I really loved the plot of the book. It's about a 19 year old girl who was kidnapped, and had spent seven years of her life in an 11 by 11 foot space. She has a stillbirth, and later on a baby. Obviously she's been trying to escape for years, but the baby reinforced her hope of getting the hell out of there. She just knew that her child couldn't spend the rest of his days in there. However, this book is told from a 5 year old's perspective, Jack. He obviously doesn't talk or think like adults, so his sentences can be really confusing at times. When he was talking about breastfeeding, he would always just say "have some", so for the first quarter of the book, I was just completely confused.. have WHAT ? I felt really bad for Jack because he had spent his first five years imprisoned in this room, but he thought of it as a home. He had no idea that there was a whole world outside of that room, he didn't know that some of the things on TV were actually real. Until Ma told him, and even when she did, he struggled so hard with the idea that Room wasn't the world. Overall, I loved this book a lot and recommend it to others who enjoy fiction. It shows the strong relationship that Jack and Ma had developed in those five years, and their strong love that refuses to let them be separated. Room was suspenseful and thrilling, making up for a really great read. Things like this really do happen in the real world, but I imagine some are even worse.

"Today I am five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I woke up in Bed in the dark I am changed to five abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. “Was I minus numbers?”" Jack is the narrator of Emma Donoghue’s stunning novel, Room. (Yes, I am late to the bandwagon; everyone and their dog was talking about this book when it first came out. But you all know I buy more books than it will ever be possible for me to read, right?) From the book’s opening scene until I closed the novel a few hours later I was totally mesmerized by Jack and his Ma and the eleven by eleven world they lived in, their ‘Room.’ Jack and Ma live in this Room because of Old Nick, a predator who kidnapped Ma when she was 19 and has held her captive for seven years. Room is a prison, but it’s also the only home Jack has ever known. He doesn’t understand Outside, but he’s curious and Ma knows that time is running out. They must find a way to escape. Jack is a mesmerizing character and although it was risky to allow the story be told entirely through him, it’s a risk that pays off. His worldview is so naive. He has no real concept of time (his sixth birthday will happen next week, his birthday cake takes hours and hours to make) and he believes that the people in TV “are made just of colors.” His world is structured: sleep, eat, exercise, watch TV, read. His only playmate is his mother, but even through his innocent eyes he can see that Ma is struggling. Sometimes she spends entire days “Gone.” Sometimes she displays emotions Jack is unable to understand. "What wakes me up is a noise over and over. Ma’s not in bed. There’s a bit of light, the air’s still icy. I look over the edge, she’s in the middle of Floor going thump thump thump with her hand. “What did Floor do?” Ma stops, she puffs out a long breath. “I need to hit something,” she says, but I don’t want to break anything.” “Why not?” “Actually, I’d love to break something. I’d love to break everything.” “I don’t like her like this. “What’s for breakfast?”" Room is a remarkable achievement. It reads like a thriller; I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. But it is also a beautiful testament to the power of love. What wouldn’t Ma do for Jack? Even more amazing, is what Jack is willing and able to do for Ma. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. Highly recommended.

Check out my review of Donoghue's work on my blog at: http://8bookcases.blogspot.ca/2012/08/room-by-emma-donoghue.html

This is a good book, but I found it hard to keep myself interested in the book. I found it sometimes very repetitive and boring. Wish it had been written a bit better and not based totally on a 5 year olds aspect of his world. I would like to have had his mother's take on the situation how she coped for seven years of being held captive and what she did to keep her spriits up during that time..

I really enjoyed this book! Though the premise is slightly disturbing, what got me was the great writing. The author really captured the view/voice of a child and a hope in the mother. It was a great read and I recommend it to all my friends.

I enjoyed this book but only to a certain extent. It was a bit hard to read at first because it is written from the perspective of a 5 year old boy who has never really learned how to speak properly. However, the plot was really great at the beginning and it kept me hooked. As the book went on, it just seemed to drag a bit and sometimes the boy made me really annoyed... Overall, I would say it is definitely an original book because I have never come across anything like this before.

The Room was a book that, at first, I became instantly addicted to. I simply could not put the book down as I was amazed with the story of a kidnapped victim, living in a small room and raising a small child, who was an unfortunate product of the kidnapping and subsequent rapes. After two-thirds of the book (I don’t want to give away how the story unfolds), it still remained interesting, but not as engrossing. The story is written from the perspective of the 5 year old, is interesting but gets a bit old and annoying near the end. The book overall is entertaining and very intriguing at times. Other than the final third of the book, a well crafted novel.

Could not put this book down. Read it in a matter of hours, it was emotional but at the same time your feelings are confused. I love how this story was told through the eyes of a little boy, it makes the book more compelling. All I can say is that I loved this book and cannot wait to read another book by this author.

The subject matter was iffy for me and I hesitated to start reading it. But I found it really absorbing - it wasn't too hard to read, the writer didn't dwell on the difficult part of the story more than necessary and it was really interested reading it from the boy's point of view. Sad, at times, but worth it in the end. Very original.

Jack is a 5 years old boy who lives in a special world. A world made up by his mother, a 12 foot square world all controlled by his mother's aggressor who keeps them in captivity, who has stolen irrevocably a part of their youth. Jack lives an existence full of rules and limits where every day repeats itself. When his beloved mother decides it's time for him to learn the truth, Jack realizes how everything is different and how "outside" is big, a whole new world without boundaries. His escape will provoke a sequence of events that will definitely change his world view. According to me, his adaptation to reality is the center of the novel. This novel is inspired by a real life experience. I recommend it to everyone who has interests in psychological functioning and in children's development.