Review : Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Title : Never Let Me Go Author : Kazuo Ishiguro Reading Dates : 07 Apr - 18 May 2012 Total Pages : 282
From Amazon : From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day.

Book Review of Never Let Me Go.

Never Let Me Go was a slow read for me. Not that the story was boring or badly written, just that the book was a bad fit for me.

The story was way too depressing. Right from the beginning, there was a sense of foreboding, a kind of hopelessness to the tale. And since I prefer to have a happy ever ending or at least one where you can imagine that possibility in the future, all the doom and gloom that comes with the tale just isn’t my cup of tea. This is a story that I plan never to re-read.

What gets me most about all the heartbreak and despair though is the protagonist’s knowledge near the end, of all their missed chances and lost time. And yet, I can’t say that it would have been better if they had figured out and acknowledged their feelings right from the very start. For their case, the adage better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all is not applicable. Indeed, the greatest tragedy of all was the false hope they were given.

So while I might have been compelled to finish this tale, it isn’t an experience I intend to repeat.

My conclusions :

• Would I re-read the book ? No.
• Would I want to read the next book in the series if there were one? Definitely not.
• Would I want to own my personal copy if I didn’t already own it ? No.
• Who would I recommend this too? Only dystopian readers or those who don't mind sad endings.
• For those looking to read the book, would I recommend buying or borrowing the book? Borrow it.

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Challenges : 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge; Eclectic Reader Challenge 2012; 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge