Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

33 reviews

storyoflife's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So I went through all the emotions reading this and Ill stick to them to get to the rating of this classic book- I honestly cant fathom how im supposed to rate this? (Especially in comparison to all the other books im rating? They’re not in the same league.)

Boredom. I felt lots! of boredom reading this, at least 60% of the time I was considering to just dnf it and stop forcing myself to get through it. But my mom told me it’s her favorite book (or one of her favorites) and I guess I wanted to be able to talk to her about it and feel closer? to her. I especially felt bored during the drama scenes between Kathy and Ruth, since i disliked her from the start I just wasn’t interested in her character? Idk i just didn’t care what she thought of Kathy.

Frustration. Soo much. The whole time I was rooting for Timmy and Kathy and for Ruth to goo and I sometimes felt like maybe, this could happen and other times just lost hope and its sooo frustrating. Also all these over complicated communication issues- as a straightforward german I had the urge to punch smth multiple times.

Sadness. Pretty obvious and self explanatory. For fucks sake theyre basically clones waiting to be slaughtered in a slow manner. The whole system is so inhumane and I felt so sad about the missed time between Tommy and Kathy as well. My poor babies. Honestly.

Hope. Few times in between I actually held a flicker of hope that things could change and end on a somewhat happy ending or at least a lighthearted note,I had to force myself to stop that shit and stay realistic. U know keep the expectations low. 

I guess it’s not really an emotion, but I also got to critically think my worldview over (probs was Kazuo Ishiguro intended -it does fall into the theme with Klara and the sun also going in that direction). The questions u come in contact with while reading this book are philosophical really, what defines a human being and what do humans deserve and how should you raise smn knowing how they’re going to die and what kind of responsibility u have over other people’s fate and all of these kind of trains of thoughts. 

This is probably the longest book review I have ever written btw. 

And because of that im giving it 5 stars. This book is unforgettable. It’s not my usual type of literature and it still moved me to tears. Id recommend it to anyone and everyone simply out of principle (very german wording ik).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

The content warnings are up for discussion honestly, it really depends on how you interpret the book and the depicted society. These are warnings I chose, thinking the more the merrier (I always prefer too much rather over not enough of them).

jenlengland's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Grief, and Abandonment

anna_pearl's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, and Medical content

The characters are literally raised to be organ donors. It's very emotionally detached, so it results in a rather unnerving story as a whole.

amorphousbl0b's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Deeply depressing.

You will often be irritated with how reluctant characters are to take seemingly obvious corrective actions, to tell one another how they feel, to do the logical thing. That's because Ishiguro barely wrote characters; he just wrote people. Almost all of your problems probably resulted from you doing dumbass things. And the narrator's perspective seems to gloss over many of their more kind or intimate moments, because focusing on the arguments and the troubles is just how our memories act.

The slow burn of this book's reveals are masterfully executed. I don't want to allude to a single one of them, not even those in the first act of the story, lest I spoil the experience I had of walking into this book expecting one thing and slowly realizing it was a horror novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

paradicsomleves's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Bullying, Infertility, and Sexual content

eva_vva's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Blood, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Grief

grapefruitjuice's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Confinement and Terminal illness

ginbat's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Beautifully sad, unique. I grew to appreciate this writing style and think it would very well. This book made be feel sad and angry, and I feel like it's a better for a few things. I guess that's what makes it a "good" book. It doesn't make me feel good things, but it does make me feel things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse, Torture, and Medical content