Room by Emma Donoghue

I purchased this book, it sat on my shelf for two months. I picked it up, I put it down. Repeatedly. I finally decided to begin reading this story in late 2011. The story of a young woman, kidnapped, brutalized. A child born out of that brutality, a baby boy, in an 11' x 11' soundproof room in the backyard of an unassuming house. Jack is turning five-years-old as the story begins. He and his mother, whom we only come to know as "Ma" are being held against their will by "Old Nick", a man who tricked Ma at the age of 19 into getting into his pickup truck, and the rest is the story of Room. I will honestly say that it took me what seems like forever to "get into" this book. The narrative voice of a five-year-old boy who has never been out of the shed that he was born in was hard for me to wrap my head around. I skipped some of the pages to get to the meat of the story, but in the end this is a story that I cherish. I cannot imagine the vile horrors that the mother in this story endured. I cannot imagine the stunted development of Jack, who has never seen the world. He only knows what he has seen on television and what his "Ma" has taught him in the years that they have survived in this hell. I have read many books and they tell of fear, defeat, death, but this book touches on a reality that we don't often get to experience. What if you were kidnapped and locked away in a drab grey shed for seven years. Think about it. Would you know how to socialize with other people when you were finally freed? Would your eyes work the same? Your limbs? Your immune system? This is a book that is on another level. This book will make you think differently about captivity. The zoo even. I love a book that teaches me something new and makes me want more. I did not want this story to end because I wanted to follow Ma and Jack all the days of their lives and see the world re-birthed through their eyes.

♥♥♥♥ - A must read!
http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/TheBookPosh