Room in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jul 29, 2012 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

You can probably tell by the dates I started and finished reading Room that I tore through it pretty quickly, faster than I've read a book in quite a long time. This is due in part to the fact that I happened to have quite a bit of time for reading in the last couple of weeks, but also to the flowing narrative style of the prose and the simple way in which events were presented, making the book very easy on the brain.

I loved the style in which Jack's perceptions of the world were presented, Dono You can probably tell by the dates I started and finished reading Room that I tore through it pretty quickly, faster than I've read a book in quite a long time. This is due in part to the fact that I happened to have quite a bit of time for reading in the last couple of weeks, but also to the flowing narrative style of the prose and the simple way in which events were presented, making the book very easy on the brain.

I loved the style in which Jack's perceptions of the world were presented, Donoghue did a fantastic job of filtering the world through his eyes. Spoilers from here on... (view spoiler)

This final touching reversal of roles has bumped my review up to 4 stars, but only just. ...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Leslie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reads, audio-books

This is more of a review of the audio version of the book rather than the book itself. Listening to a five year old (or rather, a voice actress playing a five year old, I'm sure) narrate a book was grating at first, and I was thinking that maybe I should have read the print version instead. However, once I got used to it I didn't mind so much, and I do think that the voice actress did a really good job sounding like a realistic five year old. Actually, after reading a couple of excerpts from the ...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Debbie rated it liked it

Shelves: realistic-fiction

Unlike many other reviewers who seem to either love or hate this book, I find myself solidly in the middle of these two extremes. First of all, the subject is an icky one, ripped from an all-too-common lurid headline. A sicko kidnaps a young girl and imprisons her for years so that he can repeatedly rape and abuse her. Second, the story is narrated by Jack, a five year old boy whose entire life has been contained in Room, an 11' x 11' space he shares with Ma. Having a child narrate the story tak ...more

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Aug 24, 2014 Kristin rated it really liked it

Although a work of fiction, Donoghue's 'Room' gives a voice to a small population whose perspective on life is rarely considered, children born to women who have been held hostage by their captors. It seems like all too often recently, there have been news stories of missing teenage girls and women who have been found hidden in basements and secret rooms after many years, and frequently there has been a child born during that time in captivity. The women often talk about their ordeal, but the ch Although a work of fiction, Donoghue's 'Room' gives a voice to a small population whose perspective on life is rarely considered, children born to women who have been held hostage by their captors. It seems like all too often recently, there have been news stories of missing teenage girls and women who have been found hidden in basements and secret rooms after many years, and frequently there has been a child born during that time in captivity. The women often talk about their ordeal, but the children are rarely mentioned except anecdotally.
As the book opens, Jack is turning 5 in Room, the small space where he was born and has lived his whole life with Ma. Occasionally, Big Nick comes into Room at night, but Ma instructs Jack he is not to leave Wardrobe, where he sleeps under Ma's dresses, until Big Nick leaves and she comes to get him and they both sleep in Bed. Otherwise though, it's just the two of them, and, not knowing if they'll ever leave Room, Ma teaches Jack about everything in Room, but everything outside seems as two-dimensional and abstract as the pictures on Television. Therefore, Jack is mystified when a spider and a mouse both show up in Room, because to him, spiders and mice are just for pretend like Dora the Explorer. Ma, having lived outside, knows that the mouse especially is not something she wants in Room, but can't seem to find words to explain to Jack why not.
The whole book is told from Jack's perspective, and he narrates with a stronger vocabulary than one might expect a 5 year-old to have, until you consider that Ma has spent every day of the last 5 years with him, confined to a small room and needing to satisfy the curiosity of a little boy. They exercise by putting all the furniture up on Bed and running in circles, do arts and crafts and writing practice with limited resources like empty eggshells or toilet paper (which then gets re-rolled and used for its intended purpose), and learn from the few books they've received from Big Nick or from Television, when its signal isn't all fuzz. Of course, Ma is always thinking of ways to escape, but above all, she needs to protect Jack, even at the cost of her own well-being. It is often a tough task for her to write the weekly list of things for Big Nick to bring them, because while she needs things like painkillers for her abscessed teeth or bigger clothes for Jack, Jack longs for things like a new book or sweet treats, and there's no guarantee he'll bring anything from the list or may expect something extra from Ma in exchange for the items on her list.
'Room' depicts the events of daily life for Jack and Ma, which might sound boring, but Ma does her best to make each day interesting for Jack and his imagination. There is a deeper plot to the book, but to elaborate would provide major spoilers, and I enjoyed not knowing any of them and just letting the book flow on its own. I don't know how much of 'Room' was based on real-life experiences or if it was all a product of the author's imagination, but it did make me think about the innocent kids like Jack who know nothing about the world that exists beyond the walls they are trapped behind day after day. ...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-stories, contemporary

I wasn't completely sold on reading this one (a book with a 5-year old narrator and a plot that involved some unspeakable act?!) but a couple of people recommended it, so I decided to take a chance. I had a hard time putting it down once I started reading it -- I wanted to know where this story was going, even though I feared it would be an incredibly dark place I really didn't want to visit. The decision to tell the story from the point of view of the 5-year old Jack was effective, rather than ...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Jane rated it it was amazing

I almost didn't stay with this book. It was too claustrophic for me. And I thought why spend a weekend getting yourself depressed by reading a depressing book. I thought it would continue on the same not for the whole book. It doesn't, that's the only spoiler I'll give. So worth reading. And the use of the five year old narrator: brilliant. It is so far beyond other psychological novels with child narrators. I am so glad I got over my initial hesitations. I won't forget this book. ...more

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