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Mar 20, 2011

Joel rated it:

I was all ready to hate this book. Doesn't it sound obnoxious? An adult novel about harrowing things, but narrated by a 5-year-old? Mere gimmickry, right, a showy writing experiment, likely to win praise from the easily impressed.

But I don't think I am that easily impressed, and damn, this book is kind of a stunner. Because yes, if not handled exactly right, a book narrated by a child probably would be obnoxious. I haven't read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close yet, and I might or mi More...

54 comments like (311 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Tatiana rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

17 comments like (38 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

mark rated it:

Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick, i can't believe i have to read this! argh. my wonderful colleague Michael (hopefully not a GR member) loaned this to me; clearly he knows that i am a "reader". but just as clearly he also does not get that i like my books to have at least an edge of un-reality to them. you know, fantasy. horror. science fiction. historical fiction. and if not that, then just something, anything that moves them away from mainstream depictions of the modern real world. n More...

34 comments like (50 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Tulpesh rated it:

Based on, or ‘inspired by’ shocking cases like that of Josef Fritzl, Room is the story of a boy, Jack, born and raised with his captive mother in a 12 foot square room. Narrated by the boy himself, it’s a child’s eye view of a small world housing a great deal of imagination, pain and love.

Packed with the emotional punch and occasional humour that comes with having a child narrator, comparisons will inevitably be drawn to John Boyne’s The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas. In my opinion, More...

4 comments like (93 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Annalisa rated it:

Wow. A book hasn't swallowed me whole like that in a long time. This one will be haunting be for awhile. I wish I could tell you what it's about, but I wish I hadn't read the back cover 30 pages or so into and changed my own perception. It's best to figure it out along with the story.

I will say that it's about a 5-year-old boy who has never left the room where he lives. His whole world is Room and Bed and Rug. It's a little jarring to read from his point of view and I was worried I was More...

1 comment like (34 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2011

karen rated it:

here's a confession:

if i voted for your review of this book before today, i had not fucking read it. oops, sorry! (upon quickfast, sherlockian investigation, i now know that only means two of you - and i read the first half of both of them before, i swear, and have now read them in their entireties) but i didn't want anything spoilt for me. i didn't want to know if the book was triumphant or devastating or funny or tragic or philosophical or melodramatic. i wanted the tone to b More...

27 comments like (42 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2010

K.D. rated it:

I am torn between 1 (I don't like it) and 2 (It's okay). Yesterday, I rated this "2" but in the discussion below, looks like Donoghue stole the plot from an actual event. There is nothing for me to like about this book so I am changing my rating to "1".

I bought this September 2010 copyrighted book only last Sunday for P549 ($11). Obviously, this is not part of the 1001 and 501 quests that I aiming to achieve. However, I sometimes have this urge of reading new book More...

151 comments like (43 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

Words are so 2010; I'm doing all my 2011 reviews as infographics:

infographic of Room

The tweet: Oskar and Christopher walked farther, but Jack has further to go.

Lots of pluses: Unique and compelling voice of a child protagonist. If you liked Oskar and Christopher, you’ll love Jack. Treads a little too close to preciousness in some spots, but Donohoe uncovers the themes of parenting, trauma, psychological resilience, and the triumph of imagination, the inner world and the bond More...

25 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

G rated it:

Ever since its Booker nomination (it made the shortlist), Room by Irish writer Emma Donoghue has set the literary world on fire. Most people who review the book seem to love it. They talk about how riveting and suspenseful the book is and how they felt compelled to finish it in a single reading. I guess I’ll have to be one of the few dissenting voices. I really, really, really disliked Room and yes, I do have specific reasons why.

I can’t imagine anyone not knowing the basic plot of Roo More...

67 comments like (181 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2011

Michelle rated it:

This book didn't have a chance with me.
1. It was written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy.
2. For the first two thirds of the book the kid was annoying.
3. The mom breastfeeds the kid a lot. I counted twelve times before I stopped counting. The kid creeped me out by talking about which boob tasted better.

Why read it?
It was this month's selection for a book club I am part of. It wasn't my pick.

Why two stars rather than one?
Well, I'll More...

8 comments like (26 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2010

Stephanie (The Night Bookmobile) rated it:

A novel narrated by a five year old? I'm not a kid person at all so do not think you need to be a mother to appreciate this story. There is something about Jack's way of looking at Room and at Outside that is refreshing instead of irritating. It's nice to not be dragged down by all the complexities of an adult narrator for a change and I know I would have given this story less stars if it were told through his mother's eyes. This is a story that Jack needed to tell and I am very happy that he di More...

1 comment like (29 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Mon rated it:

I still remember when the Fritzl case first came out. At the time I was still in high school and it was immediately the news headline of the week. During breakfast in the school dinning room, someone would usually pick up a paper for the table (about 7 or 8 people) and read out the 'interesting stories'. Several friends and I, sitting with our toasts and coffee, laughed at how ridiculous it was when we heard it. Most of us thought it was a joke, a poorly written horror film script. It was inconc More...

3 comments like (17 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Vivienne rated it:

This was the first of my Man Booker Shadowing Group reads and as such I am looking at it from a dual perspective: as to whether I judge it worthy of the 2010 award and if it works as a novel.

I feel 'Room' could herald a new sub-genre - the fictional equivalent of the Misery Memoir - MizFic. Oh dear.

It felt much more suited to being chosen for the Oprah Book Club than on the shortlist for a literary prize of this calibre. It is literary chiclit appealing to sentiment and More...

6 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2011

Reese rated it:

Most of us are unaware of how much room there is in the world or in one's individual world until all but a tiny fraction of it becomes inaccessible. And if that tiny fraction is all that we have ever known, we still have room -- or Room -- to create a world that is as large as we think it will ever need to be.

Pardon the understatement: Emma Donoghue has created an "amazing" work. ROOM begs to be analyzed, to be analyzed too much. But Archibald MacLeish just rented the last More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2010

letterbyletter rated it:

Room, as five-year old Jack calls home, is the only place he's known. But for his mother, it's been her prison since she was abducted seven years ago. The story is compelling--a mother's love creates a world for her son in a single room, even as she grows more and more desperate.

Yet, I could not connect with the narrative. Told in the voice of Jack, the story felt contrived. It never felt like the story of a five-year old, but the story of a five-year old as told by an adult. Every More...

5 comments like (21 people liked it)

May 06, 2011

Wendy Darling rated it:

I've read about a lot of different crimes, in far more detail than I'd care to remember. In all the tragedies that I've read about, manmade or otherwise, no act of violence has ever made my heart wrench more than the prolonged imprisonment of a human being for sexual purposes. It's also the crime I have the most difficulty in comprehending, as I cannot imagine the amount of inhumanity it would take to capture someone and look her in the eye, day after day for years, without mercy and without pit More...

21 comments like (28 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2011

Fiona rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

24 comments like (12 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Liviu rated it:

Stunning book and the one that *should win* the Booker - of the 5 I've read/tried, i would say that only Long Song is somewhat comparable for its weighty subject, though this one has a weighty subject too. Strange Room is nice but lighter, C is mediocre at best, Parrot and Olivier boring.

This one though blows one away and as others mentioned i was ready to dismiss it - 5 year old narrator isolated in a room since birth???

Will have a full review soon.

FBC Review More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Boof rated it:

I want to start by saying that I loved this book - loved it! When I see other reviews, prior to me reading a book, that state phrases like "unputdownable" and "kept me up all night" I tend to get very excited and have, in the past, been let down upon reading the book for myself. Not so with Room - believe the hype, people!

Room is narrated by five-year-old Jack who was born and still lives in an 11' by 11' shed with his Ma. Jack has never know any other life, and More...

7 comments like (16 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Ruth rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

22 comments like (33 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2010

Jackie rated it:

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2 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 25, 2011

Kemper rated it:

“Hey, there Nick.”

“Uh, hello.”

“Nice day for working in the yard, isn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah. Real nice.”

“Say, that is a helluva shed you’re building there.”

“It's nothing special.”

“Oh, don’t be modest, Nick. It’s a real corker. It’s even got a skylight for some natural light. What are you going to be doing in there? A little artwork?”

“Just, you know, projects…. and stuff.”

“You got a central AC unit for it More...

5 comments like (47 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

仔, 我决定爱你一萬年 rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I can’t stop thinking about this book. The world Emma Donoghue created for the eleven-by-eleven foot space Jack and “Ma” inhabit is so haunting and real that I continue to feel frightened and creeped out. Yet I have positive feelings, too: admiration for Ma and protectiveness for Jack, who’s the cutest darn five year-old you’ve ever met. I want to take Jack home with me and cuddle. Unfortunately, taking him to a home in the outside world means he won’t know how to walk down stairs. He won’t like More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2011

Steph rated it:

8 June 11 ETA: I just stumbled on this interview in Stylish.co.uk with Emma Donoghue (in 2010?) and found it interesting. Thought I'd share with those interested in her thoughts on writing a book such as this.

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Room is such a hard book to read and to review. One reason I can't bring myself to rate this book 5★s is because it somehow feels wrong? to rate little Jack's story at all.

More...

15 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2011

Athira rated it:

I hold on to her hand. She wants me to believe so I'm trying to but it hurts my head. "You actually lived in TV one time?"

"I told you, it's not TV. It's the real world, you wouldn't believe how big it is." Her arms shoot out, she's pointing at all the walls. "Room's only a tiny stinky piece of it."

"Room's not stinky." I'm nearly growling.

By now, there will be very few of you who have not heard of this book. It has featured in almos More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Dorothy rated it:

I want to quote the blurb on the book, because it basically sums up everything I feel about the book:

"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. ROOM is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days." - Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

I got this book on the first day of BEA. It was one of the More...

0 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Luann rated it:

This book grabbed me up and would not let go. It's not so much that I enjoyed the story as that I felt like I had to be there for Jack and Ma while they were going through this experience, and I had to find out what happened to them. Wow. Reading this was such an intense experience, that I now feel emotionally wiped out. Telling the story from Jack's point of view, who is a five-year-old, was simply brilliant. He doesn't know any other life except in Room, and the starkness of their situation More...

7 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2011

Khaya rated it:

This is a challenging review to write, because I feel that the more you know about this book going in, the less of an experience reading it will be. So I'll talk about the premise but not about what actually happens.

Jack is a five-year-old boy whose world is confined to a place he calls "Room." It is clear that he has never left this space, which he shares with "Ma," a loving and patient mother who is clearly struggling a great deal. At night they are sometimes More...

20 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2010

Laurel rated it:

**This review contains a slight spoiler for those who want to know nothing of the book before reading it.**

I had a bit of an unusual perspective reading (or listening to) this book. In some sense, I was already very familiar with Room. Not the book itself, and not Jack's room specifically, of course. But, much like Jack and his mother, I too have been confined indoors, primarily to a single room, day-in and day-out, for more years than I'd like to think about.

My situa More...

12 comments like (19 people liked it)