Books with author Emma Donoghue

Good Enough is a fast, jagged hypnotic read. Fans of The Fault in Our Stars, Eleanor and Park and Ellen Hopkins will love this new young adult novel. Ten facts about myself.1. My name is Simon Baker.2. I'm seventeen years old.3. I have two sisters. Jessica, who's fourteen and Bailey who's twelve.4. My parents aren't divorced, they're still together.5. We live in a nice two-story house in a nice neighborhood.6. My parents don't do drugs, they don't even drink that often, and neither do I.7. My parents have never hit us, they've never kept us locked up in the basement or kicked us out of the house.8. No one has ever touched me in the wrong place.9. I've been to parties and I've been in a few fights but never over anything serious.10. I didn't try to kill myself.Except that Simon wakes up to find that his parents have had him committed to Palmdale Psychiatric Hospital after a failed suicide attempt. Simon wasn't normal and he knew it. He was struggling after losing his best -and only- friend, with being an outcast at school. He tries his best to pretend that everything is okay, but there is still a part of him that he would always keep locked away from everyone else. Life in the center is regimented and intrusive. Nurses and attendants watch Simon while he sleeps, while he eats and accompany him to the bathroom, and challenge him to talk about what he's worked so hard to avoid. Good Enough will keep you hooked from the first page. Simon has a strong but complicated family dynamic. His closeness with his sisters as well as his distance from his mother influences many of his thoughts. Simon also forms a strong, slow-burning, emotional, vulnerable friendship and later relationship with Oliver, who helps Simons alongside him on their path to recovery.Donoghue doesn't hold back in her portrayal of mental illness and laying out the triggering incidents that lead to Simon's suicide attempt. Donoghue dives into the complexity of coming out, relationships, and the emotional residue of guilt, fear, and betrayal.Highlighting the devastating physical and mental effects they had on Simon, his friends, and family. Donoghue reveals Simon's past friendships, his toxic relationships, and the trauma that he has experienced to show the factors that compounded, one after another that led to his suicide attempt and mental state.Good Enough is a sharp, heartbreaking, emotional journey. From the lows of grief and suicide to the highs of first love to the lows of loss and despair, Simon's story is a compelling read.Gemma Donoghue is the author of the hit young adult book Delicate, Fragile, If I Fall and Talk.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the world. . . . It’s where he was born. It’s where he and Ma eat and sleep and play andlearn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jack’s imagination -- the snake under Bed that he constructs out of eggshells;the imaginary world projected through the TV; the coziness ofWardrobe beneath Ma’s clothes, where she tucks him in safelyat night, in case Old Nick comes.Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it’s the prison whereshe’s been held since she was nineteen -- for seven long years.Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life forhim in that eleven-by-eleven foot space. But Jack’s curiosity isbuilding alongside Ma’s own desperation, and she knows thatRoom cannot contain either indefinitely. . . . Told in the inventive,funny and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience -- and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

Fans of John Green, Ellen Hopkins, and Laurie Halse Anderson will love Fragile. A painful powerful read, Fragile offers an intense look into the lives of two girls with eating disorders. In clear, gut-wrenching prose, Katherine and Carol take turns narrating their story of destructive behaviors that control their every thought. It started with a candy bar.One minute Katherine was sitting on the couch watching cartoons, about to eat a Snickers.The next she was running to the bathroom and shoving two fingers down her throat and throwing up.Katherine doesn't know how her eating disorder started; was it curiosity, a jealous competition with her best friend Carol to see who would be the smallest, or was it something else? All she knows is that she dropped six sizes in five months after her grandmother tried to file for custody of her after her parents divorced when she was at her lowest weight.Katherine feels like she has lost control over her life and the only thing she believes she can control is what she eats. It became easier and easier for her to lie to her dad and say that she had eaten, to lie to herself and say she was full, or to just not eat at all.At 95 pounds she doesn't feel like a size zero. She still feels fat. When she looks in the mirror she can all she sees is an ocean of fat hanging off of her body even though no one else can see it. Katherine doesn't see food as food. She only sees the calories it contains.Katherine is stuck in a rut in life. And now she's trapped in the small town of Deer's Run New York. Life in Deer's Run is a nightmare come true. Her grandmother has the school nurse, teachers, and lunchroom attendants watch Katherine at lunch, when she goes to the bathroom, and challenges her constantly to eat the foods she's spent half of her life avoiding.Katherine has planned to stay in Deer's Run for her sophomore year. But what he Dad doesn't know is that Katherine only plans on staying long enough to convince her Dad and more importantly her grandmother that she is healthy. Healthy enough to avoid being shipped back to the Rosewood Inpatient Clinic for Eating Disorders, a treatment center for girls like her--girls with eating disorders.After her her former best friend Carol commits suicide death, Katherine listens to the messages that Carol left her. Listening to these messages, Carol's unlikely suicide note, Katherine discovers how everything is connected and how the smallest acts caused the biggest ripples. How each story, each person who touched her life pushed her to her death. Revealing the subtle cruelties of teenagers, from bullying, to rumors, to rape, Carolexplains herself, her pain, her story. Most of the novel takes place in Katherine's head, as she listens to Carol's voice and to the ugly voice in her head, telling her not to eat. To starve, and to purge which she does in chilling detail.As the trauma of Carol's death coupled with Katherine's strained relationship with her parents and grandmother makes her tighten her grip on her eating disorder. To control something as her world seemingly collapses all around her. Fragile is a gut-wrenching read and a peek into a world where everything is connected and everything comes full circle.Donoghue has created an intriguing character study into the minds of people who make difficult, unimaginable choices. A dark, gritty read from a talented new author.

Fans of The Fault in Our Stars, Eleanor and Park and Ellen Hopkins will love Good Enough, a fast, raw hypnotic new young adult novel. Ten facts about myself.1. My name is Simon Baker.2. I'm seventeen years old. 3. I have two sisters. Jessica, who's fourteen and Bailey who's twelve. 4. My parents aren't divorced, they're still together.5. We live in a nice two-story house in a nice neighborhood. 6. My parents don't do drugs, they don't even drink that often, and neither do I. 7. My parents have never hit us, they've never kept us locked up in the basement or kicked us out of the house. 8. No one has ever touched me in the wrong place. 9. I've been to parties and I've been in a few fights but never over anything serious.10. I didn't try to kill myself. Except that Simon wakes up to find that his parents have had him committed to Palmdale Psychiatric Hospital after a failed suicide attempt. Simon wasn't normal and he knew it. He was struggling after losing his best -and only- friend, with being an outcast at school. He tries his best to pretend that everything is okay, but there is still a part of him that he would always keep locked away from everyone else. Life in the center is regimented and intrusive. Nurses and attendants watch Simon while he sleeps, while he eats and accompany him to the bathroom, and challenge him to talk about what he's worked so hard to avoid. Good Enough will keep you hooked from the first page. Simon has a strong but complicated family dynamic. His closeness with his sisters as well as his distance from his mother influences many of his thoughts. Simon also forms a strong, slow-burning, emotional, vulnerable friendship and later relationship with Oliver, who helps Simons alongside him on their path to recovery.Donoghue doesn't hold back in her portrayal of mental illness and laying out the triggering incidents that lead to Simon's suicide attempt. Donoghue dives into the complexity of coming out, relationships, and the emotional residue of guilt, fear, and betrayal. Highlighting the devastating physical and mental effects they had on Simon, his friends, and family. Donoghue reveals Simon's past friendships, his toxic relationships, and the trauma that he has experienced to show the factors that compounded, one after another that led to his suicide attempt and mental state. Good Enough is a sharp, heartbreaking, emotional journey. From the lows of grief and suicide to the highs of first love to the lows of loss and despair, Simon's story is a compelling read.Gemma Donoghue is the author of the best selling young adult book Delicate.

WINNER! 2010 Rogers Writers' Trust Award for FictionSHORTLISTED for the 2010 Man Booker PrizeSHORTLISTED for the 2010 Governor General's AwardTo five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It’s where he was born and where he and his Ma eat and play and learn. At night, Ma puts him safely to sleep in the wardrobe, in caseOld Nick comes.Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it’s the prison where Old Nick has kept her for seven years, since she was nineteen. Through ingenuity and determination, Ma has created a life for herself and her son, but she knows it’s not enough for either ofthem. Jack’s curiosity is building alongside Ma’s desperation -- and Room can’t contain either of them for much longer...Told entirely in the inventive, often funny voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of the resilient bond between parent and child, and a brilliantly executed novel about a journey from one world to another.Learn more about Room at www.roomthebook.com.

Now a Major Motion Picture starring Brie Larson and William H. Macy #1 International Bestseller Winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Canada and Caribbean region) Winner of the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. It’s where he was born. It’s where he and Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jack’s imagination-the snake under Bed that he constructs out of eggshells; the coziness of Wardrobe beneath Ma’s clothes, where she tucks him in safely at night, in case Old Nick comes. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it’s the prison where she’s been held since she was nineteen-for seven long years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in that eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But Jack’s curiosity is building alongside her own desperation, and she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely . . . Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience-and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.