Hoping For More: Room

Title: Room

Author: Emma Donoghue

Genre: Fiction

Page Count: 321 Pages

Published: September 13th 2010 by Little, Brown and Company

Rating: 5/5

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.

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.

My Review:

I was a little late on this one, but a friend of mine was raving about it and I couldn't decide what I wanted to read next, so I finally caved and decided to see what all the fuss was about. I'm very glad I did.

It's a touching and riveting book that captured a terrifying situation in a non-threatening way so that I was comfortable reading it. The pacing was a lot different than I expected, but in the end I agreed with the author's choices and was happy with where it left off.

Reading from Jack's perspective was an unexpected treat. I loved seeing the world through his eyes - even the twisted world he is forced to grow up it. His fears and the things that make him happy are so pure and innocent that I couldn't help but be endeared to him immediately.

I was hesitant to read Room because the idea of a captive girl is to real and scary to me and I thought that I would spend my time while reading it disturbed and depressed, but Emma Donoghue did a fabulous job with this book. Telling it through Jack's perspective gives you a removed view of events without downplaying the drama or high tension moments.

A great read and a welcome change of pace for between series.