"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a noel that paints a dystopic image of the world as we know it. The story is told by the main character Kathy, who narrates her life basically in three different acts. 

In the first part she remembers her childhood at a boarding school called Hailsham for us. Those seem to be her best memories, although it is already hinted early on that this fictional place is not an ordinary boarding school and that the students who have been there all their lives are not ordinary either. 

The students (and the reader) learn soon that they are very special indeed, because they are clones, created to be organ donors when they're grown up. Kathy talks about how every donor is to give as much as possible, but that they usually only get to donate 4 times maximum before they reach their "completion", meaning before they die. 

Already in her memories from Hailsham Kathy tells the reader about her friends Ruth and Tommy, who later on engage in a romantic relationship, although it is always hinted that Kathy is actually the one who has feelings for Tommy and vice versa.

The second part revolves around the characters being around 16 years old and their time after they've left Hailsham and are to live together in huts. In their time at the huts they even try to track down the woman after whom Ruth was created, to find out if there is any likeness in character at all. Disappointingly they find none and begin to wonder whether their creation was actually important at all. 

They also find out later on that Hailsham does not exist any more, because it was only an experiment to try and give the clones a good life and not raise them under inhuman circumstances. Unfortunately the funding for that project has stopped and Kathy, Tommy and Ruth were lucky to have been raised there and have a relatively good childhood.

In the last act we learn that Tommy and Ruth have already become donors and that Kathy is a carer. Carers are clones who take care of others when they have their donations. In those last years Kathy is a carer for both, Tommy and Ruth at some point, before their completion.

I think the book is absolutely brilliant, but it's hard to say that I "enjoyed" reading it, because, while I find the topic it is dealing with highly interesting, it is also very gloomy. The idea of clones as a kind of human spare part boxes is not new, but as opposed to, for example the movie The Island by Michael Bay, which is a typical Hollywood blockbuster with lots of action and motorcycle/car chases, Never let me go approaches the topic very calmly and therefore, makes it seem all the more realistic. Nevertheless, it was a great book and definitely one of my favourites from author Kazuo Ishiguro. I'd also recommend to watch the movie with the same title, which is maybe even a tad darker than the book but otherwise very well adapted to  the screen and with Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield as the main cast it assembles some of Britain's finest young actors. 

"Noughts & Crosses" by Malorie Blackman: Review

A boy is finally allowed to go to a better school, which he could not do so far, due to his skincolour. While he is more than happy about getting a better education, he is still being bullied, because of the way he looks. Sound like an awefully familiar part of history?
But what Malorie Blackman actually does in her Noughts & Crosses series, is reverse the historical roles.
The Noughts & Crosses series are dystopian novels about a society that has not developed the way our world did. In this world, the African people (Crosses) did manage to evolve much faster in various areas and therefore enslaved the white population (Noughts). This first novel is set shortly after slavery was abolished, but it is still looked down upon the Noughts and they generally live very poorly.
This is the world in which the protagonists of the novel, Callum and Sephy, grow up. Sephy is the daughter of a very important and influencal Cross, while Callum is the youngest son of a Nought family, who's mother works for Sephy's family. So they basically grow up together as children and only later in their lives are confronted with their differences. The story evolves around their friendship and the problems their different social backgrounds bring with them.
The novel follows Sephy and Callum throughout their childhood and teenage lives up until their young adult life. The reader sees how they develop together and without each other.
What starts out as a very basic tale about love and friendship develops into a thrilling, critical and heartbreaking page-turner.

When I first started reading the book I expected it to be a very classical young adult love story set in an interesting dystopian world, but I soon realised that there was much more to this book. Blackman tells the story of a whole society through the eyes of two young people who struggle with their place in it.
While the setting is, of course, fictional, the topics and problems Blackman addresses, like racism, terrorism or prejudices, seem way too familiar while reading.
Although I didn't expect it at first the book really gripped me and I had to read it in one go. One reason for that, apart from the fact that it is absolutely well written, is probably that it doesn't happen very often that a book can surprise me and that a story can turn out completely differntly from what I expected.

"The Maze Runner" by James Dashner: Review

Waking up in a dark box, remembering nothing but your first name and suddenly being pulled out  by a group of strangers in a place you have never been before - Sounds like a nightmare? Maybe, but that's exactly what is happening to the boy Thomas in the James Dashner's  The Maze Runner. The Maze Runner is the first part of a trilogy (The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure) that evolves around the protagonist Thomas and his friends. Dashner has also written a fourth book The Kill Order which is a prequel to the happenings in the trilogy.

Thomas is thrown into this strange world, where he soon finds new friends in the so-called Gladers. He learns that everyone in the Glade has their assigned duty and so he becomes a runner. That means that he runs through the gigantic maze that surrounds the Glade all day long and tries to find a way out together with his fellow runners. He seems to adjust to his life there until another person comes up in the box and this time it is a girl. So far the Gladers had only consisted of a group of boys and the appearance of the girl, Teresa, sets off a chain of events that threatens everyone in the Glade and everything they have built up until then. A brutal race against time begins for the Gladers and by the end of book 1 they learn that the maze has been the least of their worries...

I first heard about The Maze Runner because of the upcoming movie starring MTV Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien. Being also part of the currently very popular Dystopian Young Adult novel genre, I expected it to be similar to The Hunger Games series or the Divergent trilogy. While it is definitely comparable to those series in terms of the genre, I have to say that James Dashner's series adopts a much darker and more grown-up atmosphere in his novels than the others do. Th world of his books is an even gloomier place and everything seems to be more destroyed. The Maze Runner is one of the most thrilling and exciting books I have read in a while and trust me when I tell you that you won't be able to stop before you've read all of them as quickly as possible. Be prepared for a lot of fun and excitement, but also for a lot of suffering and tears. You have been warned!
As for me, I am very excited to see how the movie version turns out, but if they manage to make even remotely as good as the book, there's nothing to worry about ;-)