Room by Emma Donaghue

Okay so "Room" blew my mind. I guess I shouldn't be shocked since I am a huge fan of "The Lovely Bones," but it was great. Now I wouldn't say it tops "The Lovely Bones" (by Alice Sebold), but that is partly because I enjoyed the artistic and surreal imagery in "The Lovely Bones" - the novel and the movie. Room had me on the edge of my seat, but without the dreamy quality of "The Lovely Bones."

The premise, if you haven't read about this book-soon-to-be-movie already, is that a young college girl is kidnapped and brought back to a shed her kidnapper designed and soundproofed to be a holding cell. She spends years there, and eventually has a son. Without giving away too much plot, I can tell you that special circumstances arise that compel her to design an elaborate ruse which relies on her very young son for their escape.

You truly bond with her son, who, incidentally, is the narrator of the book. His language and perspective do so much to make the novel. Really this novel has everything. It has great plot, great narration, edge of your seat action, and a window into the psyche of a young woman who's been through the kind of hell that can outdo most people's worst nightmares. Yes, the mother is explored as much as the son is because of the son's perceptions of her and misunderstandings that baffle him but that we as adult readers can understand.

This book is one I can recommend whole heartedly for anyone. I couldn't put it down. I read it in a sitting!

Fat Girl Walking...Right Out of my Library

Fat Girl Walking, by Brittany Gibbons, disappointed me. I've been aware of Brittany Gibbons for awhile. She runs a facebook group (one that can get a bit vitriolic - not from her, but from members) for curvy girls and she's a blogger. When I passed her book on the new release shelves at the library I thought I'd check it out. I'm an extra fluffy woman myself and thought it would be interesting.

Brittany starts with her childhood and explains the when and why of how she became a fat girl. Then, chapter by chapter, she covers dating experiences and marriage and even her TED talk. But at the start of the book she makes this all sound like quite an amazing journey - for instance, she says she'll talk about dealing with her mother in law and her failed attempt at lesbianism. But her failed attempt at lesbianism is a brief passage where another girl asked her to go down on her and she found out she could not. The part with the mother in law was a paragraph or two in which the mother in law was visibly upset at the announcement of their engagement.

This is where Brittany Gibbons failed as a writer, at least a writer of a book. Any of the stories she had in her book would make a hugely entertaining blog post. The stories are the right length and depth, and her voice and personality are suited to it. But they do not have enough substance for a book. While many of her lines are witty, they can be described more as "lol" witty and not ROTFLMAO funny.

I feel bad completely panning the book, but I simply will not buy it or recommend that anyone else buy it. I appreciate what Brittany is trying to do, but I don't think she was successful. Her stories she chose either didn't have enough substance to be the supporting pillars of a book, or she didn't flesh them out enough. For instance, she writes about the sexual and social experience of fat girls, and she rights about her difficult childhood with a father who was brain damaged by being hit by a semi. Both of these subjects could make a good book, but she was so divided between the subjects that neither one got the due it deserved.

Her raw honesty is refreshing. Her body positive message is great. Her blog and other endeavors are worth looking into. But the book just fell flat.