Never Let Me Go (edition 2005)

Beautiful. Perfect. Best ending I've ever read. Truest story I've ever read. Perfect. ( )

This book broke my heart into tiny bits. When I began it, I knew little about it: students, boarding school, something eerie, dystopian reproduction. I guess when I started I expected more explanation about the last element, but the farther I read, the more I realized that that would be superfluous.

spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler

Spoiler: the students hope their art can show whether any of their pairings merit deferral from donation, so that someone -- whoever is in charge -- can see that the two people really are suited to one another. And their art does, in fact, show their souls, but not to merit deferral. It's supposed to prove they have souls at all.

But they don't. If they had souls, they would mind their fate (singular). They are endearingly, nearly human, but not quite. They have no souls, and that broke my heart.

thanks to my awesome brother, this book is currently playing in my truck's new cd player. i'm confused about it, though. or rather, the back cover. why don't they tell the reader what it's really about?

it is not marketed as speculative fiction, and i wonder how many great books i miss because the back cover makes the inside seem like any old rosamunde pilcher falling in love in the english countryside kind of story. i've picked this book up a thousand times and read the back. and then i've put it back down again. well, thank god for the relatively slim selection at the public library.

it's a different book from remains of the day, to be sure.

so, despite the intentionally misleading back cover, i have to say not that it's not really that different of a book from remains of the day. it's written in a distinctly victorian manner, with all the richness and texture of place, nuanced conversation, important flashbacks consisting of nothing in particular. the isolation of the characters lent itself well to the form.

but i was tired, by the end, of paragraphs that began with "if i had only known then what i know now..." and so forth.

i think i'll think about it. it was a great truck book. ( )

thanks to my awesome brother, this book is currently playing in my truck's new cd player. i'm confused about it, though. or rather, the back cover. why don't they tell the reader what it's really about?

it is not marketed as speculative fiction, and i wonder how many great books i miss because the back cover makes the inside seem like any old rosamunde pilcher falling in love in the english countryside kind of story. i've picked this book up a thousand times and read the back. and then i've put it back down again. well, thank god for the relatively slim selection at the public library.

it's a different book from remains of the day, to be sure.

so, despite the intentionally misleading back cover, i have to say not that it's not really that different of a book from remains of the day. it's written in a distinctly victorian manner, with all the richness and texture of place, nuanced conversation, important flashbacks consisting of nothing in particular. the isolation of the characters lent itself well to the form.

but i was tired, by the end, of paragraphs that began with "if i had only known then what i know now..." and so forth.

i think i'll think about it. it was a great truck book. ( )

I actually saw the movie first and realized I had the book on my Nook. As soon as the movie was over I immediately started reading the book. I loved both. There was just something about the story that had me hooked. I wanted everything to work out for them. I honestly keep thinking about this book months later I just can't imagine growing up and knowing that my whole purpose in life was to donate organs to other people. ( )