This was an interesting novel for me. It's about a mother and her son who are held captive in a shed in the back yard of a man for the past 7 years. Jack is 5, and was born in Room, where he has lived his entire life. The story is told from Jack's perspective, which, I think, keeps it from being too intense as far as the abduction and sexual abuse goes.
As a mom myself, I was really intrigued by the ways that "Ma" kept Jack entertained and stimulated for 5 years. Even though they were trapped in an 11'x11' room, Jack was an active, decently educated little boy. They had PhysEd every day, and they worked on art projects, and read books. By the time they escape, he isn't too far behind kids his age, as far as education goes. The second half of the book is about their readjusting to "normal" life, which I also found fascinating.
Overall, an interesting read that really held my attention. I would definitely recommend this book.
5 comments:
That sounds good but also so sad! But it sounds like it's not too graphic, like you said, since it's from the kid's perspective. When was it written? I wonder if it was before or after the Jaycee Dugard thing, where she was in that guy's backyard for like 20 years.
2010, I think. So just after.
I'm glad you talked about this book. I have been very interested in it, but afraid it would be too "icky". I might just give it a try.
I'm glad you liked it, Amanda. I really wanted to, but for me, it was a little too weird. (Maybe because I'm not a mother?) So I'm glad to have a 2nd opinion out there. But I made it about halfway through and found the very fact that it was coming from a kid's perspective to make things all the more disturbing. I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks about it.
So I just read this these past few days. And I did read it in just a couple of days so I must have thought it was good. But sometimes I was really bugged by the way it was written (or the way the boy talked) it was just hard for me because he had such a good vocabulary but then his sentence structures seemed so messed up. Maybe that's how 5 year olds really are?? Idk I don't have a ton of contact with a 5 year old right now. But anyway, I did like it especially that it was from his point of view and not the mom's. I don't think I could have read it from the woman's point of view.
Thanks for the recommendation
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