Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Rating:  9.8/10
Read:  June, 2011
Recommended To:  Everyone; I think this book would be interesting and appeal to anyone who enjoys a good read
Categories:  Fiction, Crime & Criminals, Family-Relations

For five-year-old Jack, Room isn't just home, where he lives with his ma, it is all he knows; in his young mind, it's all that exists, period.  Jack's entire world takes place within the four walls of Room; it is where he sleeps and eats, it is where he plays and learns.

What Jack doesn't know is that a whole world exists outside of Room; a world that his mother disappeared from 7 years before.  He doesn't know that Room isn't home at all, but where his mother has been held captive the entire time by "Old Nick", who comes at night to visit ma sometimes while Jack is shut safely in the wardrobe where he sleeps.

Though his mother has tried hard to create as much of a normal life as possible for Jack, she realizes that it will never be normal enough.  She knows that as long as they are held captive, they will never be safe.  She must do something to save them both, and must do it now.  So, she comes up with a devious and possibly dangerous escape plan involving Jack.

With bravery and courage, Jack follows the plan his mother devised, and he and his mother are finally rescued from Old Nick, seven years after his mother was first kidnapped.  Unfortunately, being "rescued" is not easy for mother or son.  Jack is thrown into a world he has never known, and through his confusion, he struggles to understand the world beyond Room, and why they can't go back to the only home he's ever known. Meanwhile, Jack's mother has to face her own struggles, and come to terms with what happened in Room during her seven years of captivity.

Personal Thoughts

I have to say, I really loved this book.  I tend to shy away from reading books that have been really hyped up, because I am usually disappointed in them and can't understand what all the fuss was about.  Even if I try not to go in with expectations, it is really hard not to when you keep hearing how great something is.  There are quite a few books I might have enjoyed more had I not been expecting to read something amazing when I started them.  This was one of those books that I kept hearing great things about, and though the description of the story sounded interesting, I was reluctant to read it.  I am really glad I did; it is definitely one of the best books I have read this year.

Told entirely through the eyes of five-year-old Jack, Room is a very creative and original take on an over-done plot line in the literary world.  Just this year, I have read multiple books that have delved into the "kidnapping" plot; some more successfully than others.  I have always been interested in real cases of missing people, kidnappings and disappearances, which is why I am again and again drawn to these stories, even though it's been overdone in the literary world.  It is really hard for a writer to come up with a fresh and interesting angle, and Emma Donoghue certainly managed to do it with this book.

What really set this book apart though is not that she came up with a fresh angle, but that she was able to pull it off so successfully.  I was skeptical before I started the book, because I had doubts that a book written from the perspective of a five-year-old could be done not only believably, but also that it could be simultaneously well-written.  I opened with the book with the thought that either it would be believable; in that I would believe a 5-year-old wrote the book (in a bad way), or that it would be well-written; in that it would not be believable as being from 5-year-old's perspective.  I was completely wrong, and was astonished to find that it was both believable, and incredibly well-written.

Pros

* Well-written

* Believably told from the perspective of 5-year-old Jack

* Thought-provoking and emotional

* A fresh and original take on the kidnapping plot-line

Cons

* Even though it was believably told from Jack's perspective through-out, there are a few spots in the book where certain things are not entirely believable.  It is not Jack's perspective itself that is unbelievable, just small things that occur in the storyline that are not quite believable; for example, Jack consistently talks/thinks as a five-year-old through the book, but apparently during the "parrot" game, he is able to listen to, understand and repeat precisely what was said by an adult on television, word for word, which I did not find believable.  I did not find that these small moments, though I noticed them, took away from the story at all, or "took me out of it", so to speak.  I was still completely engrossed in the book.


OTHER BOOKS BY EMMA DONOGHUE:
 

Review: The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

Rating:  8.5/10
Read:  June, 2011
Recommended To:  Mystery & Thriller fans, suspense lovers, anyone who loves a good crime book/show or whodunnit story  
Categories:  Fiction, Mysteries, Friendships, Crime & Criminals

A quiet summer morning in August, two families awaken to their horror, to find that both of their children have gone missing.

Calli Clark and Petra Gregory, the two missing girls, are best friends.  Petra is even more than that to Calli, who suffers from selective mutism stemming from a tragic event that plunged her into silence years ago; Petra is Calli's voice, the only person who seems to understand Calli without her uttering a word.


When both girls are found missing in the early morning, their parents are forced to confront some horrifying possibilities; Calli's mother, Antonia, struggles with the idea that her bitter and angry husband, Calli's father, could be involved in what happened.  Petra's father, Martin, struggles with the unfamiliar person he seems to have turned into the instant Petra disappeared, a far cry from the calm, intellectual he was.

These two families, confronted with these tragic circumstances, will uncover more in the search for their daughters than they expected.  As buried family secrets come to the surface, including what really happened the day Calli spoke her last word.

Personal Thoughts

 I was immediately drawn to this book by the description, but it actually ended up sitting on my shelf for nearly two years after I bought it; my friend wanted to read it too, and we were going to read it together for our two-person book club.  She finally picked it up, by which time I had forgotten completely what the premise of the book was.  I think one of the main things that drew me to the book was how original the idea was; it was a fresh take on a well-used and beloved plot.

I dove into this book, and completely shoveled the delicious morsels of this story into my mouth, consuming it as quickly as I could.  It is fast-paced without being confusing; it is descriptive without overdoing it; it is suspenseful, while maintaining and balancing the background story throughout.

At first, when I realized that the story was going to be written from the multiple viewpoints of the various characters, I was skeptical.  In my experience as a reader, it is very difficult for a writer to successfully and believably write in the voices of many characters.  Either the characters are written too similarly, and the story becomes confusing as you have trouble distinguishing between them, or the writer tries too hard to make the characters distinguishable, which usually backfires; they either become shallow, one-dimensional characters (for example: John Smith is the mean guy, James Doe is good guy; easy to distinguish, but not interesting or realistic), or there is too much superfluous information added into the book to give the characters depth, which can also make it confusing to remember which information goes with which character.  Heather Gudenkauf really surprised me with the ease with which she seemed able to switch between voices while avoiding the above problems; the characters were well developed, multi-dimensional and distinguishable, each with their own unique voice that shone through.

Pros
* Very interesting, well-developed characters that all played a significant role in the novel.
* Fast-paced, suspenseful and mysterious, though with more depth to the story than your run-of-mill mystery or thriller novel.
* Well-written, and captivating; the plot itself could have carried the book far, but it was the fantastic writing that really put it over the top.

Cons
* My only real complaint, and my friend agreed, was with the end of the book.  Not a bad ending; it tied up loose ends, it was satisfying, it was a fitting end to the book.  Both of us, however, felt like the writing suffered a bit towards the end; we couldn't put a finger on it exactly, except that parts of it felt rushed and could have been written better.  That is the only reason I gave this an 8.5/10, instead of higher.


OTHER BOOKS BY HEATHER GUDENKAUF:
 

Review: Lucky by Alice Sebold

Rating:  9/10
Read:  2000 or 2001 & July, 2011
Recommended To:  Every woman and man; whether you have been a victim of sexual assault, know someone who has been assaulted, or have ever felt scared, alone, or terrified in a situation where you felt threatened, whether you find yourself within the pages, or just a better understanding of someone else you know, or people you don't know.
Categories:  Memoirs & Biographies, Triumph Over Trauma, Crimes & Criminals, Emotional

Alice Sebold is probably best known for her novel "The Lovely Bones", a best-seller turned blockbuster movie, in which the story that unfolds is told by a 14 year girl in the aftermath of her rape and murder.  In "Lucky", Alice Sebold reveals the details and aftermath of her own rape; as a college student, she was attacked in a park near campus, and brutally beaten and sexually assaulted.  Alice candidly opens up about her rape, the emotional aftermath and the effect it had on her life, as well as her pursuit of justice against her rapist.

Personal Thoughts

I will admit to being a bit of a "memoir-a-holic".  Despite that, rarely do I really love a memoir, or does one become one of my favourite books.  A lot of people have really interesting life stories, stories that *should* be documented, but the book falls short of being amazing simply because they aren't writers.  I can't blame them for that, but it is for that reason that, although I am drawn to the stories in many memoirs, and might find some emotional connection to them, I rarely love them.  The writing really needs to be good to capture me, even when it comes to a memoir.

I think that is one of the reasons that this memoir really stands out to me.  I can't remember exactly when it was that I first read it, and I couldn't recall the exact details of the story before I decided to read it again recently, but one thing stuck with me; I remember how it made me feel.  It moved me.  I found myself caught up in each moment as I read along, I remember getting upset at a particular part in the book that always stuck out to me; where a woman starts claiming she was Alice Sebold's "best friend" during college, though Alice didn't even recognize her (nor her Alice), I was so shocked that someone would try to appear cool-by-proxy for having known a rape victim.  I remember that the writing was exceptional, that Alice Sebold was a fantastic narrator of her own story, and that the story was told with candor and honesty.  

Despite all I remembered, I was not prepared to be just as moved the second time around.  The imagery of the rape itself, though hard to read, is powerful beyond belief.  She could have glossed over the details, but she bravely shared them, and it was an important part of the story.  It really adds to the emotional atmosphere of the book; the scene is present with you throughout the rest of the story, and experiencing the rest would not be the same without those details.  It is a hard book to read, as it should be; rape should never be an easy thing to read about, but I think it is an important book to read.

I won't even bother with a "Pro & Con" list as I usually do; I'm all pro with this book.  The only con is that it is hard to read, and some people might not be able to do it, but by opening up and sharing this traumatic and tragic experience, Alice Sebold is giving voice to millions of victims of sexual assault who, for whatever reason, can't share their own stories.

OTHER BOOKS BY ALICE SEBOLD: