return to home  
Join   |  Gift   |  Member Login   |  Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile
Follow Us: 
   Reader reviews of Room

Read what people think about Room by Emma Donoghue, and write your own review.

Room

Room
A Novel
by Emma Donoghue
Hardcover: Sep 2010,
336 pages.
Paperback: May 2011,
352 pages.

Publication information
Author Information
Critics' Opinion:   
Readers' Rating:  
About BookBrowse Rankings
Share: 
Buy This Book
Page 1 of 2 There are currently 12 reviews
for Room
Select your view:
Order Reviews by:
Click Here To Write Your Own Review
Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Jan
Language of child just not right
I can't stop thinking about this story - and that is a compliment. Although I couldn't put it down, I cringed my way through the child language that just is not realistic for a 5 year old child in that situation. The author herself, in the author notes, says that Ma could give him one thing and that was "language." Then why is the child portrayed with staccato sentences and verb tense errors throughout? That is simply not realistic for a child who is engaging in language throughout the day - more than anything else he does - he simply would not be making those errors at five years old with his mother right there as a model. "Rided?" it could happen once, but mother would gently and earnestly correct it - especially when "language" is all they had to do all day. The argument that he was developmentally delayed doesn't work because of the higher level thoughts the author attributes to the child. With "insights" like he had, his language wouldn't have lagged that far behind. It just doesn't happen that way, because thoughts are language. (I am a Speech/Language Pathologist.)

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by jodi
Room
I don't see how people think this book was boring or a waste of time. I think it was an amazing lesson to what life could of been like if you were like that....truly amazing!

Rated 1 of 5 of 5 by Louise J
Boring!
I don’t really know what to say about this book. I do know that I’m disappointed as I don’t think it lived up to all the hype and hoopla that was generated by the public, but then again, I’m only one person. Obviously this just wasn’t the book for me. I found it silly and boring to be quite honest. Enough said.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by Katharine English
Enough Already
Daring to go against the wildly enthusiastic critical acclaim of this novel, may I, as an English/Literature Major and teacher, offer the opinion that the book, Room (the story of a five-year-old boy and his mother held against her will by her abductor/rapist for many years and told from the boy's point of view), is a huge disappointment: poorly written (how much can we stand of a 5-year-old's narrative prose?); rhetorically unimaginative; bruisingly graphic; wholly predictible; and weakest where it should be strongest – in the complexities of the child's adjustment to a strange new world Outside, and the severance of a unique but grotesque bond between mother and child. This book has none of the usual earmarks of a Booker-Mann novel and, I suspect, is regarded highly, in part, because of the public's reluctance to criticize the use of the subject matter.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Lizz D
I LOVED IT!
From 9:00 pm-2:00 am, 5 hours, Room held me tightly in it's little 5 year old grasp and refused to let go.

Jack is turning 5. He's like most other 5 year old boys; he likes to play games and he loves Dora the Explorer. But Jack has grown up in the same room his whole life. All he knows is Room, his Ma and Old Nick who once a week brings food and occasionally treats.

The book is told from Jack's perspective and was so accurately child-like. He takes turn of phrase literally, and is overly inquisitive.

I quite literally couldn't put this book down. I crawled onto the couch and didn't leave till I read the last page. I highly recommend this book.

There was some swearing, but mostly just adult themes.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by chetyarbrough.com
Survive
Listen and savor a fictional story that is as real as the sun.

Jack and Ma, the main characters of “Room”, are wonderfully created by Emma Donogheu. Her skillful direction of the narrators and their audio presentation enrich the power of Donogheu’s writing.

The beginning of the book is a puzzle because the listener sees the world through the eyes of a five year old and his mother. Part of the story’s appeal is seeing life through these eyes but also wanting to know why the world seems off center, almost surreal.

As early chapters unfold, the listener is drawn into a dark labyrinth of a mother’s fear and loathing. The mother’s fear and loathing is contrasted with the joy and wonder of her young son. The listener is puzzled by how and why that contrast exists. As the cause of the difference in perception becomes clear, the listener begins to admire the strength and wisdom of Ma and the precociousness of Jack.
  1 2   next »

Lists of books with similar themes


Read-Alikes


Other books by Emma Donoghue
Buy This Book:

Become a Member
Golden Boy
Editor's Choice
  •  May 25 
  •  May 23 
  •  May 21 
The Shelter Cycle
Peter Rock

The Shelter Cycle Jacket

An American original, Peter Rock brings our strangest beliefs to vivid and sympathetic life in this haunting novel inspired by true events.
And the Mountains Echoed
Khaled Hosseini

And the Mountains Echoed Jacket

Khaled Hosseini has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations
Helga's Diary
Helga Weiss

Helga's Diary Jacket

The remarkable diary of a young girl who survived the Holocaust—appearing in English for the first time.
Click Here
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Movies Based on Books: Summer 2013 (May - August)
Jewish Young Adult Books That Are Not About The Holocaust
Books to Give This Mother's Day
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
Recent Reader Reviews
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
A very large book - in number of pages and in content - and every page worth reading. Thoroughly enjoyed this one and her first book on the... read more
Two Lives by Vikram Seth
Two Lives is a memoir written by international best-selling author, Vikram Seth. In this interesting and engaging book, Seth writes about his great... read more
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Telegraph Avenue
Michael Chabon
2. Brick Lane
Monica Ali
3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
4. The Tiger Rising
Kate DiCamillo
5. Who Moved My Cheese
Spencer Johnson
More...
Book Club Recommendations
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson
Paperback (Mar/13)
Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell
Hardback (Feb/13)
The House Girl
by Tara Conklin
Paperback (Oct/13)
The Painted Girls
by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Hardback (Jan/13)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The Caretaker
by A .X. Ahmad
Four Stars            (May/13)
Golden Boy
by Abigail Tarttelin
4.5 Stars            (May/13)
The Last Girl
by Jane Casey
Four Stars            (May/13)
The Sisterhood
by Helen Bryan
Four Stars            (Apr/13)
More...
  Latest BookBrowse News
News Corp will officially split into two companies June 28 (May 24 2013)
As expected, News Corp has announced it will officially split its publishing and entertainment businesses on 28 June.
br> Its board approved the... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
 
BookBrowse Poll
Q: Which of these Summer movies based on books would you like to see? (Info on each movie here)
The Great Gatsby
Epic
Man of Steel
World War Z
The Lone Ranger
The Wolverine
R.I.P.D.
Percy Jackson
Paranoia
The Mortal Instruments
Select Any That Apply
Search: Title or Author
Free Newsletters
The Light Between Oceans

Online Book Club
More about
Five Days
Join the discussion!


Win This Book!
On Sal Mal Lane


"Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound."

Enter To Win Now!

wordplay
Solve this clue:
"I Y N P O T Solution, Y P O T P"

and be entered
to win....
frame top
New Author
Interviews
Menna van Praag
Erica Brown
Helga Weiss
Kate Morton
frame bottom
HOME Book Submissions | Advertising | Library Subscriptions | Reviewing for BookBrowse | Contact Us