City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Ember: The First Book of Ember (Books of Ember)
Synopsis:

Many hundreds of years ago, the city of Ember was created by the Builders to contain everything needed for human survival. It worked…but now the storerooms are almost out of food, crops are blighted, corruption is spreading through the city and worst of all—the lights are failing. Soon Ember could be engulfed by darkness….

But when two children, Lina and Doon, discover fragments of an ancient parchment, they begin to wonder if there could be a way out of Ember. Can they decipher the words from long ago and find a new future for everyone? Will the people of Ember listen to them?

Review:

I think this book had a great idea - something bad is happening to earth so they get a few people to start new underground with the hopes of having future generations come back to the surface. Of course everything doesn't go as planned so now Lina and Doon are trying to find a way out of the darkness into the new world above ground. Sounds really interesting and I was excited to start reading. Unfortunately this book is written for a younger audience. I read a lot of young adult books and such, but they are  not written like the reader cannot comprehend things. This book was written like you cannot figure anything out yourself so it was hard to read since everything was simplified. 

The story was interesting, but it felt like not much happened. It felt like it fell short. There were so many new things to figure out and explore and that was all simplified and a missed opportunity to make the story better. I didn't get the wonder and amazement of the new things as much as I would have liked. That and figuring out how to get out was way too easy. I was hoping for a longer path to follow to figure it all out instead of getting it fairly easily. It was a good idea, but simplified too much to make it a great story. 

Rating: ★ ★1/2