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A review by mcgbreads
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
4.25
2013 review: More like a 3.5.
I watched the movie first and I liked it. Now that I've read the book I don't know what to make of it... I decided to read the book just because I wanted to know more about this love between Kath and Tommy because I was so in love with them in the film that I had to see more, and I expected in some way that there was a lot more between them but it wasn't quite the case.
In the movie is very different, you can see them liking each other from the start and you can see Ruth being this little bitch. But in the book... Not so much. There are moments, of course, but nothing since the beginning. It really made me feel like they weren't in love up until Ruth said something about it and then it was like "oh, okay, they love each other". The story is kind of flat, I would've liked to see a lot more romance and passion between these two, no, I HOPED to see more passion because they knew for sure that their lives would end soon and that they only had this little time together but it really didn't felt to me like they were very in love at all. They were really so detached that it was a disappointment for me.
In the movie, like I said, it's a different deal, you can see them struggling with Ruth and with their feelings and it's a lot more palpable, and you feel very angry that they don't do anything about it earlier. You feel that too whilst reading the book but just based on what you're reading at the end, it's not something that was building up like in the movie.
Then there's this terrible fact that they are brought into this world to die for other people and that no one cares about the fact that they are REAL people. It's just very sad how they accept that fact and they don't ask questions and they're not angry about it... I find myself quite divided between feeling that it's completely unfair and between thinking "But, there are all those people dying out there too and these clones are saving them". Maybe if the society was a little bit more decent about it and they didn't treat them that way then I guess I wouldn't feel this way because then the clones would know they're welcome and they would feel sure that they are needed and in that case, I would understand why they don't get angry about it, but it's not the case in the book, the society is really ungrateful and really ignorant. Oh, I don't know, I'm rambling. It's a complicated subject, I don't know how to feel about it.
2025 review: This is almost a 5-star this time around. I still wish there was more romance because I love Kath and Tommy so much. But I also understand that the romance wasn't the point of this book. The tragic love story, which explores the reality of love passing you by if you don't take hold of it with both hands and fight for it when you find it, is just a part of the larger tragedy of these characters' lives.
It's quite a hopeless read because these characters are very passive about why they're brought to life and how they're used by society. They just accept that that's how it is and it doesn't occur to them that they deserve more or could do something about it. They don't even think what's being done to them is reprehensible.
It's a slow read though, and it gets a bit meandering, so it can be boring at times, but overall, it really draws you in and makes you feel so much.
I watched the movie first and I liked it. Now that I've read the book I don't know what to make of it... I decided to read the book just because I wanted to know more about this love between Kath and Tommy because I was so in love with them in the film that I had to see more, and I expected in some way that there was a lot more between them but it wasn't quite the case.
In the movie is very different, you can see them liking each other from the start and you can see Ruth being this little bitch. But in the book... Not so much. There are moments, of course, but nothing since the beginning. It really made me feel like they weren't in love up until Ruth said something about it and then it was like "oh, okay, they love each other". The story is kind of flat, I would've liked to see a lot more romance and passion between these two, no, I HOPED to see more passion because they knew for sure that their lives would end soon and that they only had this little time together but it really didn't felt to me like they were very in love at all. They were really so detached that it was a disappointment for me.
In the movie, like I said, it's a different deal, you can see them struggling with Ruth and with their feelings and it's a lot more palpable, and you feel very angry that they don't do anything about it earlier. You feel that too whilst reading the book but just based on what you're reading at the end, it's not something that was building up like in the movie.
Then there's this terrible fact that they are brought into this world to die for other people and that no one cares about the fact that they are REAL people. It's just very sad how they accept that fact and they don't ask questions and they're not angry about it... I find myself quite divided between feeling that it's completely unfair and between thinking "But, there are all those people dying out there too and these clones are saving them". Maybe if the society was a little bit more decent about it and they didn't treat them that way then I guess I wouldn't feel this way because then the clones would know they're welcome and they would feel sure that they are needed and in that case, I would understand why they don't get angry about it, but it's not the case in the book, the society is really ungrateful and really ignorant. Oh, I don't know, I'm rambling. It's a complicated subject, I don't know how to feel about it.
2025 review: This is almost a 5-star this time around. I still wish there was more romance because I love Kath and Tommy so much. But I also understand that the romance wasn't the point of this book. The tragic love story, which explores the reality of love passing you by if you don't take hold of it with both hands and fight for it when you find it, is just a part of the larger tragedy of these characters' lives.
It's quite a hopeless read because these characters are very passive about why they're brought to life and how they're used by society. They just accept that that's how it is and it doesn't occur to them that they deserve more or could do something about it. They don't even think what's being done to them is reprehensible.
It's a slow read though, and it gets a bit meandering, so it can be boring at times, but overall, it really draws you in and makes you feel so much.