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2 ½ stars. I’m kicking myself for going into this expecting a fast-paced novel I’d rocket through. Because this book may be post-apocalyptic and all depending on The Twist [which comes like a third of the way through, by the way] but it is certainly not fast-paced. Basically, even though I appreciated things about Never Let Me Go, my reading experience of this was 99% awful.

I’ve split this review into several parts, but my overarching opinion falls into one category: this book has clever ideas, but they’re not the focus. Instead, Never Let Me Go becomes a long list of memories. There is such a thing as taking show, not tell, too far - it’s when what you’re showing is beginning to bore the reader. Listen, if there are three thousand reveals or a deep character arc running through the book, we’re fine, but there are approximately two reveals and a bunch of character memories that failed to make me feel attached.

� the characters �
I want to say that I like the idea of Cathy’s character. She has been so torn down, so forced to be one thing that she has never considered being anything else or finding a different path in life. It is awful and horrifying. And yet, two things: one, she has no character voice, and two, the focus is not on developing Cathy. That is absolutely fine. Unless you’re me and literally only care about character development.

� the romance �
I’m so sorry, but this book did an utterly awful job with character chemistry. Tommy and Cath� I’m sorry, I just didn’t believe it. (view spoiler)[After spending an entire book screwing around and being just friends, they decide they’ve been in love for years because his ex girlfriend tells him they are. And then they start having sex and it is described so goddamn clinically. (hide spoiler)] They clearly care about each other, but where’s the romantic side to this? I don’t even really attach to them as best friends. Neither of them are all that likable or even all that relatable.

� the worldbuilding �
A good idea, but I really don’t think this works when we see nothing about the rest of the world. I had sort of hoped the world would get expanded, we’d see the true context of normalcy juxtaposed to what the leads go through, and it just does not happen.

� the morality conflict �
It’s as if authors of 2005 think they can bring up a topic, offer zero new insight into said topic, and hope the audience thinks about the book in the future. Which, okay, I admit this strategy can work. If you’re attached to the characters enough to feel your heart break in tandem. I was not.

� the audio format �
I think, in general, listening to an audiobook of a book like this was a mistake. This is a book that required my skimreading technique. If I had read this in physical copy, I am quite confident I would have turned pages in a rush, read the whole thing in two hours skipping half the sentences, and liked it quite a bit more - I’m sure some of my thoughts would be similar, but the few reveals could’ve bumped this to a three or four at least. But by the end of this book� I was just waiting for it to end. I could no longer connect to Cathy because the book just needed to end. And that’s something to know for the future - about my reading style and about this book.

Oh well. I guess we can't win them all, right?

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