People of Sparks

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau is the second Book of Ember. As much flack as I gave The City of Ember, I had to pick up the second one as soon as possible. Following the same characters, DuPrau delves into the subject of racism, violence, and tensions of budding war. There was a lot of action, a lot of original material, and it was really exciting to read. I snatched up the third book in the series, The Prophet of Yonwood but it's a prequel. We'll see about that.

3.5/5

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is a young adult science fiction novel about a city encased in darkness- lit by a generator no one understands. Standing alone, it doesn't explain much but perhaps the other books in the series do so. The largest issue with the book is the utter ignorance of the characters and their willingness to do absolutely nothing- to question nothing, and to deny any reasonable movement towards progress. In this way the world DuPrau builds is inadequate and unbelievable. Maybe if I were 8 years old I'd be able to accept it. And if I hadn't already read Anthem and The Giver. Maybe then.

2.5/5

Breathers by S. G. Brown

My initial hesitation with Breathers had to do with the genre. A zombie's lament/ love story... come on. But before I knew it I was on page 120. And it just kept getting better. There are a few plot twists and turns but they're not cheesy. At least not until the last twenty pages. It's like Brown got the hang of a quicker pacing and just took off at the end. While the book isn't a literary masterpiece or anything it was very clever and dealt with a lot of social issues. Ideas of preservation, us vs. them, and treatment of zombies were discussed at length. I really enjoyed this book and I'm still pretty pumped up about it!

4/5