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This is a challenging review to write, because I feel that the more you know about this book going in, the less of an experience reading it will be. So I'll talk about the premise but not about what actually happens.

Jack is a five-year-old boy whose world is confined to a place he calls "Room." It is clear that he has never left this space, which he shares with "Ma," a loving and patient mother who is clearly struggling a great deal. At night they are sometimes visited by "Old Nick," from whom Jack must hide. It takes a while to learn why Jack and Ma are there; how they got there in the first place and why they can't leave. And that's all I'll say about the plot.

Wait -- I'll say one more thing: this book does end happily. Is that a spoiler? Actually, I think it's the opposite of a spoiler. There are harrowing moments in this book, and although I pushed myself despite not knowing whether it would end happily, I think it would have definitely helped to know.

Lots of people have praised this book with good reason, and I doubt whether I'll manage to say anything that hasn't already been put better by others (be sure to check out Joel's excellent review if you want a good description). So although it's been said, I will add my voice to the pool and say that I usually hate, loathe, and despise child narrators in adult novels. I have four kids of my own. I love them dearly, but I have yet to find a child narrator who resembles my kids in any normal way. The child narrator of the adult novel is inevitably brilliantly precocious and consistently endearing; loads of psychological insight with nary a tantrum or whine (as if being an intelligent kid automatically comes with emotional maturity -- not my experience at all); designed to pull on your heartstrings while telling a multi-layered story without ever having reached Piaget's Formal Operations stage. Or, if the author does a slightly better job of replicating the child's voice, the story ends up being simplistic and two-dimensional because kids often see things that way; although I'm happy (mostly) to listen to the stories my kids tell, they're not usually on the level of my chosen literary material.

Well, not here. Five-year-old Jack is a five-year-old I've seen before. He's self-centered. He doesn't understand a lot of things. He can act like a brat when he doesn't get his way. And through his eyes, you see a three-dimensional mother -- one who loves her child and does the best she can for him, but is struggling in a lot of ways and doesn't always act saintly (although her mothering behavior in adverse circumstances definitely inspired me to work on my own). Given Emma Donoghue's surprising success in capturing the voice of a five-year-old, having Jack narrate the story was a brilliant choice as it made this story far more powerful.

I did struggle a bit with suspension of disbelief at some points, although I'm told that this was based on some actual news stories (which I intend to go and read now) so I guess I need to stretch my imagination a bit rather than criticizing the author.

I was reluctant to read this, but I'm glad I did. Although the situation is unusual and hard to believe at times, the themes are universal and there's a lot to discuss. Not to mention the fact that it was just so well-done.