Room by Emma Donoghue

room
Room by Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: Full Length (321 pages)
Rating: 3.5 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. 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 is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.
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Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

Strap in…it’s going to be an interesting and gut-wrenching ride.

Room isn’t a book I would’ve picked up normally. This story is told from the perspective of the child and that’s not generally my cuppa. That said, once I started the book I couldn’t stop. The situation Ma and Jack find themselves in isn’t anything anyone would want to be in. Ma – her name is never mentioned – is kidnapped at the age of 19 by Old Nick. While I had moments I wanted to know more about him and his motivations, mostly I just hated Old Nick. The author did a good job of making me ill from reading about him. Yeah, he’s bad.

I can’t imagine being a kidnapping victim or the things Ma and Jack had to go through to survive. To be locked in an 11×11 room… the very thought makes me shudder. I have to say I was emotionally invested in the story. I had to know what would happen to the characters, even Old Nick. I wasn’t disappointed. While it’s not a feel-good read, there were moments I simply couldn’t put the kindle down.

That said, there were trigger moments for me. Jack, although five years old and smart as a whip, is emotionally behind. How can he not be? He hasn’t ever experienced the outside world and has no idea how to interact with other people beyond Ma. One of the things she does to keep him close is she still nurses him. This was a trigger for me in that it put me off of the story. I get it. She nursed him to ensure he’d get the proper nourishment and to keep that bond. She had to be sure he’d grow up right. But the nursing made me uncomfortable. Then there was the incident with the tooth. Ma has bad teeth and some fall out. One in particular does and Jack nabs it. It’s his connection to Ma. What made me uncomfortable about Tooth – as he calls it – is something kids do. He sticks it in his mouth. He sucks on it, carries it around and puts it in his sock…then sticks it back in his mouth. The germ factor was more than I could handle. If you’re not wild about kids who stick things in their mouth or the older child nursing issue…then this might not be the book for you.

But honestly, while this wasn’t something I’d have picked on my own, I’m glad I read it. Anyone could be that girl who is kidnapped. She thinks she’s helping someone. Who hasn’t done that? It’s a plausible story. Interesting, intriguing and fascinating since the story is told from Jack’s point of view, Room might be just the book for your reading list.

Comments

  1. Loved this book!

  2. So did I, Anne.

    It was interesting to read your criticisms of this book, Nymphaea. Those scenes stuck out in my mind in a good way because they gave such clear examples of how growing up/living in Room has negatively affected both Ma and Jack.

    Their coping skills aren’t always healthy, but I think they were incredibly realistic for a deeply traumatized woman as well as for a small child who has no idea just how strange and dangerous his life has been so far.

    (Although I definitely understand why you were so grossed out! 🙂 )

    Has anyone seen the movie that was based on this book yet? I’ve been meaning to watch it but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

  3. Cool, that’s good to know.

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