Room by Emma Donoghue
Rating: ★★★★★
A horrifying story told from the most innocent perspective in existence: a five year old boy who knows nothing outside Room. This book sucked me in from the first page. The narrator is such a brilliant choice. There are so many horrifying stories out there told by adults, but hearing such a story from a child's perspective is chilling. To Jack, Room is the whole world. Everything that goes on inside it is normal. It is normal to sleep in the wardrobe while Old Nick comes in at night. It is normal to count all the times Old Nick makes Ma's bed creak. Captivity is normal.
This book is definitely a must read. I think one of the most interesting points of this book is that the world outside Room is, in some ways, scarier than the world inside Room. Other people's judgment can be more damaging in some ways than the horrors of captivity. Reading Room will make you stop and think before you judge another human being.
Favorite Quotes (I was so engrossed in the story I forgot to mark my favorite quotes until the end... sorry)
"I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playground and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit" (287).
"'Yeah. But the tricky thing is, there's far more people in the middle.' 'Where?' 'Somewhere between good and bad, bits of both stuck together'" (317).
