Room

Paperback, 336 pages

English language

Published Dec. 23, 2010 by Picador.

ISBN:
978-0-330-51902-1
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4 stars (72 reviews)

Room (London: Picador; Toronto: HarperCollins Canada; New York: Little Brown, 2010), Emma Donoghue's Man-Booker-shortlisted seventh novel, is the story of a five-year-old called Jack, who lives in a single room with his Ma and has never been outside. When he turns five, he starts to ask questions, and his mother reveals to him that there is a world beyond the walls. Told entirely in Jack’s voice, Room is no horror story or tearjerker, but a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child.

An international bestseller as soon as it was published in August 2010, Room has now sold well over two million copies. It won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (for best Canadian novel), the Commonwealth Prize (Canada & Carribbean Region), the Canadian Booksellers’ Association Libris Awards (Fiction Book and Author of the Year), the Forest of …

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 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I surprised myself by the end of this book by how much I loved it. It disturbed me so much at the beginning that I actually set it down for a couple of months before finishing it. The idea of being kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and trapped in a tiny room with no windows for seven years frightened me more than horror films do. And even when ma and Jack escape, there's no guarantee that anything will be better. And really, talk about your unreliable narrator! Unique and terrifying.

I forgot to mention that my 5 star rating has more to do with the way this was written and the creative idea behind the story rather than how I actually responded to the story. It really freaked me out.

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