Room in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Sep 09, 2014 Krissy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pgs-300-399, audiobook, read-before-2015, abuse, cover-color-white, cover-text-only

This was told in the first person POV of a five year old and I had a difficult time fully enjoying the story when most of the time I was annoyed with said five year old. Jack tended to be a little bratty, whiney, and annoying. I know I was supposed to feel sympathy towards him for how he had to live his life up until that point. And that he just didn't know any better but I couldn't stir up any sympathy. He was just too irritating. Maybe I would have looked at him differently if the story wasn't ...more

1 like · Like · see review

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

Like · see review

Aug 04, 2011 Larissa rated it really liked it

Wow - this was a very intriguing book and I read through it very fast as I wanted to know what was gong to happen! Very well done story. It was a great one to do on audio as the story is told by 5 year old Jack and a kids voice tells the story on audio book. Jack and his "Ma" live in Room and are held captive there. Most of the things in the room have their noun for their names. For example, the chair is Chair and the bed is Bed. In Room there is Wardrobe where Jack sleeps when "Old Nick" (their ...more

Like · see review

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

Like · see review

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

Like · see review