***Contains Spoilers***
The narrator in this story is a five year old boy names Jack. We don’t know it right away, but his mother had been kidnapped two years before he was born and had been held and rapped for the past seven years. We see their daily lives of living in an 11’ x 11’ room. Jack has never gone outside, doesn’t even know there is an outside. We watch as Jack's Ma decides to finally tell him that they are being held and that she needs his help to get out of there. We bite our nails as we watch Ma plan how she is going to get them help and when she realizes that Jack is going to be the key for them getting rescued, we bite harder. Once they are rescued we watch as Jack goes through sensory over load and doesn’t know how to socially act or talk in a world that he didn’t even know existed.
I had a hard time with this book for a number of reasons. One I didn’t like the topic. It bothered me. I couldn’t imagine being kidnapped and then having to try and raise a kid in that environment. But I do applaud the mom. She kept Jack safe from “Old Nick” as they called him. In the five years that Jack lived in “Room” or the shed really in Old Nick’s backyard, he had only seen Jack once. I thought that the mom did a great job in the situation. She taught him everything she knew, keeping him active, healthy and clean. Jack never knew that anything was wrong and the mom took great care of him. But the topic bothered me so much that I could only read a little bit of this book at a time.
I also had a problem with the way Jack talked. I understand that he is young and hasn’t been in the world. But with the large vocabulary he had and the way his mother talked I thought that the baby talk and the incompletely sentences were a little over the top. I completely understood him not socially been able to form sentences when talking to people, but for someone who could read books, spell, say large words and know the meanings, he should be able to complete a sentence, at least in his head.
I also started not to like the mom half way through the book. I can’t imagine going through what she went through but she abandoned Jack once they got out. The poor kid had no idea what anything was and the mom was just overwhelmed with everything and tried to kill herself. I don’t think I could do that to my kids, no matter what the situation was. The poor grandma was left to show Jack the world and how to deal with it. The grandma got frustrated, which is understandable, but I thought she was a little to snippy with him. The only person I really liked in the end was Steppa, Jack's Step Grandpa. And Steppa had never had kids so he had no experience in how to handle them but he was there for Jack like no one else was.
Room is a book that got me thinking. It wasn’t something that blew me away but it’s definitely a book that I will remember for years. I think that everyone should read it just to see how you feel about the situation the author, Emma Donoghue, puts you in. Room is a book that will be talked about for years. I think if the topic wasn’t so bothersome I would have enjoyed it more.
The narrator in this story is a five year old boy names Jack. We don’t know it right away, but his mother had been kidnapped two years before he was born and had been held and rapped for the past seven years. We see their daily lives of living in an 11’ x 11’ room. Jack has never gone outside, doesn’t even know there is an outside. We watch as Jack's Ma decides to finally tell him that they are being held and that she needs his help to get out of there. We bite our nails as we watch Ma plan how she is going to get them help and when she realizes that Jack is going to be the key for them getting rescued, we bite harder. Once they are rescued we watch as Jack goes through sensory over load and doesn’t know how to socially act or talk in a world that he didn’t even know existed.
I had a hard time with this book for a number of reasons. One I didn’t like the topic. It bothered me. I couldn’t imagine being kidnapped and then having to try and raise a kid in that environment. But I do applaud the mom. She kept Jack safe from “Old Nick” as they called him. In the five years that Jack lived in “Room” or the shed really in Old Nick’s backyard, he had only seen Jack once. I thought that the mom did a great job in the situation. She taught him everything she knew, keeping him active, healthy and clean. Jack never knew that anything was wrong and the mom took great care of him. But the topic bothered me so much that I could only read a little bit of this book at a time.
I also had a problem with the way Jack talked. I understand that he is young and hasn’t been in the world. But with the large vocabulary he had and the way his mother talked I thought that the baby talk and the incompletely sentences were a little over the top. I completely understood him not socially been able to form sentences when talking to people, but for someone who could read books, spell, say large words and know the meanings, he should be able to complete a sentence, at least in his head.
I also started not to like the mom half way through the book. I can’t imagine going through what she went through but she abandoned Jack once they got out. The poor kid had no idea what anything was and the mom was just overwhelmed with everything and tried to kill herself. I don’t think I could do that to my kids, no matter what the situation was. The poor grandma was left to show Jack the world and how to deal with it. The grandma got frustrated, which is understandable, but I thought she was a little to snippy with him. The only person I really liked in the end was Steppa, Jack's Step Grandpa. And Steppa had never had kids so he had no experience in how to handle them but he was there for Jack like no one else was.
Room is a book that got me thinking. It wasn’t something that blew me away but it’s definitely a book that I will remember for years. I think that everyone should read it just to see how you feel about the situation the author, Emma Donoghue, puts you in. Room is a book that will be talked about for years. I think if the topic wasn’t so bothersome I would have enjoyed it more.
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