An Introduction to Never Let Me Go - So Far

The story begins with the narrator, Kathy, introducing herself as a thirty-one year old carer. A term that begins to make more sense as the story goes on. The content so far has consisted of Kathy looking back on her experience as a student at Hailsham, a seemingly normal boarding school in England. Hailsham appears to be your typical boarding school filled with all kinds of students and "guardians" who take on the roles of teachers and caretakers, though you suspect that something is up very quickly. The students are completely isolated from the outside world, are unable to leave Hailsham, are forced to maintain impeccable health, and are not provided answers as to why any of this is. Since the story is mostly a reflection on the past, Kathy's tone provides the reader with the sense that things were not normal at all and that much was kept for them. Mostly is an important word because the book does switch between reflection and present day where Kathy is caring for another character, Ruth. This clues the reader into knowing that these students were specially kept and monitored to become organ donors. Kathy reflects on how her, Ruth, and Tommy, slowly came to realize what was to become of them.

As was mentioned earlier, Kathy is the narrator and is now a young woman in her early thirties. Early on she mentions that she has been a carer, someone who cares and looks after the donors, for an unusually long time. She appears to be the sort of moderator in the story in terms of how she interacts with others, especially Tommy and Ruth. While they are both loud and opinionated, Kathy is rather quiet and likes to avoid conflict as much as possible. She seems to be rather well-liked and stays clear from drama as much as she can. She is also very kind and caring (no pun-intended) which is exhibited through her relationships with Tommy and Ruth. Tommy was bullied very severely for a long period of time and would often through tantrums as a way to cope. One day, instead of laughing at him as everyone else did, Kathy simply talked to him and tried to be his friend, marking the beginning of their important friendship. Ruth tended to get herself in trouble a lot with other students by saying things they did not like and Kathy was always the first to defend her and rationalize her actions or words. I am eager to see where Kathy's intelligence will lead her, especially with the help of Tommy and Ruth.

Tommy is first introduced as a rather unfortunate character who is unable to control his emotions as someone his age should be able to. Kids pick on him because they know they will get a dramatic reaction from him and they like to make fun of the fact that he has no creative ability, something the students at Hailsham are encouraged to have. Every year students make and sell some sort of art piece that could be chosen to be hung in the gallery, a weird possibly non-existent place, if Madame thinks it to be worthy. Tommy and Kathy speak of odd encounters and conversations they have either had or heard with other guardians and begin to question the little world they live in.

Ruth is a very loud, outgoing, and rather intimidating girl. Everyone is sort of drawn to her and she tends to have a large crowd of friends, though it is hard to tell who really knows her. She seems to hide her emotions from most others and likes to appear tough and strong, and she knows that she is seen as a leader and perhaps feels obligated to act this way because of that. Ruth is the organizer of a secret club that protects a guardian, Miss Geraldine, that Ruth and the other members are convinced is in danger. It is clear that Ruth is Miss Geraldine's favorite, which is sort of weird and possibly hints at the fact that she is actually in danger and appreciates Ruth's protection. Ruth is the ring-leader of sorts when it comes to uncovering the weird truths about Hailsham, though at times it seems as though she is scared to find out the answers. Despite her tough appearance, Ruth breaks down and gets weird when students question where she got her cool pencil case, and shows that holding up this reputation as a strong leader is difficult. The mixture of her strength and leadership mixed with Kathy's intelligence and determinism I think will prove to be very effective in learning the truth.

This book reads very easily, almost as though it is just a normal young adult coming of age book. The casual tone of the story leads the reader to believe that all of this is normal, just as the Hailsham kids were trained to believe. I like this style of writing because it is not filled with difficult vocabulary and weird allusions, but just a story being told from the perspective of a student, who also thought that all of this was normal for at least part of her life. You start to realize things as Kathy starts to realize things and it keeps you intrigued. I am very excited to continue reading and to see Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy investigate further, together.