Room by Emma Donoghue

I know it's been a while since I wrote my last review, I've been too focused in life so I rarely got chance to read a book nor write a review. But this one really hooked me up, and I felt a little obsessed, actually until right now.

So, I was scrolling through Rotten Tomatoes' certified fresh movie list, notified some interesting movies and hooked onto movie called "Room". I had no idea what interested me first. Maybe the premise who consisted a relationship and special bond between a mother and a son (which really resemble my situation right now). Or the fact that they mentioned they had special young actor in it. So I browsed and browsed and found that it was based on the book. And the book has so many recgnition so I started to read it.

Synopsis

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. (Goodreads)

Oh man. I really never felt this way when I read the other book. Fear, hatred, love, confused, all the feeling came into one big bubble I thought I was gonna explode. The book is told by Jack's perspective, which honestly bored me a bit in the beginning, but after half book, I really found the book gripping me so much, I ended with read it twice. Emma Donoghue put many subtle hints from beginning, while Ma tried to protect Jack from the truth, and we can only see her through Jack's eye, but I began to understand some things when I read the book for second time. How Ma always take pill every day (birth control!) and how she always turn on and off lamp for a second in the night (SOS signal?).

Again, what makes this book special is we learned more about Jack and Ma after their escape. Not like some crime book which focused to the kidnapping time and end right when rescue is done, or how the trial could be a lengthy and pain process, the book focused on how Ma and Jack adapt into real world after seven years of captive. It's hard for both of them, while Ma realize that everyone in her life is literally moving on, and harder for Jack, because everything he has known before is lie, and there are so many real things in life while he only knew about Ma, Room and himself. I was grateful because they don't put much attention to the capture, it's already horrible without it.

The story was told beautifully. I couldn't put the book before I finished it. It is one of my all-time favorites, and I've watched the movie too. The movie is too beautiful yet painful and full of horror (Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay is exactly what I pictured of Jack and Ma!), and it is worth to watch. There are differences (it must be) so it'll be better if you do both of movie and book.

If I was asked to give stars, it definitely will be 5 of 5.