The City of Ember

The City of Ember 
By: Jeanne DuPrau
Yearling 2003
Science Fiction Genre Requirement

"The City of Ember" was an absolutely amazing book. It has started out a bit slow, but once the "box" came back in to play it was super exciting to read. One of my favorite parts of this novel was just the simple, but enticing first chapter. "The Builders" have made the City of Embers so that its inhabitants can survive for at least 200 years or more because for some unknown reason they will not be safe on the outside. They leave instructions that are to be opened at a certain time far into the future that will guide the people in whatever decision they have to make at that point. The instructions however get lost and a little while after is where our story really begins. We  find out that the City of Ember is a city that was once prosperous but is now beginning to go to waste due to the fact that their once many resources are running out. The work system and society was worked out very nicely by the author so that it was detailed and interesting, but was not too complex for the younger readers. Everyone worked in Ember after they were finished with schooling and they would be randomly assigned jobs. We follow the characters Lina and Doon, who have typical character types, but are still very fun to learn about. They switch jobs so that Lina works above ground as a messenger and Doon works in the pipeworks system of Ember. Throughout their own revelations they figure out something is wrong with Ember and begin to seek out the problem and this is where the novel begins to get really, really, really good! From the point that Doon and Lina start working together I was hooked and it was written perfectly so that there was a lot of suspense and surprises around every corner. I won't spoil what happens but it was absolutely awesome!

What I really loved about the novel was how real it felt in a way to me and how it hooked on to my senses. Just imagine being in a place where you never really know how much time has passed and night and day is just a concept. The writer did a wonderful job of (at least in my case) making it so you would really think. What would it be like if everything had a limit so you could never have things like colored pencils or pineapples ever again? What would happen if your limited number of resources began to run out, and quickly? Also, after I finished the book it just made me think of even more questions and I love a book that actually makes me think about the world inside it and then connect that to the outside. Also, the coolest part of the book I thought was when the city would have blackouts. The cities only source of light was from the light bulbs they had, everything around them was dark and mysterious. At "night" the whole city would go dark and everyone would just sleep because there was no such thing as portable light. However, sometimes during the days the lights would go out and the whole town would be immersed in darkness and people were out and about. I thought it was such a terrific, and terrifying concept because I know for me that would really freak me out.

All in all, I loved this book so much and I can not wait until I have enough time to read the next book in the series because it is just so fantastic. My one last favorite thing about this book is that even if you really don't like science fiction this is still a really great book and a wonderful start for readers to get into that genre. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially the ones that love dystopian societies :)