As the spooky season approaches, why not kick it off with a suspenseful psychological read? The novel “Room” by Emma Donoghue checks all the boxes. The book is told from five-year-old Jack’s perspective. Donoghue’s accuracy into how a young boy would think and talk is amazing. Jack has the limited vocabulary of a preschooler, leading the reader to have to interpret the deeper meanings behind what he says. We don’t know all the details of what happened because of this limited point of view, leading to even more suspense and psychological torture.
Jack and his ‘Ma’ live in what is essentially a shed. It’s an eleven-by-eleven room in the backyard of their kidnapper’s house. The door is always locked; the only light comes through a skylight; and everything, their food and clothes, comes from Old Nick. They are barely given enough to survive. ‘Ma’ was kidnapped when she was 19 and has been in this prison for eight years. For Jack, this room is all he has ever known. TV characters are his friends; he’s never experienced grass or the colors of nature; and he has never seen other children, all he knows is this small room.
Donoghue’s literary choice to let readers experience this fictional trauma through a young boy’s eyes is tragic, but eventually hopeful. This is a story about horror, resilience and recovery. It is about a boy and his mother surviving through tragedy together.
