The City of Ember

Title: The City of Ember
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Books)
Year of Publication: 2003
Reader's Rating: 3.5 - I liked it.

Excerpt: “There is so much darkness in Ember, Lina. It's not just outside, it's inside us, too. Everyone has some darkness inside. It's like a hungry creature. It wants and wants and wants with a terrible power. And the more you give it, the bigger and hungrier it gets"

In a Nutshell: Ember is an underground city, created many years before by the Builders as a shelter to preserve the human race. Enveloped in darkness, its only light comes from bright electric lamps that hang overhead. Ember's inhabitants know nothing of the world above them and are perfectly content with how things run at Ember. Their small city, however, wasn't made to last forever. The once full storage houses of food and supplies are now running low.The lights are starting to flicker, causing blackouts wherein the people wonder whether the lights have breathed their last. Not one of them knows anything about what's beyond the darkness, but escape seems like the only option. Some of the citizens of Ember, though, are skeptical. Where would they go? Is there another world they could escape to? What is beyond the darkness?

The Good Stuff: The main characters of the story, Lina and Doon, are quite nice. DuPrau finds a way to make the friends heroes without them having to develop feelings for each other (a typical storyline among books and movies nowadays). Their relationship extends no more than best-friendship. I also liked how Lina was caring to her grandmother and sister, a trait that isn't as shown in today's books and movies.

The Not-so-Good Stuff: The only thing I didn't like about the book was the lack of vocabulary. It contained ordinary words, which isn't really a bad thing, but I particularly love books that have a wide vocabulary.

Reader's Say: The City of Ember was a fun and exciting read. Lina and Doon's lack of knowledge for common objects such as candles and boats amused me. I recommend reading this book along with the rest of the titles in the Books of Ember series. I also suggest watching the movie because it stays fairly close to the book.