Room

a novel

No cover

Emma Donoghue: Room (2010, Little, Brown)

477 pages

English language

Published July 15, 2010 by Little, Brown.

ISBN:
978-0-316-12057-9
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
548642188

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (78 reviews)

A five-year-old narrates a story about his life growing up in a single room where his mother aims to protect him from the man who has held her prisoner for seven years since she was a teenager.

Jack has spent his life in a small space his mother calls Room, and while Jack uses his imagination to create fantasies to entertain himself, his mother finds a way for them to escape. The plot contains disturbing scenes of violence and confinement.

50 editions

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I'd like to give this book two and a half stars; I wanted to like it so bad because the plot was pretty good and the writing style held my attention. But the characters were just so so so unlikable to me! I'm sure that's part of the point, that they've been through stuff and they're imperfect, but I think the author took it too far. It seemed like every other interaction was angry or creepy or morally questionable. The mother is especially inconsistent (claiming her son's birth saved her and mourning over her dead infant one second, then immediately claiming she didn't regret having an abortion a year prior??) and I struggled to find any purpose or meaning in this book. My final complaint is that the child's narration was rather gimmicky and inauthentic, especially at the beginning.

Everyone is more than welcome to disagree, but for me the …

Review of 'Room' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

A positive book despite the grim subject matter, that does an excellent job of questioning how we live in Outside, the real world, and out attitudes to waste, space and community. Simple language throughout without being condescending - great book.

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Imagine you are five-years-old. Imagine you have never left the room your were born in. You have limited knowledge of the outside world, because you don't realize there IS an outside world. Welcome to Room.

I really enjoyed this one--I found the concept unique and the voice of Jack didn't seem off to me, like I read in a few reviews. And as gripping as I found the first half of the book, I found the second half to be even more interesting. I listened to this on audio, and I think it added to the story. Definitely recommend.

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

It's ambitious. It has a unique and consistent perspective through a very young child. It deals not only with the harrowing captivity of a mother and her son, but of their escape and rehabilitation (something that many captivity narratives tend to gloss over).

But does it hold up?

While Jack's voice is at first as endearing as it is haunting, it can get frustrating. It seems almost too optimistic at times, and there are often times where his compassion and sensitivity crosses over into unbelievable territory. Five year old kids don't have that much empathy for people around them (literal sociopaths!) and Jack's constant cheeriness sometimes sucked me out of any suspension of disbelief. That's nothing considering the novel's depiction of the media. The interview between Ma and Not-Oprah and the news is just so painfully cynical.

While I think "Room" would have made a much stronger shorter novel (perhaps …

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Room review
I had qualms about reading [b:Room|31685789|Room|Emma Donoghue|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472239721l/31685789.SX50.jpg|9585076] The topic sounded unpleasant and harrowing. I feared that it would be the book equivalent of the 1997 Michael Haneke movie “Funny Games,” about the only movie I’ve ever regretted watching for reasons other than poor quality. The publishers seem to sense such possible reluctance: There’re nine pages of excerpts from positive reviews in my 2011 Back Bay Books paperback edition.
The film version of the novel, which I haven’t seen yet, was well received (it’s been nominated for Best Picture) and [a:Emma Donoghue|23613|Emma Donoghue|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1591714728p2/23613.jpg]’s prose got many good things written about it—which I’d read elsewhere—so I read it anyway. I’m glad I did.
Yes, you do feel imprisoned in the room along with the characters Jack, the five-year-old narrator, and Ma, his mother, whose real name you never learn, and feeling that way is disturbing. But Donoghue has …

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This book had a real interesting and original beginning. Then the second half got very silly. I can't believe how insensitive and ignorant everyone acted toward that poor little boy, Jack. Especially his own mother... Ruined the whole thing. I'll give it three stars because the voice of Jack was so realistic.

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This compelling story is told from a five year old boy's point of view. Jack lives in Room, where he was born and has lived his entire life with Ma. During these five years, Room is Jack's world, he knows nothing about Outside. To Jack, Room is where he is safe.

To Ma, Room is the prison she has endured for seven years, after being kidnapped, raped, and locked away in Old Nick's backyard shed. They are given the necessities--food, clothing, heat, and they do have a TV and running water. In this tiny space, Ma does her very best with Jack, keeping him occupied, teaching him to read, allowing him small amounts of Television, such as Dora the Explorer. But soon, none of this will be enough. Ma knows Old Nick will not keep them alive forever--and he certainly is not going to let them out. Breaking out is …

Review of 'Room' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Given that I have an entire shelf for adult literature with child protaganists, the concept of a child narrator was not the novel part of this book for me. But what really stood out was that Donoghue made Jack a very normal five year old. He was in no way a prodigy or wise beyond his years. Instead, we were given access to the routine-oriented rigidity of a five year old. The description of Jack's life inside of Room was interesting - with his routines and his properly named personified objects and his perceptions of events that were much darker than he could understand. However, what made the book was his perception of the world following his rescue and his adjustment to the world outside.

My only objection was the occasional detour into preachy land - Jack notes how tired adults are in the outside world and how they don't …

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Subjects

  • Boys
  • Mother and child
  • Fiction