DuPrau, Jeanne. 2004. The City of Ember. New York: Random House.
Lina and Doon, friends who had grown apart over the years, must come together to determine the extent of the trouble their city is in. Each day there are more shortages in Ember, fewer food staples and clothing items to go around, and the lights go off for longer intervals then ever before. The citizens are starting to panic and Lina and Doon decide there’s only one thing they can do: Take matters into their own hands and fix whatever is going wrong in Ember. Their search to uncover the solution to the city’s problem will land them in trouble and down a path filled with danger and adventure and, quite possibly, a way out.
The City of Ember is an interesting blend of mystery and science fiction. The children undertake a task based on a clue Lina finds in her apartment; their sleuthing leads to a bit of trouble, and exposes the distrust that children can occasionally feel towards adults, especially when they believe they are not being taken seriously. This aspect is believable and relatable, grounding the novel in reality even as the science fiction elements, that of an entire city being built and maintained underground, may seem implausible.
This novel, the first in the Books of Ember series, is a plot driven piece; characters, on the other hand, act without clear motivation, and are often underdeveloped. The reader is witness to Doon’s anger issues, and there is an explanation that is lightly touched upon, but he never truly struggles to control it; this trait seems to be solved in a lesson learned too quickly. Secondary characters, such as Lina’s neighbor and eventual foster parent of sorts, Mrs. Murdo, is portrayed in a way that hints at a great back story, but it’s one of many that is never explored. Even the mayor, the villain of the piece, is one dimensional.
If readers can get passed a sluggish beginning, if they can weather out inconsistencies, they might enjoy this apocalyptic story enough to want to move on to the next in the series. It wouldn’t be one, however, that I could personally recommend with much enthusiasm.
