“Room” is a Sad, Yet Hopeful Drama

If you’ve been considering reading this book, then I urge you to wait no longer. Room is a fast-paced, brilliantly written, thought-provoking, beautiful story about a boy whose mom was kidnapped, so he grew up thinking it was normal to live in captivity—in a single room—for his whole life.

The author wisely chose to have the story narrated from the little boy’s perspective. Not only did this add new details to the story, but it made Room unique. If it had been written from Jack’s ma’s point of view, it would’ve just been another book about kidnapping.

Jack’s young voice and thoughts were refreshing. The way little kids look at things is very different from adults: everything is new, curious, and exciting. Jack was a happy, carefree child by nature and this added a light touch to the story without taking away from the serious topic.

The small, confined space Jack lovingly refers to as “Room” is the only place he’s ever been. He calls all the objects in Room by name and he and his ma fill their days with reading, cleaning, and singing. This built a solid mother-son bond that was important to the story.

Jack’s ma tries to protect him from the ugliness that creeps into his small world, even when she herself is despairing. She hides the truth from her son that she is raped every night by “Old Nick.” When she loses all hope and just can’t take it any longer, she lies in bed all day, and Jack calls these the times when Ma is “gone.”

“Scared is what you’re feeling,” says Ma, “but brave is what you’re doing.”

Don’t think this book is all anguish, though, because it’s also an escape story. I don’t want to give away too much detail, so I’ll just say that I found Jack and Ma’s escape plan completely thrilling. Once they planned how they would escape I didn’t want to stop reading. I loved the rays of hope their scheming brought that shone through the darkness of the story.

“Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have to remember they’re real, they’re actually happening in Outside all together. It makes my head tired. And people too, firefighters teachers burglars babies saints soccer players and all sorts, they’re all really in Outside. I’m not there, though, me and Ma, we’re the only ones not there. Are we still real?”

Empowering, inspiring, and memorable.