Room

Emma Donoghue's Room is a riveting novel. I have read many books about captivity, but Room goes further by telling the story from the point of view of a five year old boy named Jack. What I found most compelling about this book is that Jack's mother had chosen not to tell him about the outside world. Five-year-old Jack firmly believes that the room in which they are held captive is the only place that exists.

Having a young boy being held captive against his knowledge narrate the story was a brilliant decision. In the beginning, it made the story seem more innocent. Jack refers to everything by its own name, all depicted as proper nouns in the book - Room, Bed, Spoon, Cupboard, Rug. I started off in Jack's mind, just sympathizing with this character who was blissfully ignorant about his situation. As I read on however, I found myself noticing that having Jack narrate actually made the story much darker. You begin to realize the density of psychological problems that young Jack will have the rest of his life. For the first five years of his life, he doesn't even know what the world is or that there are billions of other people just like him living outside the walls of Room.

Donoghue created deep characters and showed an unbreakable bond between a mother and her son. No matter what was going on around them, or how he came to be her son in the first place, Ma loved Jack unconditionally, and they worked together to fight for their lives.