Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Title: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
Format: Hardcover - Personal Collection
Genre: Adult Contemporary Fiction
Source: Personal Bookshelf
Published: September 13, 2010 by Little, Brown & Company
My Rating:♥ ♥ ♥ 

From  Good Reads:
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another


My thoughts?
I desperately wanted to love this book. I've heard so many good recommendations on it, and attempted to read it as soon as it came out. But before I was even done with the first 50 pages I set it down. I just couldn't get into it. (I think in part that it is told from the POV of a 5 year old makes it a struggle. ) 

I finally picked it back up and finished it this past week, and I did enjoy it. However? I'm not sure I thought it was as great as everyone keeps telling me. 

I found Ma's family to be mostly irritating and selfish. And I tried hard to put myself in their shoes, but I just couldn't see it. I did love Jack, who wouldn't? And I was cheering for him and Ma from the beginning. But in the end, I (personally) found the book lacking. 

I know this book has been loved by many (most of my friends and family included) but I just couldn't give it more than 3 hearts. I enjoyed the book, but it was far from the top of my list for the year. ♥ ♥ ♥