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The Room by Emma Donaghue

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers): To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. 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's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.
Category: Adult
 
Why I chose this book: Recommended to me
 
My personal opinion (the review): This book had an interesting premise. What would be the mental state of a kid who had never known the world outside an 11x11 foot room? I know how hard it is to keep a kid entertained, never mind having to do it in such a small space with no access to the outside world. And what about the Mom who has known the world and has now been trapped in this room for 7 years?

As expected, things were "off," throughout the whole thing, but I couldn't keep reading after one of the night visits from "Old Nick" where Jack describes hearing things of a sexual nature happening outside his wardrobe. Overall it just wasn't uplifting and I choose not to finish it.

Warnings (language, violence, "adult" situations, death, etc.) - Mentions of sexual content (most in passing). Underlying past abuse is evident.

Movie rating equivalent - R - for topic
 
Point of view of story - Told from 5 year-old Jack's perspective
 
Grammar and spelling issues - Several - narrator is 5 years old.

 

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