The City of Ember

Yearling

The City of Ember
Jeanne DuPrau
2004

The Summary
"Lights shine in the city of Ember - but at the city limits the light ends, and darkness takes over.  Out there in the Unknown Regions, the darkness goes on forever in all directions.  Ember - so its people believe - is the only light in the dark world.

"And now the lights are going out.

"Is there a way to save the people of Ember?  No one knows.  But Lina Mayfleet has found a puzzling document, and Doon Harrow has made discoveries down in the Pipeworks.  With these clues, they start their search."

The Good
The City of Ember was an interesting story.  Although I think I would have enjoyed it better if I'd been younger (since the novel is geared toward a younger audience), I liked the characters and quality of DuPrau's novel.

Lina Mayfleet is an endearing girl with a lot of spunk and a lot of courage; Doon Harrow is smart boy with enough skill and brains to take him places, even if he sometimes allows his pride get in the way.  As characters, they're enjoyable.  Maybe a bit naive, but they are children who have lived underground for the majority of their lives, so, you know, I suppose it's to be expected.

At any rate, I liked DuPrau's novel.  She's an excellent writer for children's literature and she's created an interesting world in her series.  I was fascinated by the imagery she used, the evocative language as she delves into characters' thoughts and slowly reveals the lives they lead.

I especially liked how DuPrau described Ember, illustrating how the city was slowly crumbling, revealing the thin threads of political corruption and greed that infested the leadership of the city.  The City of Ember has complex undertones, but DuPrau incorporates mature themes without being overbearing or making the story morbid.

I would highly recommend it for younger readers and, moreover, anyone who might enjoy post-apocalyptic stories.

The Bad
Although I liked DuPrau's novel, I found I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I would if I were a child picking up The City of Ember for the first time.  It's an interesting story, but it loses my interest at different intervals because it feels like a children's book - and I can only give it so much attention.

The Ugly
Ember is crumbling.  Supplies are running short.  Lights flicker and go out, fuel spent.  Lina and Doon are in a race against time to rescue their friends and families, searching for the Creator's clues, struggling to find an escape from a city that's slowly falling down around them.

It's scary to witness the slow decay of the city, watching as people fight for survival in a place that wasn't meant to last more than a hundred years and, ultimately, frustrating when you realize that people of Ember have a way to escape.  In fact, they've had the means to escape all along - but thanks to greed and desperation and misuse of political power, the way out may be lost to them forever.