Book Review: Room 706 by Ellie Levenson

I cracked open my review copy of Room 706 and settled in for an early night in my hotel room. I was up until way past midnight tearing through the book - my heart pounding. Given that the book centres around a woman trapped by terrorists in her hotel room, it was perhaps not the best choice to read on holiday!

If you were held hostage - what message would you want to send to your family? Would they know that you loved them? Would they need the password for your grocery app? Would they ask why you were having an affair in that hotel?

Ah.

And there's the plot. In many ways, this is a stage-play or - in TV terms - a bottle episode. Our protagonist and her lover cannot escape from a little box of misery. What was once heavy with lust is now brimming over with fear, irritation, and pain. Ellie Levenson beautifully observes all the little moments which go into a day, building up the characters' lives only to tear them down again. I can't work out whether she is a cruel god torturing her creations or a loving creator who allows them to make their own mistakes.

It helps that she's created a protagonist who is just the right side of obnoxious. Their self-justified self-delusion leap off the page. Every minor irritation they experience explodes into bitterness and, just for a moment, you almost believe the lies she tells herself. There are some painfully witty observations about how men and women might react differently to the terror of a siege. It is, perhaps, a little bit heartbreaking to realise your own reactions to the situation would be laughably inadequate and barely more than a cliché.

Perhaps that's the point; we're all trapped in a room of our own making. We fall into the same patterns as everyone else and react with shock when we discover how we've trapped ourselves.

I was desperate for there to be a twist. Some last-minute deus ex. Or even a moment of catharsis. Instead, Room 706 wrings every drop of stress out of you up until the final page. There is no let-up in the tension.

An exhausting and frantic read. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Room 706 is released on the 15th of January and is available to pre-order now.

---

Long-term readers will recognise Ellie from my review of her Noughtie Girl's Guide to Feminism from 17 years ago. Let's hope we don't have to wait until 2043 for her next book!