Book Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

The very first thing that ran through my head as I began reading Room was just how annoying it was. The book is from the perspective of a child who was born into an incredibly small Room. He has never been outside of the room and he doesn't know or understand anything going on around him, except for what he sees on TV. Only, he thinks that the things that he sees on TV is all fiction because he doesn't know any better. He lives in Room with his mother who, when she was young, was kidnapped and held captive.

During her time in captivity, her captor impregnates her and she has a child while being held against her will. This child is named Jack and he grows up thinking that the strange man who visits once or twice a week, his mother and Room are all that exists in the world.

The perspective is interesting and bold for a story with such a dark plot, but I found it to be very distracting. I know that I'm supposed to sympathize with the child in his ignorance, but I find found him aggravating and frustrating as a narrator as I tried to feel the pain that the mother must be going through. The dialogue can be SO hard to follow since Donoghue is trying to write as though she were Jack and therefore she's writing like a 5-year old and how many people really consider children that young to be easily understood?

All in all, I found the book captivating. Once I got to about the half way mark, I found that I couldn't put it down, but getting to that point was a bit of a struggle. In the end, I found myself enjoying the story as a whole... at least as much as someone can enjoy a story with such horrific circumstances, but I still think it could've yielded some improvements.