Cumbria Libraries Adult Customer Reviews : Cumbria County Council

Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don’t have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners.

'Room' by Emma Donoghue is something really special. Written from the point of view of five-year old Jack, it encloses us in a terrifying world of kidnap and incarceration followed by unbearable exposure. 'Old Nick' is a Joseph Fritzl inspired character who snatches a nineteen year old college girl from the street and imprisons her in a specially converted fortress garden shed. After two years of captivity this girl becomes 'Ma' to baby Jack, the product of her incessant and regular rape by Old Nick. Jack loves his Ma, Bed, Wardrobe, Meltedy Spoon and all the other items that populate his 11 foot square world. Ma structures their day with baths, meals, Phys Ed and on weekdays bouts of screaming. Jack is mostly content except for the days when Ma is Gone, when he leaves her to lie on the bed and he gets his own food and watches lots of TV. He spends the first part of every night tucked up in Wardrobe while Old Nick visits and makes the bed squeak. He doesn't like the marks left on Ma's neck or the punishment meted out when Old Nick is angry with them. The Great Escape is planned and executed in a tumble and crash of dizzying terror and then Outside changes Jack's life irrevocably. To read an entire book in the voice of a child so young could be tiresome or annoying, but 'Room' is beautifully moving. The relationship between mother and child is so universal, even in extremis, that I found lots to laugh at, cry for and ache over. We all can only try our best and we never get it all right. The incredible imagination and fortitude of the young women in this book is mind-blowing and yet once exposed to the world outside there are some ready to criticise her choices (the media of course). There is so much in this book to get you thinking about our modern way of life and the things we take so for granted. The readjustment for Jack and his mother when their incarceration comes to an end causes such pain that even their seemingly unbreakable bond is strained to the limit. Jack doesn't know how to walk down stairs, he cannot see distances, he's not sure he can talk to anyone other than Ma and most disturbing for Ma, he misses Room and would quite like to go back. Read this book, it is devastating, fascinating and an absolute page turner.

The Sisters Brothers are paid assassins in the lawless America of around 1900. The journey we take with them is across the country to carryout the next in a long line of executions. Along the way they encounter fallen women, gold rush crazies and abandonned teenagers, before meeting their "mark".

Review: I enjoyed reading this Booker Shortlisted novel. The two brothers and the characters that they meet on their journey are deftly written. The humour is very dark and you begin to care about two emotionally disturbed, violent killers. Their name strikes fear into the hearts of some while others see them as a challenge to the established local pecking order. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but would definately recommend reading this great pageturner.

This book was set during the Second World War. It tells the story of Bruno and Shmuel and their special friendship. Bruno's family have moved from Berlin to Out-With where his father is the camp commandant. Bruno is unaware of this but is curious about all the people dressed in striped pyjamas who live behind vast areas wire fences. Walking alongside this fence he meets Shmuel and sitting either side of the fence they talk on a daily basis. Bruno maintains his innocence throughout the book even when, dressed in clothes Shmuel brings him, he goes under the wire to have a look around.

The book is very easy to read and is very cleverly written. Though parts of it don't seem realistic the overall story carries you along. Generally people thought it might appeal to teenagers, introducing them to one aspect of the war or at least encouraging them to ask questions.

Ruth, who has always known her mother as Sally Fairchild, is shocked, in her early 30s, to discover that her , whole life has been based on deception. In fact, her mother was born Eva Delectorskya whose family fled Russia at the time of the 1917 Revolution, eventually settling in France.

It was from there, following the death of her brother, that Eva was recruited as a British spy. The past is now catching up with her, and she needs her daughter’s help in order to fulfil one last mission. As the story moves between past and present Ruth discovers the truth from the written memoirs her mother gradually shares with her.

This is an instantly engaging story of espionage, deception, love, betrayal, loss and mystery. Boyd writes fluently and convincingly about the secret world of spying, and creates an atmosphere of tension throughout. He effectively explores the psychology of a successful spy, the necessary struggles with morality, the paranoia, the double-dealing, the inability to trust, the fear and the ever-present tension.

However, a missing element for me was any real exploration or acknowledgement of what constitutes identity, and the effects on a relationship of such long-term deception.

Nevertheless, there were clues in the daughter had been deeply affected by Eva’s life in the shadows: each of them and trusting. I didn’t find either character particularly likeable, but maybe that was inevitable – it certainly didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of a well-crafted and well-written story!

A real bonus was the historical information about the undercover workcarried out in America, by Britain, in order to “persuade” the Americans, through misinformation and propaganda, to abandon their isolationist
stance – definitely a new slant on the “Special Relationship”!

The narrator, as a young boy, is seduced by Hanna a woman of thirty - six. They meet daily and
one of Hanna’s delights is to be read to. Many years later she is on trial for war crimes and the
narrator, who is studying law, is sent to witness the trial. Hanna condemns herself by saying that
she wrote the fatal orders. By now the narrator knows that that is impossible as she can neither
read nor write. He might, if he wishes, speak up and save her but by doing so he would expose
what she had spent all her life trying to hide. What should he do?

It is difficult to imagine the loneliness of someone who is constantly moving on in order to hide
such a secret.

I found it a book full of emotion and had a great deal of sympathy for Hanna. Some in the group felt that there wasn’t sufficient background to Hanna’s life to make her believable but this may have been due to her lack of stability in life.

A book well worth reading.

Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones, begins, “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.” The Lovely Bones is narrated by a suburban teen who has been brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor. After the police confirm Susie’s murder, her family struggles to cope with their loss and with the unanswered questions surrounding Susie’s death. Both of Susie’s parents withdraw into their own despair and become incapable of confronting the tragedy. Susie’s sister, Lindsey, deals with her own grief...

The Lovely Bones is Alice Sebold's debut novel, a remarkable story about love and family and letting go. Susie Salmon is 14 when she is raped and murdered by a neighbor, a serial killer of women who moves from town to town after each of his crimes. Susie's death sends her family into a tailspin as they each try to cope with the tragedy in their own way. Susie narrates the story from heaven, watching her friends, family, and the murderer move on with their lives. Alice Sebold does a wonderful job catching the rhythms and interactions of a family and community, and is surprising at times with the strength ofread the book then watch the film you will understand it alot more her prose in a story about loss and finding the love that was never gone. This is a really good book and i highly recommend to male and female.