My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I remember reading Never Let Me Go years ago, but I never forgot about it because it broke my heart. So I was excited about reading this one.
Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF) who loves to watch the world go by as much as she loves the sun. Even after the Manager's warning of not investing too much in promises made by humans, she finds herself swept away by Josie and the home she lives in...
Oh. Okay. Not what I expected.
I'm a sucker for a robot story, especially when told through the eyes of the robot themselves. I was instantly hooked by Klara's voice because it's a combination of seeing the world through the eyes of a curious child and an intelligent artificial lifeform. Her observations might be simple but that made sense to me.
I spent a lot of the story happily following Klara's ambition to be adopted by Josie and then what happens after she leaves the store. Josie's sick but the reason is a bit wishy-washy until you read between the lines and figure out what lifted means in this world. And you realise that the Mother is a terrible person. Actually, asides from Rick, every single person in this story sucks. Yes, even Josie. They're all shallow, boring, downright weird, and SO ridiculous. In a not-very-entertaining way.
I usually love reading stories about terrible or even shallow characters but this one was missing something.
Not to mention that Klara's wonder with the sun started to weigh me down. And that lifted isn't the only word that's thrown around without any explanation.
Anyway, there are some lovely things about this book, but by the time I reached the end, everything felt bogged down by the repetition and the lack of world building. And essential details. I'm all for filling in the blanks and being vague or mysterious because I love to work things out for myself, but when the word lifted gets thrown around with no explanation for almost the entire book, it got on my last nerve.
I had no problem with Klara's child-like perception, but the opportunity to pass on relevant information via dialogue was instead used to muddy the waters. But the worst thing of all is that I didn't get attached to the characters. Not even Klara.
Either way, I'm glad I read it. Not glad that I didn't love it like I thought I would.
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