Room by Emma Donoghue - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Mar 20, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, 52-in-2010, kindle, vote-getters

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 might not...more 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 might not like it, but I already know that it is written in the voice of a precocious 9-year-old, and precocious kids usually are pretty annoying.

But Jack, the narrator of Room, is not really precocious, and Emma Donoghue has managed to capture a realistic child's voice without turning out a book that's overly simplistic or too calculated. And I really don't know how she did it.

As you begin reading this story of a boy who has spent his entire life locked in one small room, the son of the unfortunate Ma (who is never named, because she's Ma), who was kidnapped and has been kept in the room for the last seven years, it does seem too cute: all the objects in Room are proper nouns with genders, like Floor and Bed and Duvet and Wardrobe, which kind of makes sense because to Jack, they are the only onlys of those things in the world, because the whole world is Room (he has a TV, which he thinks shows make-believe things that live on planets inside the TV). But I kept reading, and there's really remarkable depth to the story even though such a limited narrative scope.

What really grabbed me is the way the book perfectly captures the malleability of a kid's mind, the way they take what they know and use it as a filter to interpret the stuff they encounter that they don't understand. I once read something by Stephen King that posited that all children are more or less clinically insane until about age seven, when those parts of their brain firm up and they stop coming up with ideas like, "oh it got dark because a giant monster ate the sun." And of course, Emma Donoghue knows that we are not 5-year-olds, and she somehow manages to weave in all these staggeringly sad truths about the world, and growing up, and our relationships with our parents, and how fleeting time and relationships can be, all into the voice of this little boy who doesn't even realize what he's saying, but it doesn't feel crammed in, or like a cheat (the Magical ~~Negro~~ 5-Year-Old).

I didn't say anything about the plot because I think it really helps to not know much beyond the premise going in (and it's one of those books I would really like to have read knowing absolutely nothing at all, but such is life). And yes, it's more of a heart book than a head book, but I don't think it is bad that sometimes books try to engage us in different ways. And certainly there's room, with this premise, for a different kind of book, almost a social satire, but that's not what we have here, and it's still quite an experience.
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Oct 03, 2011 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: these-fragile-lives, rain-man-reviews, navel-gazin-reviews

Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick, i can't believe i have to read this! argh. my 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. now Room looks like a...more Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick, i can't believe i have to read this! argh. my 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. now Room looks like a snapshot of life right from the news. or right from my place of work! good grief, i deal with depressing enough stuff already goddamnit! reading the back cover description was like reading the label of a bottle of poison - i do not want to drink this. but fine, i respect you Michael and so i will read this one. just don't get mad if it takes me two months to get through this fucking thing.

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it took me over two weeks to finish the first half. i finished the second half during an afternoon and part of an evening. an amazing novel and a very emotional experience. i think i'll save writing a review for a little bit and let it sink in for a while.

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it's hard for me to define exactly why the first half of the novel was so hard to get through. at first i convinced myself that the child's perspective was just too "hearbreakingly poignant", and i am not the kind of person who is enthusiastic about reading works of heartbreaking poignance. but that is patently false; i love those kinds of books although i would never admit it openly. well, i'd say it in a GR review, but i would never say that out loud, if that makes sense. perhaps i'm a hypocrite that way. so then i convinced myself that there was just something wrong with the narrator's voice, something off, he just seemed - at different points - to be either too precocious or too simple for a child his age. i compared him a lot to my nephews, and it didn't gel - his thought process did not parallel their thought process. but then i thought about this kid's situation, the extreme sort of home-schooling he received, the protective wall that his amazing mom built for him, the way he interpreted the world...and it made sense, a whole lot of sense. his voice turned out to be a very real one for me, at least based upon my understanding of his young life.

and so i realized that the reason i was avoiding coming back to Room's first half was more basic, more simple. it made me want to cry, all the time. perhaps i'm too soft, maybe i just have too thin a skin. it's not like i have any illusions about kids - they are not saints to me, nor are they just tiny adults. i'm comfortable around children and i prefer them to many adults i've met, but i don't idealize them either. however i do have a big natural urge to protect them. i'm not sure where that comes from; i don't think it's based on genetics or upbringing. and so it was just really hard to return again and again to a novel that had as its central situation the kind of thing that i try actively to never contemplate. as in, i'll turn the channel or put down the paper if i come across a story like this one. to be honest, each time i read a few lines of the first half, my eyes would well up a little, that shortness of breath thing happened - and often in public, on the bus, at a coffeeshop, reading at a lunch spot. the private world of this novel became a public experience to me. i avoided this book at first because i do not like to appear weak - to the world around me, or to myself.

i told the guy who loaned me the book about my issues and was given some advice: just stick with it, it will open up and it will be beautiful. and so i did. and the book did. it was good advice.

the first half of the book was beautiful as well. wonderfully written. but thank God, the second half really did open up. it was like taking a breath of wonderful, clean air, somewhere in nature, away from the city. the humor remained but it was transformed into something wry, something that was still poignant but with a sheen of sardonic humor that i appreciated (and, truth be told, perhaps had a level of distance to it that i rather lazily connected to as well). the anger i felt in the first half towards Old Nick was inchoate - the kind of blind rage that i feel towards anyone who'd harm a child. the anger i felt in the second half was of a kind that is more comfortable, more familiar - towards the media, towards pop psychology, towards various institutions and the like. the second half had lessons to be learned - lessons about perception and isolation and materialism and the family bond and the bond between mother & son, protector & protected. the simple fact of "lessons to be learned" made the second half so much easier to read, it made the narrative positively propulsive in my desire to learn what was going to happen next. the horribly (and needfully) static nature of the book's first half was replaced by an emotional dynamism that really grabbed me. again, this is not a critique of the first half, which i think was perfectly written. instead, it is a critique of my own ability to deal with challenging, terrifying situations involving kids - since i couldn't do anything to stop or even hurt Old Nick, i wanted only to look away. and so the second half turned out to be more of a familiar road, with familiar pleasures. the first half of the book was horribly unique and my mind balked. the second half eased me back into a world i could deal with, respond to, and not shut down. at the end of the second half, the end of the novel itself, i read those last few sentences over and again, closed the book, and cried. such a relief. it's funny to think of all the tears i had saved up.(less)

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Mar 15, 2012 Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, psychos, crime, literature, horror, 2006-2010, audiobook, the-creeps

Healthy ambition is a laudable trait and I admire people willing to reach beyond their grasp in the attempt to achieve something special.

I respect the author’s choice to write a dark-themed story narrated entirely from the perspective of a five year old boy. While the unreliable narrator is nothing new in literature, its deployment here felt fresh and so I give points for that.

Unfortunately, that is about all I can give points for because the novel itself was a huge miss for me. Huge!!

Obviou...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-kindle, 2012, reviewed

Have you ever see that 1997 film Life Is Beautiful? No? Well, it’s about this Italian Jew who is sent to a concentration camp with his wife and son during World War II, and in order to shield his son from the horrors of war, he tells him that they are really just playing a super fun game and that everyone in the camp is a contestant. Not surprisingly, his son believes the whole thing (kids are pretty dumb, right?) and he is able to maintain this ruse right up until the Allied invasion. So, Room...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Wendy Darling rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, annoying-main-characters, read-2011, huge-disappointments

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 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 pity. I still get very upset when I read about these things, even years after the events which no doubt inspired this book.

To say that I was very interested in reading this book is therefore an understatement. The subject matter and the editorial accolades made this sound like a novel that was not to be missed, and the author's other work is very well-reviewed. And in the beginning of the book, I was content enough with the developments of the story, as the reader gets to know Jack and his Ma and the Room in which they've lived for so many years.

About halfway through, however, I started to become impatient with the constraints of the format the author had chosen. Having a 5-year-old narrator became an extremely frustrating exercise, both in terms of his (understandable) unwillingness to comprehend or listen to certain things and in terms of getting a truly emotional take on the experience. I don't fault the decision to write this from a child's point of view, but I do think it would have been a deeper, more rewarding story had it been narrated from an older child's perspective--perhaps from a 10-year-old's POV. I'm not certain that the voice was entirely convincing in and of itself, either; after awhile, the tendency to name every object as if it were a proper pronoun became a little tiresome, and there are interjections of thoughts and passages that are far too mature for Jack's thought processes. (view spoiler) Filtering this story through someone so young also meant that the reader gains far less insight into his mother's pain and his captor's background than you might hope.

The author does include convincing details of Jack's attachment to Room itself, nice moments of closeness with his Ma, and attempts to provide adult insight and terminology through overhead conversations or snippets on tv. Overall, however, this novel was a big disappointment to me. I expected to feel something for these characters--and if it could not be something profoundly deep and empathetic, I'd at least hoped for something more than simple intellectual interest and pity.

Updated 4/27/11: I've given this a lot of thought, and based on GoodReads' ratings system, I've changed my rating from a 2 to a 1. In the end, there are two things I wanted from this book: to have some degree of deeper insight into the suffering that these characters endured and to be moved by their plight. For me, this book offered neither.(less)

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view all 41 comments

Stephanie Galvagno I don't know if someone has mentioned this yet, but I feel the use of the objects as proper pronouns showed that Rug, and Lamp weren't just things to...more
Feb 24, 2013 12:16am

Wendy Darling You have an interesting point, Julia--I think having a little more time with them Outside would have been interesting, too. And thank you, I'm always...more
Feb 24, 2013 05:47pm

Nov 02, 2010 Tatiana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Tatiana by: Booker nomination

Shelves: 2010, contemporary

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

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Sep 21, 2010 Stephanie (The Night Bookmobile) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, reviewed

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

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Oct 09, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Room by Emma Donoghue is an extraordinary book. It is not literary, despite the Booker nomination: the first half reads like a thriller of the darker variety and the second half like a tear-jerker. The whole story seems contrived, and one part (the escape of Jack from the Room) stretches credibility almost to the point of breaking. Yet, the novel is strangely compelling and once taken up, hard to put down. Why?

I believe this is because of the psychological and mythical depth of the narrative. Th...more Room by Emma Donoghue is an extraordinary book. It is not literary, despite the Booker nomination: the first half reads like a thriller of the darker variety and the second half like a tear-jerker. The whole story seems contrived, and one part (the escape of Jack from the Room) stretches credibility almost to the point of breaking. Yet, the novel is strangely compelling and once taken up, hard to put down. Why?

I believe this is because of the psychological and mythical depth of the narrative. The author herself has said two things prompted her to write this novel. One, the extraordinarily limited world of a person forced to stay in close confinement for an extended period of time: the second, the bond between the child and the mother, especially in the early oral stages where they are scarcely two entities. Let us examine each in turn.

Jack's Ma (she is never named in the novel: she exists only as the Mother) has been confined in a soundproof, eleven feet-by-eleven feet shed in his backyard by a psychopath (known only as Old Nick) for seven years. She has been abducted by him and kept there as his sex slave since she was nineteen: Jack has been born in captivity, her second child by Nick (the first had been a stillbirth). Jack has never been outside the shed. He calls it Room, and it is all the world to him: a living, breathing entity. What is seen on the TV is a myth, and all the people inhabiting that world are unreal. The only other real (or semi-real) entity is Old Nick, whom Jack has never seen, as his mother hides him in the wardrobe as Nick comes for his nightly visit. Nick is known to Jack only through the creaks of the bed as he rapes his mother.

Jack's world is claustrophobic, but he does not know it, as it is the only world he has known for the five years of his life. For him, the existence is idyllic, a composite entity composed of only he and his Ma. All the toys, books and collages made from junk by his mother are living entities for Jack. We see Room only through his eyes: Emma Donoghue has done a fantastic job with the kid's POV. He is very advanced in certain ways but extremely juvenile in other. His language is a curious mixture of portmanteau words, grammar mistakes, and long phrases picked up from TV. It is the brilliance of the author which makes us feel the claustrophobia of the atmosphere for Jack's mother even when he himself revels in it.

Coming to the curious relationship between Jack and Ma, the Oedipal suggestions are very evident. Ma still breast-feeds Jack, even though he is five (it is called "having some" - I found that terminology vaguely vulgar, therefore effective): his penis always "stands up" in the morning. This is the "mythical drama played out in every nursery", as Joseph Campbell said: the urge of the son to kill the father and marry the mother - and the father here deserves very much to be killed.

Jack is the hero of all the fairy tales his mother tells him, like the eponymous hero of most English fairy tales. His birth in captivity, escape and rescue of his mother also parallels the story of many a Godchild (Krishna comes to mind immediately). It is highly significant that Jack prays to the Baby Jesus, and also that the villain is known as "Old Nick" - the name of the Devil.

The book is split in two: the first part in Room, and the second out of it (or "Outside" as Jack calls it). The author's aim in structuring the narrative thus is evident; to show that Jack and Ma have become a single entity almost, impossible to separate. In fact, Room has travelled with them. The invisible prison continues to suffocate Ma to such an unbearable stage that she tries to commit suicide.

Ultimately, Jack is partially rehabilitated when he goes back to the Room and says goodbye to it. We feel that finally there is a ray of hope. However, even with that upbeat ending, one has to say that the novel sort of loses steam in the second half.

Still I will give this novel four stars for the daring concept and the craft of keeping the child narrator's voice genuine through 400 pages (no mean achievement): also for the very real claustrophobia of Room and the mythical and psychological dimensions. The deduction of one star is for the rather insipid second half and the totally unbelievable escape.

Highly recommended.(less)

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Nov 20, 2010 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

**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 situation is obviously quite a b...more **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 situation is obviously quite a bit different from Jack's. I'm significantly older, for one. I haven't been in this room my entire life, and I'm very aware of "Outside" and all the glorious wonders it holds. I had a chance to see the world before my confinement, and thus know too keenly all the things I'm now missing out on. In that sense, I guess I am more like Jack's mother. Except, I'm not locked in because of a cruel and abusive man by the name of Old Nick. I'm locked in because of the cruelty of a rather unforgiving and (thus far) incurable chronic illness.

I couldn't help but wonder how this affected my view of Room. Instead of trying to imagine what such a life would be like, I found some of my own life reflected back at me. I felt a strange sort of companionship with these characters. That is, it's not often I read a book where I find the setting in any way similar to my own. I understood Room. I understood the connection (and aversion) to the objects within it, the need to create games and develop new, clever ways to pass the time, and I understood the urgency of finding normalcy in the abnormal in order to maintain any semblance of sanity. And I understood all too deeply the mother's intense and fervent desire for freedom.

Clearly, there were many things these characters had to endure that I of course do not. My point is only that my perspective was a bit unusual. In Jack's Room, I sadly saw a bit of my own room, and thus my own life.

All that being said, no matter what your perspective may be, this is quite a gripping read. It's been awhile since I've read a book I literally could not put down. You wouldn't think a book told from the point of view of a 5-year old would grab your attention so utterly and completely, but Room does. Donoghue is quite masterful in creating Jack's voice as he first tries to make sense of the only world he has ever known, and then of the explosion of a world outside he never knew existed.

The second half of the book faltered a bit for me at times, and there were some aspects of the plot that I wasn't sure I fully bought into. I don't want to say what, exactly, as it would give too much away. But even with the slight problems I had with it, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and compelling read. It is a story whose characters I will think of for some time to come.

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Mar 14, 2012 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pearl-ruled

Rating: 0.125* of five

I couldn't finish it. P88 or so, I said to myself, "Self," I said, "you are being manipulated, Self, and it feels so cynical and so heartless that even you, Self, cynical old heartless bastard that we are, can't stand it."

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.

"He's not here. I wish he were....more

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Sep 30, 2010 Tulpesh Patel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

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, Room surpass...more 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, Room surpasses that book because the protagonist feels more real; Donoghue accomplishes the job of not only getting inside the head of a child, as Boyne very cleverly, but more cloyingly did, but she also has a protagonist who’s only experience of the world is a television with four fuzzy channels and his mother’s stories, which adds a whole new, tougher and more horrific, dimension.

In describing the lives of these two captives in this tiny room, Donoghue exercise as much, if not more, imagination than creators of entire universes, like Tolkien. The tiny attention to detail paid to their room and Jack’s description of it, makes it an all too real and terrible place.

It’s not really a plot-driven book, although I found my heart racing on several occasions, desperate to find out what happens to this dear, naive little boy. It is definitely a book that is difficult to write about with revealing spoiling for those who are yet to enjoy it. At its core I guess it’s about the indomitable human spirit, but there is a palpable sadness and desperation that makes gripping but painful reading. There is more violence contained in a muttered line about cork floorboards than a dozen Bret Easton Ellis novels put together, a true testament to Donoghue’s skill at creating empathy for Jack and his mother.

Room definitely deserves its place on the Booker Prize short-list but it is far from perfect. The focus on the two central characters leaves others in the novel feeling like broadly painted caricatures. There are also some clever post-modern allusions to the cult of celebrity, which provide neat satire, but these are tangled with occasional moments, largely towards the end of the novel, where Jack’s voice feels a just a little too much like the author’s commentary on modern life, rather than simply Jack’s view of the world.

I very much agree with the Audrey Niffenegger quote on the sleeve: “When it’s over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days”. Several times since finishing the book I’ve wondered about the scale of my own world and what lies beyond it – having never seen them, are the Pyramids only TV?
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Jul 30, 2011 Annalisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Book clubs

Shelves: book-club, contemporary, issue, psychology, voice

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 wasn't going...more 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 wasn't going to be able to get into his story, but once I became accustomed to his voice, I couldn't put his story down. And his story wouldn't have the power it does without his perspective. We think about these type of stories from other perspectives, but never from his. Never from the child who is comfortable in his world that we know is all wrong. The child that never wants to leave his strange circumstances when we understand why he should.

Most of the time his naivete was right one, but there were occasions where Donoghue used his voice to explain something that I didn't buy into him understanding. I wish she would have trusted her reader more to see the discord of reality and his perception instead of using Jack to interpret his mother's emotions or the sequence of events. I loved the juxtaposition of reality and his interpretation and would have liked more of them. There were also some plot twists (view spoiler) that didn't ring entirely true, but I so believed Jack that in the end it didn't matter. There is one point where the plot takes a turn in a different direction from Jack's perception (view spoiler) but Jack's reality is so real, you don't even consider other options. That's when I knew I'd follow Jack anywhere.

Maybe it's the unusual perspective or the strong voice. Maybe it's that I know what it's like for a child to change your world. Maybe it's that right now I feel trapped in my own room with my own baby. Maybe it's that Jack's relationship with his mother is so different from own experience and I was both shocked and saddened by their bond. Or maybe it's that Donoghue made me think about the world in a way I never have before. But whatever it is, this book grabbed my attention and wouldn't let it go. I related to Jack's story when I couldn't possibly know what his life is like. It's difficult to make the humdrum of ordinary life day in and day out inside an 11x11 room exciting, but Donoghue manages to keep my intense attention.

Some of the things Jack made me think about were the autonomy of parents and children and how the line is different for a child than it is for parents. It's what sometimes causes conflict, things like that moment when as a parent you have to discipline where your child thinks of you as a friend. How we put our lives on hold for our children, but there is this whole other self that will eventually wake from slumber. What a parent should share with a child and what we should keep secret. How education is a good thing, but also a little magic in the world is good too. How children are smart enough to understand honest answers, but sometimes not mature enough for complete answers. How children think of their families and circumstances as normal no matter how unusual it is. It usually isn't until you move away that you learn that the givens of your own family aren't sacred. It makes you consider the world around you in a whole different light. (view spoiler)

While some of the events in the book are disturbing, I don't think they're too disturbing. Jack's innocent voice saves us from the horror that this story could be. It's not about all the things lost in Outside. It's about wanting to stay in and safe. And it's about the power of maternal love. Because of that, the story has redemption and hope and happiness.(less)

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Jan 24, 2011 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: littry-fiction

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 be surprising, i wa...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, horror, modern-lit

I listen to a lot of audio books…… I don’t have the time to sit down and read all the books I want. I’m a slow reader *sigh*, but along came the Ipod and the Audible and yay for me!

I don’t passively listen to books (unless I’m driving) It is always when I am actively doing something else, usually something quite boring like housework or grocery shopping. Or something that is not boring but is second nature like artwork. So, I’m listening to Room and something odd happens….. I want to sit down a...more I listen to a lot of audio books…… I don’t have the time to sit down and read all the books I want. I’m a slow reader *sigh*, but along came the Ipod and the Audible and yay for me!

I don’t passively listen to books (unless I’m driving) It is always when I am actively doing something else, usually something quite boring like housework or grocery shopping. Or something that is not boring but is second nature like artwork. So, I’m listening to Room and something odd happens….. I want to sit down and take a break from whatever I was doing at which point I would usually put on the TV, but I really didn’t want to because the darn book was so good, and the voice actors were equally as good. I had a dilemma here; I couldn’t justify sitting and listening. It was too weird. But I really wanted to sit down for a minute. ….and I didn’t want to stop listening.

I know, first world problem.

To Jack Room is all there is. It’s the world. He has no concept of anything beyond it. He knows there is an “outside” but he has no way of conceiving its’ true nature because he has never seen it, not even through a window. Room only has a sky light. Because it is only Jack and his Ma, everything in Room becomes his friend out of loneliness. There is no ‘the’ rug or ‘the’ sink; everything has a proper name like Rug, Sink, or Meltady Spoon.

Room is home for Jack but for his mother it is a prison. In reality, Room is a backyard shed that a psychopath named Nick tricks out with lead lined walls, central heat and air, refrigerator, stove, sink, bed and toilet. Everything a good psychopath needs to keep a sex slave alive in. Nick (old Nick to Jack) kidnapped Jacks’ Ma when she was a 19 year old college student and keeps her locked in the shed for seven years. She tries, early on, to escape but every attempt fails. When Jack is born she turns her focus on raising him and keeping him as safe as she can. But one day Old Nick does something that scares Ma and she comes up with a daring escape plan that relies on five year old Jacks’ bravery, to go out into the world he doesn’t believe is real.

I have had this book sitting in my library since it came out. I never felt I was in the mood for it, it seemed so depressing. But the other night, the book I was listening to finished and I still had to get through some really boring stuff and I had no way of getting to my computer to download anything. Room was there and I started listening. I’m glad I did.

A superbly written gem.
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15 likes · like · see review

May 14, 2013 Brandon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 2011

A woman is taken captive at the age of 19 and held against her will in a small 11 x 11 garden shed. Her captor, Old Nick, has basically fortified the shed into a type of prison, keeping the woman as a sex slave. During her stay there, she gives birth to a boy, Jack. We're brought into the story at the point of Jack's 5th birthday as the woman and her son begin to formulate a plan to escape.

I'm not really sure what to say about this one. In all honesty, the writing really should have bothered me....more

13 likes · like · see review

Sep 17, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: I-read-to-be-entertained-only kind of readers

Recommended to K.D. by: None

Shelves: booker, drama

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 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 books as reading those mostly "serio...more

48 likes · like · see review

Sep 23, 2012 Cecily rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: miscellaneous-fiction

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY?

This seems to be a real Marmite book (love it or loathe it, with no fence-sitting), so I'm going to mix my metaphors: I bit the bullet, to see which way the wind was blowing and was surprised to find myself sitting on the empty fence. I was very undecided about stars, but there are many much better books I've given 3*, so this gets 2*, even though there was, on reflection, more to it than I first thought. The quality of the writing is not sufficient for 3*.

Overall...more

26 likes · like · see review

Jun 27, 2011 lita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel-english

I moved this review to my blog

8 likes · like · see review

Oct 18, 2012 Mafi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pt, blogring, 2012

Em 'O Quarto de Jack' temos a história de Jack, um menino de 5 anos que só conhece o quarto onde vive, ou seja o quarto é o seu mundo, onde ele nasceu, brinca, come e dorme. Juntamente com a sua mãe. Escondidos de Nick Mafarrico, e do resto do mundo. Do mundo lá fora que Jack desconhece. O que Jack não sabe é que a sua mãe foi raptada quando era jovem e ele é o resultado de vários anos de cativeiro e de uma gravidez indesejada. Há sete anos que os dois vivem nesta prisão, sem possível escape.

Ap...more

8 likes · like · see review

Dec 30, 2010 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jennifer (aka EM) by: Vickee, Jan, others

Shelves: canlit, for-diane

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 between mother and child over horror b...more

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May 14, 2012 Mith rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: never-again-ever, ugh, slice-of-life

ARGH! NO! NO! NO! IF I HAVE TO READ ONE MORE ASININE CHAPTER, WRITTEN FROM A FIVE-YEAR OLD'S POV, ON THE MUNDANE THINGS THEY DO IN THE ROOM ALL DAY, WITHOUT HAVING THE PLOT PROGRESS EVEN REMOTELY, I'LL... I'LL...

21 likes · like · see review

Nov 08, 2010 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-nominees-and-winners, books-i-did-not-like, contemporary-authors, irish-literature, literary-fiction

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 Room, but for...more

218 likes · like · see review

view all 85 comments

Rebecca Moore Chris wrote: "The setting would be the US I believe based on references to money and also calling money "dead soldiers". You wrote an amazing review....more Chris wrote: "The setting would be the US I believe based on references to money and also calling money "dead soldiers". You wrote an amazing review. I have a laundry list of "plot droppings". Things that were m..."

Ha ha haa. This made me chuckle. Calm down! Its only a book! However, I agree - up to a point with many of the issues you raise. I questioned, momentarily, the same things. But then suspended my disbelief because I wanted to enjoy the book. Isn't that what we are meant to do? All kinds of crazy shit happens in the real world - much of it even less credible than the events occuring in, and then outside 'Room'. Yes, of course one could work out the code to the door in 10,000 attempts (or however many permutations there are) That is if old Nick, being of criminal mind, hadn't pre-empted his prisoners attempts to escape and changed the code on a regular basis. Obviously he would! What self-respecting kidnapper is ever going to make it that easy? A good plot does require us to use a little of our own imagination, surely?
Some of the narrative you found pointless e.g. the fact that Ma is adopted, is useful, because it gives the author the opportunity to explore the relationship between the grandparents and the boy they have never met who is not in fact their blood relative. I wondered if Grandma would have been quite so irritable and inept with a child that was part of her too? It was subtle, mind you. As for the breast feeding thing, that was obvious. Breast milk was the best nutrition the kid was getting. As long as she kept feeding him she would still have something to give him, even if the food supply was cut off. And as she said to her mother, there seemed no reason to stop. If you think about it, it was the only other physical human contact, apart from daily rape, she could have and chose to enjoy. There are mothers, in the Western world even, who are not incarcerated, who choose to continue nursing their kids, way longer than is normally considered healthy or acceptable - because they can't bear to let go. Then there are those in developing countries for whom breastfeeding their kids beyond the age of 3 is the norm, because it they didn't their children would not grow. Same with the bathing together (that is quite normal by the way. Lots of parents bathe with their young kids. It saves on hot water for one thing. If you remember, they also washed their clothes, at the same time) I could justify most of the 'holes' in the plot, as I am sure anyone could - if they wanted to. But if there is nothing left to the imagination, where is the story? There would be no book. I'd love to think I could write a story, even half as compelling as this one.(less)
Feb 10, 2013 03:59am

Kat What was even more shocking to me was that in the Kindle version of the book I would actually come across swaths of text that multiple readers had hig...more
May 06, 2013 04:45pm

Nov 07, 2011 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who want to read about a five-year-old breastfeeding every seven pages.

Recommended to Michelle by: Yoga book club

Shelves: novels, book-club

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 be damned if I didn't start to feel sorry for the po...more

67 likes · like · see review

Dec 30, 2011 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, re-read-it

Re-read this one in March of 2013 in order to get ready for another rollicking book club discussion on April 9. The most interesting part to me is that my original thoughts still ring true with this one. It's one heck of a hair raising novel that has a ton of interesting discussion points. Can't wait to hear what others think of it as well.

So, this book concludes my reading for 2011, and what a horrific way to end the year!

It's not that the writing was bad, it wasn't, it was just the topic of th...more
Re-read this one in March of 2013 in order to get ready for another rollicking book club discussion on April 9. The most interesting part to me is that my original thoughts still ring true with this one. It's one heck of a hair raising novel that has a ton of interesting discussion points. Can't wait to hear what others think of it as well.

So, this book concludes my reading for 2011, and what a horrific way to end the year!

It's not that the writing was bad, it wasn't, it was just the topic of this book in general that made me sad. All Jack (a very intelligent and imaginative 5 year old boy) knows is Room and the things in it, which are his friends. Everything else he doesn't really understand are only on TV, which means they are not real. His mom does the best she can considering the circumstances. She reads to him, tells him stories, plays games, cooks whatever she has available, and tries to provide some amenities whenever possible called Sunday treats. The only adult books available to her are The Shack, Twilight, and The Da Vinci Code which sounds like hell to me for sure.

"Old Nick" is their captive and he's a real piece of shit. He turned his old shed into Room and ensured they will never get out by building in chain link fences into the walls and floors, as well as, sound-proofing the walls and skylight. Ma has tried to escape, without much success.

However, when you think it's totally hopeless for Jack and Ma, there is a bit of hope that happens. I also liked the realistic ending, and I thank Emma Donoghue for not wrapping up the story in a feel-good, simple ending, which she could have done.

I do agree with other reviewers that the first half of the book was better crafted than the second, and I too wanted more perspectives than just Jack's. I would have liked to of heard Ma's inner voice and feelings on what she was going through when Old Nick would pay her visits, what she felt when the electric went out, what her hopes and dreams were. I also would have liked to have known in some demented way, why Old Nick did what he did. Not that I would be able to wrap my head around it, but still an explanation would have been nice.

All in all, this was a fast paced read that hooked me and kept me up, reading and wondering to the very end.
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7 likes · like · see review

Oct 26, 2010 Gavin marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

So far I have to say this book is a lot better than I expected. Like previous reviewers, I feared the gimmickery of having a five year old narrator, but it seems to work. I do have one complaint: Why is the woman so subserviant? Why doesn't she fight back? I realize the psychological implications of being kept a prisoner, and I will even go as far as say perhaps her will has been broken; but no where in the story is this highlighted. Granted, I am only about a fifth of the way done, but don't yo...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 22, 2012 Emma rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was so convinced that I'd like this book that I broke a cardinal rule of book buying and did not wait for the paperback but alas, I am left minus £12.99 and disappointed, though almost alone in that view...

The book starts well on Jack's 5th birthday with the narration of his special day complete with a tantrum over a cake without candles. It very quickly becomes clear that Jack and his mother are trapped in a tiny room by a man imaginatively named Old Nick who comes in at night and rapes his m...more I was so convinced that I'd like this book that I broke a cardinal rule of book buying and did not wait for the paperback but alas, I am left minus £12.99 and disappointed, though almost alone in that view...

The book starts well on Jack's 5th birthday with the narration of his special day complete with a tantrum over a cake without candles. It very quickly becomes clear that Jack and his mother are trapped in a tiny room by a man imaginatively named Old Nick who comes in at night and rapes his mother while he sleeps in the wardrobe. Eventually after many painful pages of tedious detail trying to set the scene in a 5 year old's narrative (making a ruler out of a cereal box to measure the room for example!) they eventually escape in the most ridiculous way. The story slows down as they recover in a clinic and try to rebuild their lives.

The main problem with this book is the insistence of the author to plow on using the narrative voice of a 5 year old. I'm childless and thus find children charmless and irritating at the best of times but I found Jack impossible to either like or have any sympathy with despite the horrific situation he was born into. Why the author persisted with it in the second part of the book is anyone's guess, the narrative went downhill quickly as the minutiae of day to day life outside of Room is told, and rather predictably the musings of a child are dull and annoying.

I had no idea how she was going to end (and must confess I didn't much care) the book and I was surprised when Jack insisted on returning to Room with his mother, I was more surprised still when she agreed, yet the ending still manages to be saccharine and sickly - the farewell to their prison was not at all touching.

This could have been a great book, ideally one written in many narrative voices (imagine a book from the PoV of the mother, the child and the kidnapper) and with a more believable plot. Alas what we have is a half baked idea lifted straight out of the papers with thought given only to the child's reactions and not those of the reader.
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Sep 14, 2010 Vivienne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-man-booker, chicklit, coming-of-age, orange-2011, suspence

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 at times it really milk...more

23 likes · like · see review

Jun 04, 2011 Reese rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gr-finds

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 room in my head:
A po...more

12 likes · like · see review

Sep 22, 2010 letterbyletter rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, booker_short

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 few pages, I...more

29 likes · like · see review

Jan 25, 2011 Fiona rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, female-writers-fiction, man-booker-prize-for-fiction, 52-book-challenge-for-2011, feminist-readers-discussion-group

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Despite its uniqueness – written from the perspective of a five year old, this book, this novel disappointed and frustrated me somewhat. Actually, the second half of the book led me to feel rather angry. Please note that this review relates only to this piece of fiction: any cold, arrogant or dismissive tone perceived in my review in no way relates to my thoughts and feelings about the outrageous crime, the trauma, terror, dehumanisation and loss experienced by Elisabeth Fritzl and the children...more

17 likes · like · see review

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Room	74	382	May 22, 2013 01:59pm
What was YOUR opinion on 'Room' by Emma Donogh	58	753	May 21, 2013 10:58am
Audio-Bibliophiles: Room	4	25	May 17, 2013 03:30pm
Bryn Mawr School ...: Room	2	6	May 09, 2013 05:46pm
Topic Flagged for Deletion	46	387	Apr 26, 2013 05:44pm

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