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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Anna #1
Pages: 316
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 3/5


Summery:
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . .

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Review:
I was so excited to read this book.  And although I was a little disappointed, I still liked it.

I usually don't go for these kinds of books: Scary, with a boy as the main character, the whole ghost killer thing going on, but I'm really glad that this book introduced me to this genre because it was actually pretty good.  The story line, while good, wasn't amazing.  I don't really understand the early defeating of Anna (I really thought it would be the ending of the book), but the real ending was very good.  And I've never read a book where the hero falls in love with the dead villain, and I have to admit, I kinda liked it.  And the ending was so sad, I just have to find out what happens to Anna.  This book is brutal, scary, and kind of gory, but I really enjoyed it.

My favorite character is definitely Anna.  She didn't want to die in the first place (she died horribly, btw.  But I won't tell you so you have to read it :P), and she didn't want to become the demon she was as the dead.  I also liked that she was a part of the ghost-hunting group (Thomas, Carmel, and Cas) and that she helped in the end of the book.  And I'm glad she likes Cas.
I don't have much to say about Thomas, just because he didn't do a whole lot, but he's nice.
I like Carmel because she was kind of a strong character, though she didn't do much either.
And, last but not least, I kind of liked Cas.  Although he wasn't as kick-ass as Percy Jackson, he was still a pretty strong character.

All in all, not my favorite book ever, but not bad either.  And one thing I didn't mention earlier was that I did NOT read this book at night. :D