Room by Emma Donoghue

heyjude

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Amazing. But exhausting. I can't imagine what it was like to write that book.

I didn't actually like it, but I am glad I read it if that makes sense.

Did you read it, Mandy-Jane? What did you think?
 

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I enjoyed it, but more in a technical sense, like - this is interesting, what she's trying to do. The story didn't grab me as much as I'd anticipated.
 

Mandy-Jane

venturing ever further into the unknown
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I will complete a play this year! I will!
Yes I read it, and I was actually disappointed. To begin with, I thought it might be about something a bit more psychologically interesting than a kidnapping. And then, when she revealed what had actually happened, it was kind of like, well that's it. Now I know everything. I thought there was too much information all at once. And I also thought that the escape plan worked just a little too well.

I guess I thought that the book looked promising but didn't really come through for me.
 

gothicangel

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I'm [slowly] reading it.

I find myself getting irritated in parts because of language. Some words a young child just wouldn't use . . .

And the mother is so passive it's irritating.
 

heyjude

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Gothic, I didn't see her so much as passive as beaten, you know? I really felt for her. Well, up until that little incident late in the book. Then I hated her.
 

gothicangel

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I haven't got that far yet :D

I found her really hard to sympathise with, particularly in the way that she is hides the truth about the world outside.
 

heyjude

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I found her really hard to sympathise with, particularly in the way that she is hides the truth about the world outside.

I totally got this. How do you tell a five-year-old "There's a whole big world out there but you can't have it"? I would have been mightily tempted to do the same. It would have killed me for him to know about all those wonderful things and be stuck in a 12x12 room for his whole life.

Also, I have a five-year-old boy and I know the whiny. It would have never ended... :D
 

brainstorm77

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I'm mixed. I like the writing and the voice. I think the author did a wonderful job but I am not liking the story itself.
 

Bron

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I just finished this and it really sucked me in. I read a sample chapter and just had to buy the book. It didn't bother me that she pretended the outside world didn't exist, for the reasons heyjude outlined. What bothered me was why she didn't spend any time trying to figure out the code? If I was trapped in a room like that, I'd spend each hour of each day trying different combinations, working my way up through the numbers until I got it. It wouldn't make for an exciting story, and is a lot less creepy and sad than the stuff she does try, disguised as games, but I thought all that was needed was a line of dialogue from Old Nick telling Ma that the keypad is boobytrapped if the wrong code is entered. Or something.

Apart from that, I really liked it and thought it was an interesting exploration of what someone would grow up like if they were confined like that, and how they would react to the outside world.
 

Zola

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I really liked this book. I thought she did a good job of portraying the voice of a young boy while still keeping it interesting to an adult readership (by having him think things he would not have actually thought at that age.)

I thought it went downhill, though, on the escape plan and afterward. It was really at its best in the simplicity of the room.

I agree it doesn't make any sense she wouldn't have tried to crack the code. She could have tried to hide her son within view of the touchpad so HE could have observed the man punching in the code. This would have been much less dangerous than what she did do, and seems like the obvious first option for trying to escape.
 

Charlee

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I know this is an old thread but I only just found this book and I read it in one day. I loved it right up until near the end when I kind of felt that the story should end but it wouldn't.

I don't really read many 'depressing' books but this one really grabbed me at first.