Since it’s publication in 2010, “Room” by Emma Donoghue has been at the top of countless book club reads and bestseller lists. “Room” is a contemporary novel about a five-year-old boy named Jack and his Ma, who are held captive in a shed they refer to as “Room.”

The story is told entirely from Jack’s point of view. Their captor is an abusive man they call Old Nick. When she was just 19, Ma was kidnapped by Old Nick. Years later, she became pregnant with Jack.

The novel begins with Ma and Jack celebrating Jack’s fifth birthday. As the book goes on, Ma begins to devise a plan to finally escape from Room.

Ma is more than ready to leave for the outside world, but Jack knows nothing but Room. It’s his home, and he doesn’t understand the horrors of the situation. Getting Jack to comply with Ma to leave Room is one of the many struggles the character encounter.

“Room” has been described as horrifying, tragic, gripping, and emotional. While the content and situation of the characters is horrific and utterly appalling, I found the actions and reactions of most of the characters to be somewhat anticlimactic. The struggles Ma and Jack face do tug at the heartstrings, but there was something about the way they reacted that left the novel a bit lackluster. I suspect this has something to do with being told from the perspective of a five-year-old.

Jack had no knowledge of life outside Room, and therefore, the shock and horror I knew I was supposed to feel, seemed censored. Jack didn’t understand the abuse Old Nick inflicted on Ma, so the reader may not have felt the intensity they would have had it been told in Ma’s point of view. It was also hard to understand Jack’s feelings, because he couldn’t very well explain how he felt.

For example, it was obvious that Jack got nervous around large groups of people, but readers didn’t get any explanation of his feelings other than, “Too many people. I’m scared.” This made it a little harder to relate to Jack.

While refreshing at times, reading about complex issues in the simple view of a child was slightly disappointing.

Furthermore, I wish the book had been a bit longer. There was one main point of closure at the end, but I felt like more closure was needed with Old Nick. Then again, it was unlikely that we would have seen Old Nick again from Jack’s perspective.

With that said, “Room” still had a lot of strong points. Donoghue easily slid readers into the innocent mind of a five-year-old. I had no trouble picturing a five-year-old narrating the story.

Learning along with Jack was a great way to keep readers going, especially after the first hundred pages or so. One of the parts I enjoyed most was seeing how Jack interacted with the outside world for the first time. I was also amazed at the transition Jack made from being “Ma’s” to being his own person.

At first, Jack couldn’t do anything without Ma. He couldn’t eat, sleep, or move from her side. After all, she was the only person he had ever known.

The way Jack began to branch out and develop social skills was done spectacularly and I wanted to keep reading about Jack’s own experiences.

As a whole, “Room” was definitely a memorable read. After a few days of letting my thoughts sink in, I’m giving the book 3.5 stars.

The novels lack of emotion and simplification of a complex topic was a definite downside, but it excelled in realistic description of how Jack developed and changed over the course of the book. I also thought the author took a great leap of faith with writing with such an unconventional narrator.

“Room” has recently been adapted into a movie, so I highly recommend picking up the book before watching it to compare them.