Book Review: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
(Article 5, #1)
Release Date: January 31, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen; 364 pages

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

So, the description of this book interests me more after reading the book than it did before. Only because what they describe in this book, about her keeping a low profile and such, all of this is revealed in the first chapter. Her mother's arrest is made in chapter one so really, the description of this book is not exactly what this book is about. It all stems from this issue, sure but I don't know. I find it misleading?

That being said, I did enjoy this book. I especially loved the locations of it, being from the Baltimore area I recognized a lot of cities that were traveled through. It always changes an experience while reading if you know exactly the characters are. Makes the book feel more real.

I found some things predictible yet...not. The main thing, which I can't really say what or else it gives the story away, but I expected it but not exactly how it occured. I thought I had it all figured out in my head but still found myself pleasantly surprised. So I enjoy stories like that, where you you have the general idea of what happened but your assumptions on what actually occured are different than what really did. So kudos to the author on that!

I found Ember to be quite...frail for about half of the book. She really didn't become a strong, independant character until the end. I'm so glad I got to witness her growing in to herself because I definitely like the Ember we saw at the end of the book. The Ember that is much more similar to the Chase we've seen. Which, makes me happy because she wasn't sure how she could accept this new, hard Chase but now, they're on more equal levels which I think could improve any type of relationship between them. The flashbacks of how they were before he was drafted were an awesome touch. Back when everything and everyone was more innocent.

There were plenty of characters to hate, plenty to love and plenty to feel pity upon. I especially hope we get to see more of Rebecca and Beth in the next book. Especially Beth, we only got to see her for a few pages but she was/is Ember's best friend, so I'd like to see more of that, definitely. Oh, and did I mention I definitely want to see more of bad boy Tucker Morris? Yeah, definitely need more of him. He's so bad he's good ;)

This is definitely a book for dystopian fans. It's not something great, like the Hunger Games but it's definitely an enjoyable read. You get plenty of action, drama, romance, pain - the whole nine yards, you know?