Room by Emma Donoghue

Title: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
Pages: 321
Genre: Contemporary, Psychological, Mystery
Book Description:
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.

Get it here | Good reads

My Opinion:
I read this book a while ago and wanted to read it again since the film has just come out (which looks so good!) It was just as fantastic as I remembered it, following the story of Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped and fell pregnant.

This was such an interesting read. The blurb really drew me in since there aren't many books written about this topic and in the perspective of a 5 year old boy. I enjoyed hearing the child's point of view and trying to understand what it was like for him to think that this Room is the entire world and for it to actually not be. It was a really believable narrative, for example, giving names to all of the furniture since this is something a child would do!

I also liked how we as an audience got to see what it was like for the characters inside the room and in the real world again. It was especially fascinating watching how Jack coped with this, as well as the mother since she's going back into a world/society that she hasn't been a part of for seven years and is likely to have changed a great deal. Getting used to that must be a struggle which I was glad to read about.

This read has been an emotional journey of self discovery. It just goes to show that happiness isn't all it seems, which is certainly relevant when the two characters escape. I thought that the writing style was so unique and the character development was so realistic and inspiring. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Room and would definitely recommend it!


Favourite Quotes:

Everybody's damaged by something

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People move around so much in the world, things get lost

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'Scared is what you're feeling,' says Ma, 'but brave is what you're doing.'

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When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like colouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.

Rating ★★★★★

5 out of 5 stars 

As I said at the beginning, the film has just been released! It looks really good and I know it's Oscar nominated so I can't wait to watch it. 

If you've seen the film or read the book, I'd love to hear your thoughts:) Here's the trailer for the film:

 Next book I'm going to review:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini