Monday 11 March 2013

Room by Emma Donoghue
What a wonderful novel!  I absolutely love this book.  After finishing The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood I moved straight onto this.  It's been sat on my shelf for a while now as I was a little nervous about reading it.  As a mummy of one I hated the idea of a child being trapped in a room.  However, it's clear from early on that Room is all Jack knows.  The writing is amazing, narrated by 5 year old Jack himself - this is the boy who has had no schooling whatsoever and only his Ma to learn from.    Without wanting to give anything away (but not really being able to avoid it) the journey and experiences encountered by Jack once he leaves Room are wonderful.  Nothing makes sense to him and he has to start from scratch and learn how things work on the Outside.  Beautifully written, Emma Donoghue deserves a medal for managing to keep Jack's language and narrative consitant throughout.  I recommend all parents read this book so they can put themselves in their child's shoes and see how life is when everything is new and nothing makes sense.

I am now moving onto Sovereign (Shardlake Series) by C J Sansom which is the third book in the series.  Time for some lovely historical fiction!
 


The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
I finished this book several weeks ago but haven't blogged since.  It took me a long time to read but that doesn't really mean anything in this case.  Normally, if I take a long time to read a book it means that I'm not really enjoying it.  However, I really enjoyed this book.  I found it very dark (although, as mentioned previously, the constant mentions of the seaside did drive me crazy) and sinister - particularly the character of Martin.  I didn't see the twist coming, which was refreshing, and I would certainly recommend this book to those who enjoy suspense novels.  The writing style was very descriptive and I could almost imagine the waves crashing on the shore (damn seaside!).  I felt sorry for the two young lead characters and was willing (or pleading maybe) them to not do the things they were doing, which lead to the unfortunate event.  I did not feel the same sympathy for the adult versions which I think is due to clever writing.  All in all a very good book - not particularly fast paced but it draws you in nonetheless.  Throughout I had the feeling something bad was going to happen....