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I have complained so much about this book in these journal entries but that's just because I completely hated it. 100% hated it. You don't even understand how much it destroyed me. EVERYONE DIED. I am so annoyed by the confusing story line and I'm sure there's some kind of hidden meaning behind it but I just couldn't find it and I just though it was stupid. Sorry Kazuo.

I don't know why sex is such a big deal in this book. There was literally about 7 chapters focusing completely on the memories that Kathy had about sex and her urges. (and let me just tell you that reading this party of the book with your grandpa right behind you is pretty awkward...) I guess it's kind of important that sex was included because of the fact that they couldn't have babies but SERIOUSLY 7 CHAPTERS IS TOO MUCH. GOSH.

I'm completely and entirely annoyed with this story. How could he get us ALL ATTACHED TO THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR MEMORIES AND THEN KILL THEM ALL. LAST TIME I CHECKED I WASN'T READING A JOHN GREEN BOOK. EVERYONE SHOULD NOT HAVE DIED. I CRIED FOR AN HOUR OVER THIS STUPID, IRRITATING BOOK. UGH.

To sum up the book, the entire thing is basically the nostalgic memories that Kathy has with Ruth and Tommy and their lives at Hailsham. With the reoccurring topic of sex of course. That seemed to be the main problem in Hailsham, the students there could never have kids, so their entire use in life was to donate their organs to normal people to save them. They are called donors. After about their third donation, they usually "complete", or die. This is basically the entire storyline of the whole book, and it includes the happy memories to get you attached to the characters to make you completely and absolutely crushed when the die.

"What he wanted was not just to hear about Hailsham, but to remember Hailsham, just like it had been his own childhood. He knew he was close to completing and so that’s what he was doing: getting me to describe things to him, so they’d really sink in, so that maybe during those sleepless nights, with the drugs and the pain and the exhaustion, the line would blur between what were my memories and what were his." In this passage, Ishiguro explains how the world outside of Hailsham was falling apart. It explains how people wanted the memories of those in Hailsham to be theirs, and it sets the tone for the whole novel, showing the despair that was spreading across the post-apocalyptic world.

“I suppose it had something to do with it being a secret, just how much it had meant to me. Maybe all of us at Hailsham had little secrets like that--little private nooks created out of thin air where we could go off alone with our fears and longings. But the very fact that we had such needs would have felt wrong to us at the time--like somehow we were letting the side down.” The passage is nostalgic as Kathy reflects on the feelings she secretly held as a child. There also seems to be a slight, yet noticeable undertone of guilt about her childhood naivetè. When Kathy hypothesizes about the secret hideouts of other Hailsham students, she mentions the “fears and longings” that she implies, with some certainty, that her peers possessed. It sheds light on the students humanity, and her emotional awareness highlights her own humanity as well. The words used are largely concrete, yet describe more abstract concepts. For instance, in the phrase “little private nooks created out of thin air where we could go off alone with our fears and longings” Kathy illustrates a longing for privacy (in the words “our fears and longings” with concrete examples of places to find it, with “private nooks” and “alone”. The entire novel, including this passage, is narrated in the first person, adding much more intimacy and room for exposition--Ishiguro’s writing style reads much like a spoken example of life as it happens, without intricate wording or imagery. The three sentences of the passage are broken up by hyphens, connecting the speaker’s thoughts; the pacing of the passage, brought together by the use of hyphens, gives some dimension to it by restricting the flow to that of a spoken, nostalgic monologue being delivered by the narrator.

There was this part of the story where Kathy realized that Ruth is influenced by the things she sees on tv and the way the older guys and girls are acting. Ruth is changing the ways she acts around her friends and around her boyfriend and round everyone. I think that is basically everyone in the entire world but for some reason there is like, 12 chapters about this single thing and that seems like the most pointless thing to me. I don't really know I was just really annoyed by that.

I can honestly say that when I was reading Never Let Me Go I was the most confused that I have ever been. It was worse than Heart Of Darkness, and that was truly miserable. The story line was all over the place, repeating memories, changing POV, creating plot holes, etc. I have no idea what the author was trying to get at. Theme seems like the most quixotic topic possible. (See what I did there Mr. Bastow? It's a word of the day!) Analyzing this story seems like a complete lost cause. To be completely honest I wanted to cry while reading this book because I was so lost and I found it truly horrible.

One was I can describe Verisimilitude in Never Let Me Go through the way that Ruth and Kathy treat each other. Besides connecting with a song, this book is really hard to find a relationship with because of its complex story line. The way that Ruth and Kathy treat each other is, while being completely unimaginable, actually very relatable. They are often very rude to each other and hurt each other in various ways, yet they always find a way to make it up to each other and make it though their lives still remaining best friends. Even if there is bumps along the way, when you're with your best friend, you always find a way to fix your mistakes. That's may be the most important lesson in this book.

I can pretty much sum up this book for you in three sentences: Kathy is a carer. Then she becomes a donor. Then she completes.

Passage: To sum it up, Kath and Tommy are at the lake, talking about a memory that Tommy had of what their guardian had said to him about his creativity. "'She was furious. But furious deep inside.' 'Who at?' 'I wasn't sure. Not at me anyway, that was the most important thing!' He gave a laugh, then became serious again. 'I don't know who she was angry with. But she was angry all right.'...'there's something else,' he went on. 'She said we weren't taught enough, something like that'" (Ishiguro 28). Basically, this passage is foreshadowing what the entirety of the novel is about. It describes what the guardians believed that the world would be like after the experience at Hailsham, and how they thought that the students were not prepared enough, which sets up the entire plot line for the book. Also, it brings up when Tommy was struggling with his disability and his way to solve it.

Basically, the entirety of the novel it describing Kath's memories from her school. While her memories take place in a pre-apocalyptic world at a boarding school that is mainly focused around art and creativity, the novel itself is set in a post-war world, where Kath works as a caretaker in a hospital full of her friends and classmates. Kath's main focus is on the memories involving the discussion of what the children thought the future was like before the war. Kath's memories revolve around her two main friends, Ruth and Tommy, and their crazy antics, finally beginning to understand why they were each so special.