Jeanne DuPrau
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️
I remember being gifted this book when I was around 12, same age as the main character in the book. At the time, my life revolved around school and the activities I signed up for after school. By the time I was home, I was studying for 6+ hours nightly to try to maintain my 3.6 GPA. That leaves no room for fun reading. I opened this book and remember struggling with reading comprehension at the time as well, so I got to chapter two and tossed the book in a drawer to be forgotten about.
When I tell you this book saved me from getting back into a slump. This was Nicholas Cage vibes mixed with Hunger Games and all the best things you want in a book. It’s creative, well-written, and not overly jarring even though it absolutely could be. In comparison to a series like Scythe where $uicide and killing is mentioned on almost every page and it becomes overkill and sadistic, this book focuses a heck lot less on the government side of things and more on getting out and why they are in this weird world in the first place. Yes the mayor is an issue and yes the government has parallels, but this is an adventure of a book without the weird propaganda feel. While I enjoyed the first Scythe book, I am also still disturbed by it – I just feel like it could have been told in a much better way to have lasting impact. It still DOES have lasting impact and is a wonderful series, but it made me deeply miss series like Hunger Games, Divergent, Across The Universe, and others where there isn’t detailed descriptions of horrid things consistently.
The book ends on a cliffhanger for sure, so I am currently now reading the second book in the series.
Goodreads link https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/307791.The_City_of_Ember
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