The Running Bibliophile

Published in July 2010, Still Missing by Chevy Stevens is a novel about a 32-year old real estate agent named Annie O'Sullivan who is abducted from an open house and held captive in a remote mountain cabin. Her experiences of being held captive are told through sessions with her psychiatrist and alternate with her struggle to put her life back together after escaping. This was a novel that one of the book clubs I belonged to had selected to discuss in early 2011. For whatever reason, I only read approximately five pages of the book, never finished the book, and didn't attend the meeting. I finally decided to pick the book up and actually read it, and I was glad that I did.  The most interesting thing about this book is that it was published not too long before Emma Donoghue's Room , and their plots are somewhat similar. The biggest difference between the two is that Still Missing is told from an adult's perspective and Room is told from a child's perspective. Whi...

Room written by Emma Donoghue and published in 2010 is a novel about a woman and her five year old son being held captive in a small room. This room, which turns out to be an outbuilding in a backyard, contains a bed, wardrobe, bathroom, small kitchen, and a television. Jack, the son, has spent his entire life in this room and knows nothing else. Everything he sees on television is not the real world. Ma tries to keep Jack mentally and physically healthy as best she can by creating exercises for him to do in their small space. She also limits his television time and makes sure he has good hygiene. The only interaction that Ma and Jack have with the outside world is with Old Nick, who brings them food and other necessities. When he visits, Jack has to hide in the wardrobe. This was a book club choice in the first book club I ever joined, and it was among one of the first books I read after joining. Back then, I didn't have a lot of money to spare to spend on a hardback ve...