Room by Emma Donoghue Review

From Publisher:  To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. 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 is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

My take: This is one of those books that stays with you for days.  The story is told in first person, by Jack.  Jack uses 5 year old sentence structure and comprehends life as a 5 year old boy would.  His character asks logical 5 year old questions that imitate 5 year old emotional complexity.  The author does an amazing job in creating Jack.

Jack knows only what exists in his 121 ft. life. Nothing else is real.  Although there is T.V., the images are not tangible, therefore, they don't exist outside the box.  It is a story of a committed mother, and endearing 5 year old boy, coping, transitioning, survival, and, above all, a mother's love and a little boy's growth.

Beautifully written.

4 and half stars.