Room by Professor Emma Donoghue

Room

by Professor Emma Donoghue

Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her precocious young son finally gain their freedom, and the boy experiences the outside world for the first time.

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating -- a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.

Reviewed by violetpeanut on

4 of 5 stars

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This was a heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful book. I really enjoyed it - as much as you can enjoy a subject like this. I know there are some who did not like the author's choice of POV - 5 year old Jack - but I thought it was honest and original. Maybe that's because I currently have a 5 year old and I can understand his thought process. In my opinion, the best part of this book is the second half where we get to see the "outside" through the eyes of a child who has never been outside of the Room. It's confusing and scary and magical all at the same time.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 April, 2012: Finished reading
  • 8 April, 2012: Reviewed