Book vs movie: Never Let Me Go

I have written many posts about books turned into movies and have expressed my opinion multiple times online about how not every book needs to be turned into a feature film. So I have decided to start up a segment that I like to call Book vs movie! My first victim: Never Let Me Go. (Warning, both the movie and the book deal with swearing and sexual content) 

Synopsis: We have found a cure for cancer. However this cure is to create special clones, and let them live without knowing their purpose until they reach 18, when they start giving up their vital organs in order for others to live. This story is about three unfortunate children, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, who go to a special school for kids that grow up to be donors; a term for the clones who live their lives just to give up their organs for others. We get to see them grow in this peculiar school; they can not go outside the boundaries, the students are supposed to submit pieces of art in for a mysterious collection and their teachers are not allowed to talk about their sad futures. Eventually we get to see Kathy turn into a carrier for these donors, take care of her old friends and come to the realization that she is not going to stay like this forever and that she too will eventually have to give up her life for what the world seems to think is the greater good. 

Book: The novel, written by Kazuo Ishiguro, is fairly old and has some hard vocabulary, but besides that was well written and quite beautiful. It is narrated by Kathy and it jumps back from past and present time as she relives her younger years; which was a super creative and great way to tell the story. However, at times it was confusing to understand if she was talking about the past or present. The book was a bit slow at times but was a very good read.

Movie: I suppose this could be a prejudiced opinion because  did watch the movie before reading the novel, but the movie was absolutely brilliant. With a all-star cast of Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, the roles were played perfectly. Although I cried a lot, that wasn’t a bad thing. The fact that a movie could move me so much was amazing, and it stayed true to the book for the most part, which was a bonus. The only criticism I will give is that there were some unnecessary scenes and lines so it was boring in some parts.

With that said; I highly recommend you watch the movie, I wouldn’t recommend reading the book unless the movie intrigued you so much to do so, or if you are looking for a challenging read. I am considering continuing this series so if you have any books/movies that you want me to compare, feel free to comment on this post!