Book Review: City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau

This book earned a total of 3 stars. It was an okay read, but not a series that I wish to continue.

Likes:

I just want to say that I really enjoyed the setting for this story. I loved the whole steampunk vibe that I got from it, since I haven’t come across many steampunk books in my reading endeavors. The City itself was really well developed, and it demonstrates the impending crisis that the people are going to face in the near future.

That being said, I also loved how the book ended. I left me filled with hope, but it also shows the dark future that awaited the people in the City if they did not try to find a way out like the two main protagonists have.

I loved the rekindled friendship between the two protagonists and how it was brought on by the problem that they wanted to solve together. It implied, perhaps, a romantic relationship in the future (or is that just me who hopes they hook up someday?).

Finally, I really liked how much thought was put into the people moving down into the City of Ember in the first place. Not a lot was shared in the first book about the history, but what it shared was very interesting and compelling and made me wish that we had learned about it sooner.

Dislikes:

With all the stuff I liked, it didn’t really balance out with the dislikes. For one thing, the book was incredibly slow-paced to me. It dragged on with the conspiracy and the work of deciphering the note. There was some tension and conflict, but not enough to leverage against the scenes where they just aren’t doing anything.

One little nit-pick here as well, was how they were selected for their jobs once they graduated from school. In other books there was a lot of fanfare and thought put into it, not so much in this book. It seemed pretty random, like drawing a name from a hat, and that was your job. Very off putting and left me coming up with a lot of “what-if” scenarios.

All in all, and okay read for a middle grade dystopian, but not something that I would ever pick up again.