Throughout the book, I found that I had a hard time staying in the boundaries of our reading assignments. I often felt like I wanted to keep reading on ahead. Everytime I read this book, Donoghue kept on leading me on. I wanted to know what happened to our main characters, Jack and Ma. I think a perfect example of this is the escape from the shed. I found it really difficult to stop halfway into the escape section. After Ma and Jack's plan A failed, I wanted to know if they came up with a plan b. Room is just filled with cliffhangers and really just drags you into it. On top of that, it also offers a really interesting perspective of a kidnapping victim.
For me personally, I found the dynamic of Jack and Ma really interesting. Since I have never really experienced growing up/living in a kidnapping situation, I really didn't have an idea of what to expect. I found the concept of raising a kid in extraordinary circumstances was really interesting as well as very tragic. Even though Ma was stuck in Room, she still did an excellent job of raising Jack. I also felt that adapting to society after being stuck in Room for years was also a really interesting scenario. Often times, in kidnapping stories, you hear a lot about how it happened and the escape, but not about the victim returning to society. Room talks a lot about the return to society, and this really is an interesting look that hooks audiences.
Overall, I felt that this was a 5 out of 5 stars. It is through the combination of writing a unique perspective from the victim and writing about extraordinary circumstances as well as the constant suspense that makes this book my favorite of 2016.
Room tells the story of a psychological experiment that developmental psychologists wish they could perform, but can't because of "ethics." The book is also fascinating to us non-psychologists, although it does have the vulturous aspect to, even though it tries to avoid sensationalism.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sort of dark fascination with the situation Ma and Jack are in, as we both feel sympathy for them, but are also interested in exactly what the consequences of this experience will be. Ma clearly tries to keep Jack as anchored in the real world as possible, teaching him advanced vocabulary words and having PE, something that Jack would have gone through had he been in Outside as well. Jack, on the other hand, knows only of Room, but being still quite young when they escape, is able to adjust relatively quickly to the outside world. I would have been curious to see what the effects might have been on Jack if he had been in Room throughout his adolescence or longer, and I think it might have been interesting if Donoghue had a "choose your own ending" kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that this book was hard to put down because of all the cliffhangers and suspense. Your blogpost touches back on some of the class discussion, when you mention how observing Jack and Ma is interesting yet tragic at the same time. We are all interested in seeing how a kid is impacted psychologically when he is raised in a totally different world such as Room, and yet we realize how dark and terrible the situation is. I also liked that you mentioned how we focus a lot on the escape rather than how the victim returns to society. I at first thought that Room would end with the escape, but now after finishing the book I am glad that the escape happened earlier and that we were able to see what it was like to try and adapt to society after years of imprisonment.
ReplyDeleteThis books makes me wonder about why it was so gripping and even fun at times to read about such a terrible story. I enjoyed reading this book, and I think it is more because we see how Jack and Ma can overcome so much .
ReplyDelete