A Drizzle of Dystopia

Rachel Huff
May 3, 2016
3 min read

Hoping for better days, but convinced they may never come? If you think your life is bad, try reading some of these dystopian novels... These series may make you feel better about things. You'll soon realize that life isn't always a "pie in the sky."

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

The City of Ember

by Jeanne Deprau

If you like science fiction, then you will definitely enjoy The City of Ember. The story begins with a preface entitled: “The Instructions.” This brief introduction provides a bit of a backstory, but is mostly written to intrigue the reader. Initially, readers will have so many questions: Who were The Builders? Why did they choose to create an underground city? Why did they feel inhabitants of Ember should wait for 200-240 years before they left the city? Why didn’t The Builders come up with a better plan for protecting The Instructions and passing them down through the generations? While the book answers some of these questions, the author leaves many of them to chance and allows each reader to form their own conclusions. That’s one of the best things about this book… every reader is compelled to think critically about real world problems and their consequences.

As the story unfolds, the two main characters, Lina and Doon, stumble upon the long-lost instructions, but they are practically in shreds. Lina’s grandmother, who is developing dementia, become transfixed with a childhood memory of “a thing that was lost”… Granny recalls a childhood story about her desperate great grandfather (the seventh mayor) who lost something that was extremely important, but no one knows exactly what it was. He died before he could tell anyone. Since Lina’s grandmother doesn’t know what she’s looking for, she doesn’t know she actually found The Instructions; she tosses the box out of a cram-packed closet and Lina’s baby sister, Poppy, finds the document. As luck would have it, Poppy tears and chews The Instructions. The document is so tattered that it is nearly undecipherable. Lina approaches Doon (a serious and very intelligent boy from her school days) to help her translate the ruined message.

The two close friends become obsessed with making an announcement of their findings before the entire City of Ember at the annual singing festival. They are engrossed in making themselves and others around them proud with their discovery, so they refuse to tell anyone about the document. Yet, when their plan quickly goes astray, they realize they’ve made the wrong decision. As they struggle to figure out The Instructions, the city becomes even more desperate. It appears they are running out of time… Lina and Doon are forced to flee Ember using the secret water route to escape the wrath of an evil mayor. Though the two should be happy that they’ve left the ruined city, they are haunted with the fact that no one else knows how to leave the dark city.

Will Doon and Lina make it to a city of light? Will they be able to help the other inhabitants of Ember escape to freedom? Read the City of Ember to find out…

Read all the books in this series!