A review by aclassicalmess
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a reread for me and I enjoyed it even more the second time round, this novel just has so much to offer and one reading of this is not enough.
Never Let Me Go from first glance feels like a simple story that follows students at a boarding school, however it shouldn’t take very long to realize that this novel is so much more and quite a bit darker than that. It’s a story that can allow for the reader to question the nature of their existence and our overall relationship with death. Part of me is terrified to say more than that as so I don’t give the game away. I will say though that this is the type of book that has to be read twice, the first time is when you just follow the story through, let everything soak in, then you go back for a second read where the pieces clearly fall into place and get whisked away into the trance like state of Ishiguro’s writing, a reading where you don’t just read the words but register their deeper meaning and as a result gain a deeper understanding of what the novel is trying to convey. 

Update: I’ve read it three times now, but this is the first time that I ugly cried after finishing it. Bumping my rating up to 5 stars.