The Prophet of Yonwood by jeanne duprau

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This book lands in the middle of “I hate you” and “it’s okay.”

First off, Nikkie was cute and quirky, but that was it. Literally. I more so liked seeing Greenhaven than I liked her. I loved Grover too; he was really interesting and helped fill out the cast. I liked seeing all the oddities of Yonwood, although the moral is rather obscure.

It revolves a lot around the concept of God and blamed God for everything that happened, which is rather dumb. Honestly, world wars usually happen more so as a result of “I want your land” to “How dare you invade my country” to “negotiations failed. time to fight.” I can think of only one war that started as a result of different religious beliefs, and it wasn’t a World War.

All in all, a cute book, but it is extremely flat. It’s also inconsequential to the series, so don’t read it if you don’t want to. I’ve been reading a lot of flat books lately, so maybe I’m just immune at this point.

Anyway, happy reading!

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TheFukoMaster

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This book is so awesome, especially the end when it talks about the city underground. I can't wait to read the last book

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Herlem

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Whoops-finished this a while back! Ok um, bad news. It anyone can see this, my kindle is missing. I'm looking for it, but for now the only way for me to be on here is through this iPad. And I can't use it often... So :(((((((( *exasperated sigh*

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Cerisine

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

These books are getting progressively worse as the series goes on.

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KitKatKaz

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I don't understand all the bad reviews of this book. Sure it was rushed with some loose ends hanging (or at least not ending not explained in detail), but it wasn't all that bad. It was kind of detached from the first two books however, but the book itself wasn't bad. I just wish there was more of a connection to the City of Ember then just a few short pages.

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Lamii

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I was hoping for a book about the people who built Ember and why they decided to not teach them any technology or nation rebuilding skills. This isn't that book. This is the author's treatise on why the Iraq war is a big mistake and how religion only makes people fight. There is more hope in science and studying the stars than in saying prayers. The story was engaging, but I'm getting tired of the religious being treated as zealots and mindless sheep looking for any type of leader. This book was a disappointment.

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stardustpuff

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Why? Why is this book a thing? Why did this story need to be told? I don't understand the drive behind getting this story out into the world, and selling it as part of the Book of Ember series. I think it would have been ok as a stand-alone ('ok' might be stretching it a little) but certainly not as a sequel to the well beloved City of Ember. DuPrau could have done so many things with a prequel to City of Ember- talk about the first generation of people in the underground city, or the actual war that led up to the small group of folks retreating to the underground, or even Lina and Doon's parents generation, how everything used to be great but things were rapidly deteriorating in the city. But no. Instead we get the story of one of the first residents of Ember, 50 years before she lived there. In a random podunk town where folks believe weird crap and are easily swayed by a crazy lady's vision.
Nickie doesn't act like an 11 year old. Not only that, she makes terrible decisions and can't for the life of her figure out right from wrong. And what 11 year old has a goal to fall in love?
There are also plot points that go nowhere, or by themselves would have made a much better story than the one that the author insisted on telling; like Hoyt McCoy and his interaction with aliens (I'm not kidding), the strange appearance of an albino bear in the woods, the history of Greenhaven (the house that Nickie's aunt is insisting on selling in Yonwood), or Grover's trek through the world as the next Steve Irwin. We are given tidbits of these ideas and stories and left to fill the gaps ourselves.
The Prophet of Yonwood reads as a weird morality tale cautioning against religion- not something I was expecting from a City of Ember book. Seriously, if you're reading the series, skip this one, or take it out of the library to read only the last chapter, as it's the only thing that connects to the rest of the series. What a missed opportunity.

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