-fi' element in the beginning is because the book is taking the reader on a journey through the loss of innocence, just like Kathy experiences as she moves through her life
I just finished this book last night and was relieved to find a negative review because everyone on Booktube seems to fawn all over it! I think I agree with pretty much everything you said. (For your comment on the clone thing, I was skimming the Reader's Guide that came in the back of my copy, and they quoted Ishiguro saying he wished people wouldn't focus on the clone part so much. THEN WHY HAVE CLONES BE A CENTRAL PART OF THE BOOK?!)
Ruth...why was anyone her friend? I had someone exactly like her in my peer group as a kid, and reading about her made me almost viscerally angry remembering how adults rarely stopped/corrected the behavior. I wanted to shake Kathy and be like, this girl is not your friend!
Also, while I know this is more literary, the lack of development of the donation process prevented me from truly suspending my disbelief. It seems like the clones function as humans, so how do they donate vital organs and still live? Do they get some sort of shoddy replacement? If the clones are seen as non-human, why not just terminate them all at once and harvest all the organs in one go? That seems way more affordable and logical.
And that stupid "twist" with the "Gallery" at the end. I had a feeling from the start the art was to prove the clones had souls, and it was so frustrating when that was exactly the twist. (And I had no knowledge going into the book of what the story was at all.) Even if I can guess a twist ahead of time, I still want the reveal to be satisfying or add some additional information.
It's too bad because I think the book explored some interesting things. The ideas of death and how you live your life within the parameters set by society are good, but why weren't they explored in a more entertaining way?
There was so much potential and it fell...flat. Big time. Sounds like you should make a rant video as well!
This is such a refreshing review, I agree with everything being said - frustrating format, unlikeable characters, and worst of all just so boring.
This book is part of our English course in school meaning we’ll have to go into painful detail over a long time and I can’t even bring myself to finish the book so I’m not looking forward to any discussions 🙃🙃
I’m sorry you have to suffer through all that analysis! Obviously I didn’t have to read this for school, but I would have had a similar reaction.
Oh I really resonate with this video. I am currently around 150 pages in and it is soooo boring. I mostly see high praise for the book though and I really wanted to like this book but it's a drag to finish. It's enjoyable to see someone who dislikes the book too I always love a good rant about a book, show or movie.
A lot of people in your shoes have found this video over the years.😆I'm glad it resonated!
Precisely my thoughts! Boring, boring, I get that the theme is interesting but it's lousy done imho
Thank you for your honest review! I've taken this off of my TBR list, there are too many really awesome books out there to read, I don't need to read any so so ones. The reviews on Goodreads are either love it or hate it, from your review I think I would be in the latter category :)
completely missed the point of the book
Hello. I need three examples of motifs in this book, with their explanations...could you please help me???
Sounds like you need some homework help. I read this too long ago to provide any real insight (and I've since given the book away). You'll have to keep searching for help because I can't provide any, sorry!
I doubt u enjoy literary fiction as you claimed. ..this is a beautiful book. You missed the point that it attempts to humanize the ‘clones’ with Kathy’s intimate narrative. I would give 3 stars out of 4.
Oof -- I've known Becs more than half my life and even I wouldn't suggest she doesn't know her own literary tastes. If you are looking for a review of this book with the entirely opposite perspective to hers, I'd suggest mine on this channel! -Les
I liked this book a lot. I do agree with you though.... they could have focused on other things a little more. It also seemed to drag at times.
Thanks for your emphatic critique. I just finished listening to the audio book. I picked it up because I loved his latest book ' The buried Giant'. I do like his way of writing, this book is a pleasant read in the beginning. He is good at taking a magnifying glass to details and miniature moments. I could relate to most of his descriptions of living in a boarding school. I have been in several myself. These institutions provide enough horror and nightmares, without the author having to plop on this sickening, twisted, but weakly explained undercurrent of kids being cloned and raised to be organ donors, doomed to die at an early age. I also feel the characters of these women/girls raised without 'real' families were badly developed. They act almost like 'normal' people, which makes no sense. Male writers should stick with their own gender and not pretend to know about females. I felt cheated as I had to keep guessing and guessing. In the end this book left me feeling sick to my stomach. If he wants to explore the reality of death, which we are all facing at one point or another, he could have more honest about this topic. But perhaps that was his point, that we are all pretending it will never happen and waste away our lives thinking about silly, superficial stuff instead. (Like writing a review.)
Calling something boring is weak criticism. Next time, explain the mechanics that didn’t work for you cuz it’s amateur to say “I didn’t like it cuz it was boring.” Yawn.
I agree with the vid. The mechanics are this: passive protagonists, low stakes, banal interactions between characters, bland narrative voice, etc. Simple question: what do Kathy/Ruth/Tommy want? (Apparently not much) and what do they do to pursue this (even less!)?
great video! luckily I bought never let me go on ebook so it wasn't expensive but it doesn't sound like my type of book at all. I only bought it because I heard only great things but I might check it out
I agree with the pacing, it's a slow book, the sci-fi element, well, it's there but I would not consider it a sci-fi novel.
Here's my take on it:
You figure out they are clones pretty early in the novel, so that's not really a huge mystery. But then again, it doesn't matter that Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth are clones meant to be harvested for their organs. That's incidental. The theme of the novel is death, and its inevitability. These clones are stand-in for normal humans that experience the exact same obstacles. One of them being Time, and how there's never enough of it. You can try to deny it, you can hope and bargain and rage, but one day you will die, and there's no escaping it. This novel explores that very universal theme using a different setting.
It also has bits of platonic philosophy sprinkled here and there, but maybe that's just me over interpreting.
THANK YOU! I agree with everything you've said. I was so frustrated finishing the book. If Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize with this quality of literature, the committee should send prizes to more competent authors like Oprah gifting cars. 🙃It just doesn't make any sense for Kathy to casually read War and Peace or The Odyssey as a pastime while being completely oblivious and unreflective of their absurd situation as clones. Rather than discussing how the characters perceive their shortness of life or how love and mortality affect humans as the author claimed in interviews, the book instead focuses on petty relationships and teenage jealousy. Such a waste of material!
I'm glad you were able to find some camaraderie in my rant review.😆
I agree with everything you said 😅 didn't like the book as well. I always thought I was missing something!
Where's the music in the beginning from? It sounds like a song I know th-cam.com/video/ot3rnyMoPpQ/w-d-xo.html except this song came out in January and yall have had the intro for a while
It's actually a free song from iMovie (I think it's called Pastel Slide or something close to that...) and we use a tiny clip of it.
The book has a concept I could get behind, but the writing, world and characters ruined it for me. I can enjoy slice-of-life-type stories just fine, and the story brings interesting things to the table, such as questions like: Do we have a soul? Do things we create have one? How could we figure it out? etc, but the author doesn't even seem to do much with anything except for teenagers' sex drive, which is honestly not something I enjoy reading.
I loved this book, really well written and the charecters were incredibly real and human to me. I like that the science fiction takes a back seat and it focuses more on people.
OK, I am 100+ pages into this book and I am about ready to give up on it. I watched about 3 minutes of your review and agree with you. I am finding this book so boring! Also, I don't care for the main characters and don't particularly like them. I will watch the rest of your video and then see if I can get through the rest of this tedious book.
It's refreshing how passionately you seem to loathe this book. :) I do however not feel the same. I just finished reading it yesterday and think part of the reason why it was so slow was because I already knew the movie and therefore I already knew all the things that actually happened. The story is not mainly about what happens to Kathy, but how she feels about it now everything is over. Kathy is a coward, but she is sweet and forgiving. Ruth was a real bitch, but that turns out that's because she was afraid to be alone and irrelevant. Tommy never hides the way he feels and is constantly taken advantage of. The way Kathy tells her story was like it was not for the one who's reading it, but purely for herself. She regrets a lot, the things she would have done differently, the lack of time she had with Tommy, the way she and Ruth competed.. I guess it's not interesting, but I do find it beautiful. Maybe it's just me identifying with Kathy, because I tend to overanalyse situations and people as well.
Lit criticism by stats??! Ah, the presumption of the social media era.
i'm reading it for school right now and i FEEL you. i couldn't empathize with really any of the characters and I thought that was just me! I've been tearing through it waiting for something to happen and yet, nothing has happened yet. Dear God.
Just finished this book. HATED it omllll
Thank youuuu, you saved me for my English class
I wasn't impressed by this book at all, by the end I lost all interest in the story... I found it bizarre as Ishiguro is the author of one of my favourite books, The Remains of the Day!
Look , if a book takes you two months to read - then don't bother, whereas you say most 300 page books you 'blew through' (rather like an intersection) then just keep blowing through your novels....and maybe 'fess up that you finished this book just so you could dump on it.
I read the book 7.5 years ago, so a little hard to say exactly what I was thinking then. Many people want to share when something annoys them. Maybe I should have put the book down... but I also wanted to give my thoughts having actually finished the book.
Yup. I agree totally. Pretty boring, nothing much ever happens except inconsequential small talk. Like a poor man’s Handmaid’s Tale with a big missed opportunity not discussing the dystopian cloning part
Haha thanks for your review, it made me laugh. I definitely enjoyed the book more than you, but I also picked up on a lot of your criticisms in my review video as well. I actually quite liked Kathy mentioning lots of different characters - I think that's kind of what it's like when you're at school, there's just a lot of people who are only vaguely interesting to you. But yeah, Kathy overanalysed a lot of things and I also didn't like how much she directed the narrative, as you say, 'I'm going to tell you this, and now this, and now this'... urgh no that was really annoying.
I thought all the characters were dislikable as well, but I thought that made them a bit more real and lifelike. I wish I could have been in Ruth and Tommy's heads for some of the timeto see why they acted the way they did, eg. why was Ruth always so mean? Why didn't Tommy act in a different way? Like, why was he dating Ruth if he knew he should have been with Kathy? Doesn't make sense.
Love triangle was annoying. Why was this is a plot device. No. A good friendship would have been way more moving in my opinion.
Haha this comment got really long but yes, I'm glad I'm not the only person in the world who had criticisms of this book haha :)
Even books nominated for the Man Booker Prize can't avoid the love triangle!
Thank god there is another one who doesn't like that book! I had to read it for school and I read it within 4 days, not because it was so amazing but because I wanted to come to an end with it. I thought some parts were just some fillers so the book wouldn't be only like 20 pages, because I think this is the amount of text that would be really "needed" to tell what is going on there. The rest is just some talking about things that aren't important at all, for example this thing with the pencil case or all this talking about how they dealt with s*x, my god I DON'T CARE! After reading that I don't understand why so many people love this book and I probably had not finished it if it wasn't for school.
(sorry if my Englisch isn't perfect, I'm from Germany :))
Your English is great! This book divides people for sure. Les, the other half of this channel, absolutely loves it.
I had such mixed feelings about this book... I agree I wish the writer explored the clone process.
Your criticism isn't really with the book, but moreso with how the book didn't fit with your expectations. This obviously isn't a valid criticism with respect to the quality of the book. You wanted a Hunger Games style dystopian book where as this is more of a slow burn character/society study. I think if you had read this book without any prior knowledge of the plot or preconceived expectation, your experience would've been different. Just by way of example, take your odd desire for them to use the word clone. Words as descriptors play an important role in how this story unfolds as it does. As the reader you are given information in drips (through very clever storytelling devices). Using the word clone would spoil this experience because you do grow with this novel. That word carries with it a lot of societal/ethical baggage and the author was wise to stay away from it here. Your anger is understandable though because you deprived yourself of a very, very beautiful story by learning the twists beforehand.
i have to study this for my finals, wth?
I enjoy slow literary books with annoying characters BUT this book failed in every way possible in my opinion. People go to all these mental acrobats to prove how exceptional it is but really, I’m surprised I even finished it. I don’t hate boring stuff but this one is just pointlessly boring, the writing is shitty( Deliberate or not), couldn’t care less about the characters(and I really wanted to, especially Tommy)
Great video, comments section even better!
I did not read that book, but the issues you have with 'never let me go' I actually have with 'station eleven'. Of course the story has some interesting elements, but the book's pacing is so unbelievably slow, nothing really happens. Yes it has all the flashbacks, and they are slightly intetesting, but during the '20 years later' segment literally nothing happens. It's like reading a reality show. Everything that happens does not really matter. I did not care for the flat characters either. The book has been a disappointment to me, I don't understand why so many people love the book that much
I've read Station Eleven as well and I can understand where you're coming from. However, I did find the writing and general feeling of Station Eleven to be much more enjoyable. I would steer clear of Never Let Me Go, it's much worse!
I agree 💯. This book isn't what it promised to be, and THAT'S why it gets a poor score from me. There was nothing to care about. I was interested in clones, sci-fi, dystopian world. But it just didn't build on that. It was a diary and a memoir of a person who did nothing significantly remarkable, even gir a f**king clone!!!! 😡
In other words, give this one a miss. U look like u need a Horton's coffee. Cheers for Canada! How do u feel about your home & not quite native land these days?
I'm still happy to be in Canada. Summer's finally here so being able to sit out on my apartment balcony in the sun and read is the best!
the book might be more interesting if the book was told by 3 main character's point of view
I just finished this book and I hate it! Thank God, I'm not alone! Haha.
Agreed, top 10 most over-rated books .....not just boring, first 80 pages very poorly written. Margaret Atwood might have turned this into something more engaging, but this is just a very average book.
I do follow you on goodreads, and I was anticipating this review/rant because I realized there was someone else that didn't like this book. It was boring, Kathy had such a weak voice, and despite all of her analyzing, she didn't seem very perceptive. I trudged through it also, and when I was done, I felt like I had read a 1,000 page tome.
I recognize your profile picture from Goodreads. :) For the amount of time it took me to read you would have thought it was 500+ pages.
I know I'm 8 years late but wow, you didn't understand that book at all lol
You missed the entire point of it !Maybe you should read it again now that some time has passed
I believe this one just really wasn't for me, which is why many commenters think I missed the point. Too many books out there to re-read something I didn't appreciate!
This sucker, lol:) Thanks for funny and honest review:)
You girl look so mad and I don't blame you. So calm down and read The Good Girl.. You won't regret it. I promise.
Ugh god i has to read this for class so i couldnt just stop. I hated it so much
Ugh, that's the worst!
i like her
If the characters were more interesting, they would have stop harvesting clones lol
Hahaha, nice.
I read about half of this book. I didn't like it either. The movie was better.
It’s too complex for a gobby American
didn't like this book much either, but have to agree on the gobby american part.
the uptalk wears me down.
This is the worst book that I have ever read. Bar none.
Omg lol I loved this. I did not liked the book at all so tucking boring and dull
U r very pretty🥰
Currently studying for an English degree and we have had to read this book. In a class if around 30 students I am yet to find someone that liked it
Lemme guess, u guys are americans? 😬
This is very childlish review...