Don't let anyone tell you different - Room is a horror story. Other reviewers may talk about the life-affirming drama of hope triumphing over despair, or of the way the author takes us by the hand and shows us our world from a perspective we've never before seen it, but despite its happy ending and warmer second half, the sensation that stuck with me was of the overwhelming horror and sadness of the opening scenario.
Room tells of Jack, a young boy who was born and has lived the first five years of his life locked in a (slightly more hi-tech than most) garden shed. Jack's mother was kidnapped long before he was born and has been held prisoner for years by a sadistic control-freak rapist. The young woman does everything she can to protect her son from the truth of his situation; the boy accepts his lot because Room is the only life he's ever known. It's the battery chicken argument applied to a human child, and the infinite sadness of Jack's story comes from what he doesn't know, and from how happy he manages to be despite the hand fate's dealt him.
That's the first half, and many authors would have kept the whole novel here. Emma Donoghue instead chooses to move the story on, turning Jack's world on its head and allowing his unique perspective to experience something of the world beyond Room. This is mostly a success, though there are times in the final chapter when the novel veers a little too much into cutesy "kids say the funniest things" territory before a final creepy coda brings everything full circle for a satisfyingly shiversome resolution.
Room is not a lengthy novel, but it is powerful. The first half in particular will stay with me for a long time as one of the saddest pieces of writing I've ever read. It's disturbing without being graphic, and Donoghue harnesses the power of the reader's imagination to devastating effect. She's not afraid to ask some uncomfortable questions along the way and refuses to paint her protagonists all white, despite the horrors they endure. Room will make you think, it'll make you shudder, it'll make you smile.
