Review: Article 5

Article 5
by Kristen Simmons
Series: Article 5 #1
Pages: 362
Release Date: January 31, 2012
by Tor Teen

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New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.

*A copy was provided by Tor Teen for review purposes*

Dystopian has become very popular lately, and I can’t help but notice that most of the books in this genre all kind of have the same world structure. Article 5, however, is different. Yes, it has the basic similarities to other dystopian books – such as the government taking over and castes and such – but Article 5 took the scariness a bit farther. In this book, the government is really messed up and extremely violent, and that was pretty freaky. I liked how Simmons explained the situation and the setting. Her writing was kind of hard to follow, and the story line was kind of stop and start action, but other than that I think this book is a decent book. There was awesome staging, and the story got going from page 1, and it was a really well set-up story.

I really like it when a book has really strong characters, and both Chase and Ember fit this description. Chase was messed up, yes, but he realized it and tried to fix it. He was tough, fierce, strong, and nice in his own way. Really, I loved the guy! Ember was a pretty strong character too. My favorite part of the book was when Ember took everything upon herself and broke out of…somewhere. Don’t want to give you guys any spoilers. But I really did like her. She was tough, smart, kind of annoying at times, but a solid character.

This book wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t horrible either, and sometimes it’s good to read an average book. I really did enjoy this book and the story line and characters, I just wasn’t wowed, and that is totally okay. Can’t wait to read the next book.

3 pink flowers