Robert J. Wiersema's latest novel, Bedtime Story, is a story within a story within a story. After novelist Christopher Knox begins reading a lost fantasy book by one of his favourite childhood authors to his eleven year old son David, the boy suffers a seizure and enters into a trance-like state. Like Wiersema's first release, Before I Wake, the author writes about the lives of an unresponsive child (his first protagonist is in a coma due to a hit-and-run accident) and the unknown world where lost souls dwell.

Christopher, despite opposition from his estranged wife, deduces it is the story of the book itself, To The Four Directions by Laurence Took, which has caused David's condition; Chris attempts to battle the magic embedded in the book. Bedtime Story intertwines Christopher's mission, the fantasy novel itself, and David's story while trapped in the novel, where he meets other lost readers. They layering of stories builds up into a climax worthy of classic fantasy and horror novels!

Despite its depressing and gloomy plot, I completely understand the accolades and award nominations (and wins!) for Emma Donoghue's latest novel, the thoroughly gripping Room.

This dark story, similar to real life ones heard recently in the news, is told from the perspective of six year old Jack, who lives in Room,and only in Room, with his mother. Occasionally, there are visited by Old Nick, who abducted Jack's mother several years ago. Other than that, Jack has not had contact with the outside world. Television shows him stories and the news, but he cannot fathom the reality behind them, that there is a huge world outside this eleven-by-eleven foot enclosure. His only friends are the inanimate items he sees on a daily basis; Plant, Wardrobe, Snake (made from empty eggshells)... While trying her best to survive in this stunted environment, and keep Jack as healthy as possible, his mother is also working on a plan of escape.

As well as a compelling read, Room is an eye-opener; Donoghue touches on so many simple things that we on the 'outside world' can take for granted. Jack has never seen the sun, felt the air, run in a straight line rather than the circles around Rug. His mother, limited in basic needs by Old Nick, must prioritise what foods and essentials she asks for, thus depriving Jack of toys, sufficient clothing, and, perhaps most shattering, only five books (shudder).

Room is a novel that not only thrills, it had an underlying message for me that, with love and strong emotional support, you can survive. Sure, Jack and his mother did not enter this situation willingly, but it speaks that material things, to achieve bigger and better, means nothing without someone who can get you through the worst. Throughout the novel, Jack, as narrator, provided an innocent perspective, one without hate, or envy, or regret, which gives a hopeful twist to this terrible tale.