100 Books in 2018

39/ never let me go by kazuo ishiguro

read: 18.05.18 - 23.05.18

book: Never Let Me Go

author: Kazuo Ishiguro

blurb: As a child, Kathy – now thirty-one years old – lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed–even comforted–by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham's nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.

review: I had already watched the film coming into this book, so I guess that kind of ruined the whole build up and emersion into the plot because I knew where it was going. But overall, I did really enjoy this book.

The narrative and actual writing of the book was beautiful, and it was really fun to engage in and properly pay attention to. I also really liked the characters and thought that the fact that they all seemed to have secret character traits was really interesting and exciting to learn about. I wish they had gone into more detail about certain parts of the novel but I guess that goes against the whole point of the narrative and what information has been purposefully shared.

rating: 8/10