2016 Books: Room

Room by Emma Donoghue
Little, Brown, 2010
321 p.

I read this one right after seeing the movie - which is also good, and now available on Amazon Prime - and I was almost surprised by how enjoyable it was, if that makes sense. Obviously the subject matter is serious and sometimes tragic - a woman is held captive, has her kidnapper's child, and raises him in captivity until they escape - but I've heard from people who couldn't read or watch this because it was so painful, and I didn't have that experience. (And it's worth noting that there is a fair amount of hope in this story, which is not always obvious from the marketing.)

I was a bit dubious about the writing style at first, but it wound up working well here, and the story is, obviously, very compelling. The book worked better for me than the movie because it allowed for some more detailed explanations of what exactly was going on at various points, and while I understand why they made some changes to simplify things in the movie, several elements that were only in the book made the story more powerful.

Incidentally, if you're interested in this kind of story, you should also try the show Thirteen, currently airing on BBC America.

See everything I've read in 2016!