Room by Emma Donahuge

 Since Brie Larson took home an Academy Award for the film adaptation of this book,  I finally decided to give it a read on audio. Room is told from the point of view of 5-year-old Jack, a boy who has lived his entire life in captivity with his mom in a shed.

I did this on audio and at first I was like nope, nope, nope when I heard  narrator Michal Friedman’s 5-year-old boy voice. But once you settle into the story– it works. I think the little boy voice is close to her speaking voice because she has also done some chicklit with a similar tone. She did a great job and her voice is so unique. I was sad to see she died a year after this came out

This audio is a full cast dramatization where each character has their own voice actor . I’ve haven’t heard a production like this before, but it works well since there is so much back and forth dialogue.

While there are some suspenseful and emotional moments in the story it also gets really dull in some places, especially the last 40 percent. Donoghue juxtaposes this terrible thing through innocent eyes–in the book Jack doesn’t realize the full extent of his situation. It was such a smart decision.There were moments when this book was light  and  added some needed levity because woman-being-kidnapped-by-men-and-raped-and-then-forced-to-give-birth-in-captivity is a thing that happens a lot IRL and it is horrifying.

Seriously, why are men allowed to run the world ?

Overall I thought this was good, but not great. I think the reason it gets so much attention is because of how much this topic was in the news between Jaycee Duggard being found and sentencing of Elizabeth Smart’s kidnappers.  

I’ve already put the movie on hold at the library and I can’t wait to see how it’s adapted. I actually just got the movie off hold but returned it because I haven’t been in the mood to re-live this story and I feel like taking away Jack’s filter is just going to make this story even more Nightmare Fuel-y.