Jeff's Lunchbreak: Book Review- City of Ember

City of Ember is a young adult/children's book written by Jeanne DuPrau, which I'd highly recommend. Without giving away any more of the plot than what you'd pick up in the first couple chapters - Ember is a city with no natural light. All the illumination in the city comes from street lights and lamps. The city gets its electricity from a giant generator driven by and underground river. But the generator keeps breaking down, they're running out of light bulbs, and there's nowhere to go - indeed, the people of Ember think their city is the only city there is.

Long ago when the Builders constructed the City of Ember, they had an important secret that the people were supposed to learn in 220 years. They enclosed the secret in a box with a mechanism that would open at the appropriate time, and entrusted the box to the mayor, who was supposed to hand it down to the next mayor, who was supposed to hand it down to the next mayor, etc., until the box opened and the citizens of Ember learned the secret. Unfortunately, one of the mayors broke the chain, and the box with the secret was lost.

Now, the two main characters, Lina and Doon, must figure out a way to solve the city's problems.

I really enjoyed reading this book. To give an idea of how engaging the story is, I read the book in two days, my wife read it in three, and our eight year old daughter read it in two. It's written in a style that sucks you in, so that you really want to just keep reading to see how it's going to end. Granted, it may not be perfect. It's a little predictable, and I definitely have a few unanswered questions (which may be resolved in the sequel or prequel, which I haven't read, yet), but those slight shortcomings are more than made up for by the story telling. I'd recommend this book to anyone, young and old alike.

Comments

That's cool that you wrote a review on this book. It sounds like a dystopia book. I'm fascinated with dystopia books and I'm about to post about it.

Posted by: Eric Jones | May 27, 2008 7:33 AM

The books are really good! So good in fact that they are making them into live action/adventure movies! I know what your thinking movies are never good as the books they are based on but I believe this movie could be! I think the imagery from the novel stays true to form dark and ominous with the apocalypse looming just ahead. Plus Bill Murray is playing Mayor Cole, he always brings characters to life like no one could ever have imagined.

My name is Blair and I am an official ambassador for City of Ember and I have access to first-look pics of the movie not seen in the trailer, which I would be more than happy to share with you. I would love to have your help spreading the word about City of Ember and get the buzz going!

I hope I’m not over stepping any bounds by posting on your blog.
Hope to speak with you soon.

Best,
Blair Landon
Official Ambassador
Blair.ambassador@gmail.com

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