I’ve had this book sitting in my to check out list for my library for a while, and I have finally gotten around to it! The story of an underground post apocalyptic city on the verge of collapse just felt weirdly right for the moment.
The book follows Lina, a young woman who has been given a job in the City of Ember, a place that has been having issues of late. The crops are starting to fail, the large storage of food is running out, and the power is going out, which is an issue when you live underground. But Lina’s friend, Doon, is starting to learn more about the inner workings of the city and Lina has uncovered a mysterious note that might be the way for them to leave the only place anyone living in the city has ever known.
Apparently this was a movie, which makes a weird amount of sense because it is written like it wanted a screen adaptation for a Disney movie and it was paced pretty similarly. I wasn’t quite sure how old the characters were for most of the book, but they read like they were twelve or thirteen, even though you later learn that they are much older. The motivations are uncomplicated and things are pretty straight forward, with very clear lines between good and evil.
The universe is still pretty interesting, though. The idea of an underground city and the things that would be put in place to maintain it for a finite amount of time was done very well, and the idea that the people who created it left behind such a flimsy method to tell people how to when the time comes is…. well, I’m in tech, I can believe it. It’s ridiculous, but I believe it.
Overall, it was cute. The characters read younger than they are, so it’s honestly better to pretend they are younger and think of it as a family movie. I don’t know how it stacks up to the movie, but it is a fun book.