Probably one of the most popular Irish novels of recent years, Room tells the story of a five-year-old boy and his mother who are imprisoned in a room for seven years. With obvious references to the Fritzl case and numerous other infamous kidnapping cases, Room attempts to humanise the experiences of being a captive. 
 I really thought it was genius of Donoghue is choose the POV of a five-year-old boy for this novel. There is a wonderful subversive horror in a little boy narrating a rape scene. This novel takes so many disturbing leaps that I can only applaud the fact that this thing got published in its current form. The entire narrative is so depraved that it is almost reminiscent of Burroughs or Sade at certain points. 
 While I can only commend Donoghue's narrative, her plots are less than admirable. To be perfectly honest I felt that this entire novel ran out of steam by page 100, and this thing is 400-pages long. You honestly could skip 50-pages are some parts and it would have no effect on the plot. This was most evident in the scenes from the second half of the novel in which it can be said that it does all fall apart. 
 However, I did enjoy reading this, even if it was like watching a sinking ship. Donoghue is an accomplished writer, she manages to save it, if only barely.