The alternate history Never Let Me Go follows the lives of several children who grew up in a strange, special school. It’s very well written (the author is the guy who wrote The Remains of the Day and won the Nobel Prize for Literature), but the real focus of the book is not really about the characters, but about the slow reveal of why the school and the children were special.

Once this secret is revealed, I expected the characters to react in a certain way (I can’t say how without spoiling the book). However, none of the characters reacted in that way at all, which seemed like such a bizarre and unlikely choice that it completely pulled me out of the story.

Recommendation: Get it at the library. If you’re already a fan of author Kazuo Ishiguro, you’ll probably like it. If you’re a writer, you should read it just to see what he does and how he does it.