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 not an option, either; Old Nick's security system and his shed's camouflage make discovery and rescue by an outside party impossible.

Ma has a plan, and now that Jack is old enough, the two of them make it happen. But this is only half the story. When they do make it Outside, they are confronted with a storm of media attention, legal issues, therapy, and a family that has undergone changes since Ma was kidnapped off a college campus at the age of nineteen. Both Jack and Ma have problems that could not have been predicted.

We never learn Ma's name, because this is Jack's story, and with his extraordinarily well-developed language skills, he's very adept at processing everything the grownups say around him and very good at asking the right questions. And he seems wise beyond his years in that he knows exactly what his needs are. The last scene in the book is an event that Jack has requested, and it effects the perfect closure for him, and probably helps Ma, as well. Jack really is her superhero.

An abundance of interesting issues are presented in this story, and this novel would probably make for an interesting discussion.