The City of Ember Review

I have been reading the City of Ember lately, and I really like it. A lot. It is definitely my most favorite post-Apocalyptic book ever, and I've read my fair share. And plus, Jeanne DePrau did a fantastic job naming the characters- such a fantastic job at naming each supporting character that I scan the books just to read about Mrs. Murdo, or Miss Thorn, or Nammy Proggs, or Clary... Haha. I bet 99% of you won't know what I'm talking about.

So far, The City of Ember and its sequel, The People of Sparks, have been very nice to me. They are certainly worth the read. Right now, they are my favorite books. I vaguely remember The Prophet of Yonwood, a prequel to the entire series following a girl living in a world terrified of war and who's father is one of the Builders (one of the people who built Ember in the first place). I'd suggest either reading the Prophet of Yonwood before or after you read the rest of the books; when I read it, I was reading the entire series in order, and I couldn't wait until The Prophet of Yonwood was over so I could get to The Diamond of Darkhold. But read The Prophet is Yonwood; it's as good as the rest, but it just gets in the way of the story.

Unlike my rather cruel review of The Lost Hero, I give this book 100%. Must I list my reasons?

It's kind of like Curious George - hear me out - you watch helplessly as this stupid monkey wanders, blissfully oblivious, into painfully obvious and easy to avoid situations. Like if George is asked to, say, carry a million dollar vase. Obviously he's going to drop it. You come back ten minutes later and he's sweeping up little shards, making these hideous "AGGHGHHHH" noises, and selling The Man in the Yellow Hat into slavery to pay off his debt. The difference is, the Curious George show runs on stupid blunders like this; the blunders are the plot. In the City of Ember, they further the plot. I mean, the idiotic Builders wrote priceless instructions on PAPER and threw them in a BOX. If I were one of the builders, I'd turn the box into a sealed safe on the wall and print the instructions onto metal. But because they were on fragile paper and sealed in an easily lost box, it created an excellent story.