I have always enjoyed reading from a young age. My parents always encouraged that I read whether that be a bedtime story when I was younger or continually practising my reading book while at school. I was mostly interested in fiction novels as I enjoyed imaging the story coming to life and always had many questions which consisted of “what if?”. I read a range of genres of books but I am more inclined to read light hearted, teen-fiction books.

I found “Room” by Emma Donoghue was a very enjoyable read but was also quite difficult to understand and interpret certain aspects. Donoghue used language which allowed the reader to immerse themselves into the stories of the main characters. I was intrigued by the story of ‘Jack’ and ‘Ma’ to know what was going to happen next and the actions and the character of ‘Old Nick’. The story of ‘Room’ was very engaging due to the mysterious themes portrayed throughout.

‘Room’ was quite challenging to read at times as you had to put yourself in ‘Jack’s’ mind to understand what he was talking about. Jack would often use personification when talking about furniture in the room. His language acquisition was at times very typical of a child his age however he would often discuss subjects and use words not typical of a five-year-old. I found myself having to re-read sentences or even full paragraphs to fully understand what was meant by ‘Jack’s’ language. The main aspect in which I struggled with most was Jack’s use of personification. At the beginning of the novel I was very confused with words such as “Meltedy spoon” and “Rug”, and questioned myself about the use of the capital letter for objects. It wasn’t until I had read further into the novel that I became aware of the differences of Jack’s language to a ‘typical’ 5-year-old.

I really enjoyed reading ‘Room’ as it was a book that I had never heard of and was very different from something which I would usually read. ‘Room’ has encouraged me to read other novels as ‘Room’ is not typically a novel that I would pick to read for enjoyment and I believe this will allow me to discover many more types of novels and genres.

I would highly recommend ‘Room’ to friends and family, however I think that they may be a bit apprehensive about ‘Room’, as like me, they would probably dismiss this type of book for an easier and light hearted read. With the encouragement to read ‘Room’ and to take time to fully understand, not just the language but the entirety of the story, they would really enjoy ‘Room’ due to its unusualness.