Tolog Review: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Isiguro 
reviewed by Lilian Welwood 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, a mystery/suspense novel, makes readers reach for the next page the minute you pick it up. The nonlinear book starts with the protagonist Kathy H. who “[has] been a carer for over eleven years”(3). Kathy right away starts talking about being a “carer” for “donors” and her life at Hailsham, the place where she grew up. Since Never Let Me Go is a mystery/suspense the reader does not finds out what “carers” and “donors” refer to until much later on in the book, which in my perspective made me want to read even more. Kathy talks about her two friends, Ruth and Tommy, both whom she met at hailsham, and their stories together while growing up. Later on she depicts their time at the cottages before becoming “carers”. Even With a lot mentioned in the beginning of the book, so much is left unsaid all you can do is keep reading.

Ishiguro's writing style is very different from most writing styles. He has a way of making Kathy’s perspective sound very distant and detached throughout the whole book, which in no way stops you from wanting to read more of from understanding the characters. I found that Ishiguro's distant and detached way of writing Kathy’s perspective stops you from really being affected by some of the sad and dramatic events in the book, you end up wanting to feel sad for the characters but not being able to. I in a way enjoyed that aspect of the book because I was able to think about the book and its message in a whole other way then if it had been written with a different style.