Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Article 5 (Article 5, #1)

by Kristen Simmons

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 The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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 behaviour - 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 non-compliance 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.

Reviewed by clementine on

2 of 5 stars

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I was really excited to read this book, because I devour any and all dystopian YA fiction. The premise seemed really interesting, sort of like a YA version of The Handmaid's Tale (not that it would ever actually compare to that). But... I was really disappointed.

Ember bothered me so much. First of all, I could not get past her name. Ember, really? Her name was the most interesting thing about her - and a character can't be carried by her unique name. When Ember wasn't being whiny and stupid, she was just plain bland. Nothing about her made me care what happened to her. I also didn't care what happened to Chase - Ember keeps talking about how awesome he is, but nothing he ever did showed that. He is a douche, plain and simple. I really hated Ember's relationship with him, because she spent a very large portion of her time whining about how she could never be with him again because he was so different. I also didn't care about Ember's mother or her friends Beth and Ryan, because they were never developed at all. I cared the most about Sean and Rebecca, who were little more than just plot devices!

The plot was very simple, and that bothered me. Really, Ember just had to get from Point A to Point B. The author threw in a few curveballs here and there, but they seemed pretty random, and didn't connect to the overarching plot in any significant way or add new threads that were tied up at the end. There was also very little explanation about how the United States got to be how it was. There were some mentions of "the War", but I really wish that had been expanded upon.

This is a matter of personal preference, but I really hated the writing style as well. All of those weird metaphors just made my skin crawl.

However, I did find the climax of the book pretty exciting and enjoyable, and I liked the reasonably ambiguous ending. I felt like the premise and world within the book was so interesting, and it certainly held my attention. I just really wish the characters had been developed more, and I wish the plot had been more complicated. The dystopian society described in Article 5 is intriguing; the rest of the book is dull.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 February, 2012: Finished reading
  • 19 February, 2012: Reviewed