Room

This novel by Emma Donoghue falls into a category I wouldn't have previously thought existed: tedious page-turners. It is also staggeringly unambitious. Anyone who has endured relentless questioning from a five-year-old about everything in the world can multiply that experience by 321 pages to get an idea of Room's effect. The book is structurally elegant, following a boy who has lived his whole life with his mother in an 11-by-11 storage shed as they escape and confront the world. But it could, and should, have been done in 40 pages.