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brandonsears

brandonsears

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SPOILER ALERT!

Room

Room - Emma Donoghue A woman is taken captive at the age of 19 and held against her will in a small 11 x 11 garden shed. Her captor, Old Nick, has basically fortified the shed into a type of prison, keeping the woman as a sex slave. During her stay there, she gives birth to a boy, Jack. We're brought into the story at the point of Jack's 5th birthday as the woman and her son begin to formulate a plan to escape.

I'm not really sure what to say about this one. In all honesty, the writing really should have bothered me. In fact, when I started reading, I almost gave up immediately, I didn't think I could handle an entire book written through the viewpoint of a 5 year old. I carried on however, and I'm glad I did.

I told a co-worker I was reading this book and proceeded to explain the plot. We often exchange recommendations in regards to what we're currently reading and mine usually tend to be darker fiction. When I came to him with this recent purchase, he said "There must be something wrong with you. Why do you always pick the most depressing sounding books to read?". I didn't have an answer for him.

I wouldn't really classify this as a book that's going to leave me in a sorry state of depression after you're finished, if anything you may suffer a little heartbreak for the boy. During his years in "Room", he's basically told that nothing exists outside their small space, that the TV shows he watches are actually images of other planets. So when he's finally told that it was a lie, that other people exist outside of the shed, his head nearly explodes.

When I put the book down last night, I was pretty satisfied. The book took a pretty big turn about halfway through that I didn't quite expect, but it was for the best anyway. Even though I've read great things about it, I still ended up liking it more than I thought I would.

Cross posted @ Every Read Thing