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Explanation and Analysis:
Never Let Me Go bridges a number of genres, including science fiction (somewhat of a dystopia, at least from the perspective of donors), the trauma narrative, and the coming-of-age or bildungsroman narrative.
As a science fiction novel, Never Let Me Go is unconventional in its exposition. Ishiguro's characteristic style involves the gradual revelation of important information over time, often through implication and figurative, indirect language. While Never Let Me Go is a science fiction novel about human clones being raised for the purpose of organ harvesting, there's a good chance readers may not realize this until they are halfway through the book.
Never Let Me Go is also a trauma narrative, in which aspects of trauma theory are explored through fictional characters and circumstances. One aspect of trauma theory contends with time as a dimension, intimating that a traumatic event will alter an individual's experience of the past, present, and future. Trauma acts as a disturbance, fragmenting time. Kathy's narrative style is meant to imitate this "time fragmentation"—she often shifts quickly from story to story, skipping around within the timeline of her personal history. Readers must piece together the truth of her life from the trauma-fragmented narratives she provides, reconstructing time to unearth the truth.
