The People of Sparks....

Are finally off of my reading list. I don't want to review it, because I honestly don't remember most of it. It took me too long to read, and I didn't really enjoy it.

I think the problem was that it was written for an age group way below mine. I found all of the characters really annoying,  and I thought the plot dragged way too much.

I did like that the Emberites were the hidden "treasure", but I thought it was dropped way too easily. It was mentioned, briefly explained, and then it seemed like nobody cared anymore. Screw you, People of Ember, everybody hates you even though you were supposed to be humanity's savior in case we all died!

Overall, I'd rate this a 1.5/5 for someone who typically reads older books.

I am not looking forward to reading The Prophet of Yonwood or The Diamond of Darkhold, but I will. I've already committed too much time to this series to not finish it.

--Ashley

The People of Sparks... are on hold.

I wanted to finish this book before I started my book for August, but I just can't get into it. I'm not even 10 pages into it, and I honestly have no motivation or interest in continuing to read it right now.  The story is very slow, and I feel like all of the characters are ridiculously annoying. 


I mean, I know it's got to be hard for the Emberites to transition from living underground to living above ground, and the people of Sparks are angry because they can barely take care of themselves but they can't just throw these crazy people from underground out to fend for themselves... But I feel like everyone just complains too much. And there's not really any plot. It's definitely not the "riveting sequel" that it claims to be.


So, for the time being, the People of Sparks are being put on the back burner. I'm going to start reading my August book while I try to forget how boring The People of Sparks is so that I can have another book for Paul to read when I see him again in a week or so. 


Stay tuned for more about the People of Sparks! Eventually...




--Ashley

The People of Sparks

And now, book #5! This one is the next Book of Ember.

Title: The People of Sparks

Author: Jeanne DuPrau

Year Published: 2004

Synopsis: The People of Sparks picks up where The City of Ember leaves off. Lina and Doon have emerged from the underground city to the exciting new world above, and it isn’t long before they are followed by the other inhabitants of Ember. The Emberites soon come across a town where they are welcomed, fed, and given places to sleep. But the town’s resources are limited and it isn’t long before resentment begins to grow between the two groups. When anonymous acts of vandalism push them toward violence, it’s up to Lina and Doon to discover who’s behind the vandalism and why, before it’s too late. 

Why?: I recently finished reading The City of Ember, which is the prequel to this novel. I enjoyed the story, and since it left off with a cliffhanger, I kind of had to read this one next. The City of Ember was a very easy read, so I figure this one won't take very long to read before I start the beast of a book that is Wizard's First Rule.

Expectations: Like I said before, I don't expect this book to be a difficult read at all. I expect it to be very similar to The City of Ember in that it has a nice plot, but is written for a younger age group. I feel like The People of Sparks will have basically the same storyline, but will just take place above ground and with some additional characters. Since it's a post-apocalyptic world, I'm sure that food and shelter and everything will be an issue. Hopefully this book doesn't get terribly boring and cliche.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of this one is a night sky with a plant in the shape of an S. I assume that to mean that plants are important, and that the night will play a pretty big role. Or maybe the people of Ember are just confused by night and all of the new plants. The S is most likely because of the town being called Sparks, so I don't think that has much more significance than that.

I'm just going to keep reading all of these random books until I get Sisters Red from Paul. :)

And, of course, I'll try to write a blog about halfway through... but obviously I'm not promising anything. Since I've failed every other time I've tried to do that.

--Ashley