I had such mixed feelings about this book. After reading your review (and, I will admit, having read a review of the movie with Carey Mulligan et al--by which I mean, I knew the 'big secret' of Hailsham from the start), I was motivated to read this book--though I should note, I didn't 'read' it, but rather listened to the audiobook version, which was read quite well be a Rosalynn L). Frankly, knowing the big secret did not at all detract from the book, because, as you say, it becomes fairly obviously fairly early on.

So the mixed feelings? Starting with the positive, I will agree with all who say that this was beautifully written. The acceptance of these 'students' of their fate was strangely believable, because despite of the unbelieability of the storyline, the characters seemed so intimately drawn. I never would have doubted they had souls.

However.

Those souls, such as they were, were rather crippled. No one grew beyond childhood. The character traits--both good and bad--present in childhood became only moreso in adulthood. There was no real character development. Kathy remains as observant and passive as a gargoyle. Tommy remains charming and clueless. Ruth reamins a manipulate little witch. In fact, I found Ruth's character so repulsively written, her redeeming qualities so non-existent, that I had a difficult time with Kathy's blind devotion to her. Even Ruth's final moment of confessing her sins to Kathy and Tommy is viewed by Kathy as some kind of triumph on Ruth's part.

While I could see and even understand how the students' simple acceptance of their cruel fates made sense, the acceptance of Ruth's toxic personality is mind-boggling. I was waiting for something, so moment in which Kathy grows a spine and tells Ruth off. For Tommy to blink and say, "Why I am with this girl?" To hear Kathy tell it, even Tommy and Kathy's long-awaited affair seems to be done 'because it's what Ruth wanted for' them.

Were they genetically engineered to be emotionally crippled? More than the anti-climatic reveal from Miss Emily about the real purpose of all those art projects (which I saw coming from a mile away)--the whole idea of 'being in love' to get a deferral made little sense to me, when you're talking about characters with the Emotional Range of Teaspoon.

...anyway...

Were the writing not so engrossing and invovling, I suppose I might not have cared as much. But this book left me feeling deeply annoyed.