Dark Room Etiquette

By: Robin Roe

Narrated by: Andrew J. Andersen

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

We Were Liars meets Room in this masterfully plotted psychological thriller from the critically acclaimed author of A List of Cages, Robin Roe.

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD SAYERS WAYTE HAS EVERYTHING.

Popularity, good looks, perfect grades—there's nothing Sayers' family money can't buy.

Until he's kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he's been living is based on a lie.

Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he's been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him.

But as time passes, the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, and Sayers begins to wonder if he can escape . . . before he loses himself.

©2022 Robin Roe (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Great book!

It's amazing how one single moment can forever change our lives, be it big or small. For Sayers, that one moment changed his life in a major way and redefined his entire being. This book really calls one to do some self reflection and reevaluate who you are vs. who you want to be. It also speaks to forgiveness and the genuineness or not of the relationships we have with others.

Formulaic

It was enjoyable, but nothing special. Somewhat formulaic with all the predictable characters and roles.

Excellent book

I’m not the biggest fan of YA and I keep saying I’m not going to read so much of it anymore. But here I am, and Dark Room Etiquette is my favorite book of 1922. I felt Sayers journey, from his arrogant and privileged beginnings to his humbling and tragic middle and his later struggles to overcome his trauma and be a better person.
Robin Roe understands people and masterfully brings their stories to life. She’s great at character building and storytelling. This was a rare book that I wanted more after the story ended.

Well written

I really enjoyed the ups and downs of this story. It took me a little bit to get into it, but after all the groundwork was laid, I couldn’t stop listening to find out what was going to happen next.

Not just for YA listeners

I liked this book thru out the entire thing. But loved it when the actual author gave some back story about why and how he came to write the book. Then it just hit home. The entire book is about how each of us has to find our own way out of deep trauma and the damage it causes. And since I did suffer at the hands of a molester for most of my young teens into early adulthood, I had to learn my own way out of that darkness....

All the characters are well developed and I am pretty sure I have known every one of them in real life. The good, the bad and the ugly. And the sometimes ugly, but mostly good. And the sometimes good, but mostly bad. The ones who feel entitled, the ones who reach out to help others because they see the need.

I am so glad I gave this story a chance...

Different

not my idea of a good read but it was certainly well written and I'm sure Rings a bell with some folks

I love everything about this book

Sayers Wayte is an entitled and arrogant teenager whose money and status allows him live in a world without any real problems or worries. The first few chapters establish that, and were a perfect set up for what I knew was going to happen—his world was going to be turned upside down. Proving his entitlement and irritating attitude, he bails on and strands his friends at a restaurant they came upon while lost. Still lost in the middle of nowhere, he realizes he is very low on gas, and it’s getting dark outside. Along comes Caleb, a creepy man who approaches Sayers under the pretense that he is going to help him change his tire after he recklessly swerved off the road. Sayers accepts his offer to help him. Caleb seizes the opportunity, drugs Sayers and kidnaps him. He wakes up in a room with no windows and learns that Caleb believes that he is his own son Daniel, who disappeared when he was ten years old. He tries to reason with Caleb, then tries to fight him but it’s no use. He decides to play along and appear to become Daniel. Little by little, and with no concept of time, he begins to confuse reality with Caleb’s distortion. Watching him disappear is utterly heartbreaking.

The pace of his character development that I found the most remarkable. Such a journey from start to finish. I feel like there were three Sayers: the asshole in the beginning, Sayers being Daniel, and PTSD Sayers, who can’t go back to how he used to be.

Robin Roe has a masterful and artistic ability to paint the picture of what Sayer is thinking, seeing and experiencing. I think that’s what I loved the most from her first book, A List of Cages.

I definitely had all the feels throughout the book. A lot of anxiety, which I verbalized whenever I felt like he was going to get caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Also, just like in ALOC, there’s a moment so disturbing and devastating that I have to stop reading to process what I just read. And to cry.

I was able to relate with the state of “Learned Helplessness,” which I believe is the underlying message of the story, and how it can be overcome. And that there is HOPE.
Described in the book, Learned Helplessness is a state that occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly. They come to believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try — even when opportunities for change become available. Being bipolar, especially in a depressive episode, I have often felt this way, but have never heard of this perspective.

Ultimately, it is Robin Roe’s author’s note that affected me the most:

VULNERABLE BUT INVINCIBLE
It's how I'm trying to see myself. And it's my hope that anyone who is struggling might begin to see themselves this way too. This doesn't mean denying our history, ignoring our pain, or pretending there are no more bad days. On the contrary, for me, it means facing all those things. It means seeking out help when we need it, and trying new treatment methods even after we think we've tried them all. And it means reminding ourselves that no matter what's happened to us, we still have the capacity for so much joy--because there is always a way out of a dark room.

Brutal/Empty

This book is about a sixteen year old boy who is kidnapped by a grief stricken man. The man (Caleb) believed his 10 year old son was kidnapped by doctors several years prior and that during a meteor shower that is supposed to happen soon, time would reverse. The man believes the 16 year boy he has kidnapped is that 10 year old son.

The 1st couple of hours in the book introduces us to Sayer (the 16 yr old). Sayer comes from a very wealthy family, is good looking, popular, spoiled, and a little cruel. He has his own car, a girlfriend, friends, and a best friend he has grown up with. He is a passive witness to a horrific bullying episode just before he is kidnapped (has nothing to do with the kidnapping) in that he sees a "friend" escort a boy into the woods, stays for 20 or so minutes, and both the boys come back out of the woods with the bully smirking.

A few days following the bullying incidence, Sayer and his class go on a field trip where Sayer follows the school bus in his own car rather than riding the bus to the field trip. On the way back, some of Sayer's friends ride with him rather than riding the bus back to school and they stop at a diner. At the diner, Sayer says something cruel about the waitress and the waitress hears him. Sayer's friends give him a hard time about the comment, he ends up with pie being thrown in his face, and he leaves the diner and his friends to find their own way home, and he leaves his cell phone behind.

Sayer gets lost on the way home and ends up on some secluded country road. A car comes up behind him and forces him off the road causing a tire to blow out. Of course, in the car is the kidnapper, and Sayer is kidnapped. The next 6 hours is spent detailing psychological, and physical abuse where the Caleb (Kidnapper) tries to convince Sayer that the people Sayer thought were his parents are in fact the doctors that kidnapped him when he was 10 years old and Sayer is the Caleb's son, Daniel. Sayer finds his way into a previously locked room and finds 9 freezers with a frozen boy inside each one. This is the final act that breaks Sayer and begins calling Caleb "Dad".

The last half of the book is after Sayer/Daniel is back home with his mom and back at school. He receives one counseling session, but he doesn't like the therapist and his mom (mom & dad are divorced) doesn't insist on pursuing further counseling. Sayer/Daniel struggles with his identity, friends, bullies, school, and the press.

This is a really hard book to listen to. The abuse this boy goes through is heart rending. The lack of help he receives when he gets back home is unbelievable considering the resources his family has. When he turned 18, he went with his mom to their attorney's office so he could receive his trust fund. I did finish this book, but I wish I had not. It is dark, and depressing.

Almost DNF

This book started out very slowly, but I’m so happy I gave it a second try because it ended up being very interesting.
Each person in the book deals with some sort of trauma and the way they deal with it.

Bit of a slog

Because so many other reviewers felt the same way about the beginning, (slow!) and recommended that you stick with it till the middle, I did that. I’m not sure it was worth it. I found it repetitious, a bit predictable, and an interesting topic not adequately explored. For a couple of early chapters I thought I was reading a young adult novel. Would I recommend it? Probably not.