Review: Article 5

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Kristen Simmons
Format: Paperback
Pages: 362
Rating: 5 out of 10

Summary (Goodreads sticks to the rules): 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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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.

My Thoughts: Five out of ten sounds really harsh but from our review outline it fits right. I feel kind of bad but it definitely wasn't my favourite book ever. It was an okay read and it was easy enough but I excepted more from it. 

The most incredible thing about this novel was the pure hate and anger I felt while reading the reform school part of the novel. It was the bed written part of this novel. I was so upset. I was so disgusted at how they were being treated. What scares me the most about novels like these is that I could totally see some of these things happening to the world. I don't think authors have to work really hard to see the worst parts of society and make them even more horrid. The moral of this story for me is that I would have just given up and been "good" because I don't have the strength or patience to deal with these problems. Thank God I don't live in this novel.

This novel seemed to go fast at some points and slower at other time. I'm tired of a few things in novels though. I wish that authors could come up with other ways of carrying plot. First, we can/can't/can/can't be together relationships suck. Also, I don't enjoy characters that cause other people to die. I don't like that characters need to have people die for them. Let's have to strong characters. I mean, Ember had really strong moments but the stunt she pulls at the end kind of undoes the respect that she managed to gain. She could have been so much more.

Poor Chase. He breaks my heart.

So: Some parts will stick with me...maybe forever but I'm sure if I'm going to buy the next two novels in the series. I don't feel a huge need to find out how the series ends like most series make me feel. I don't know. It was kind of just okay. I guess it was worth what I paid.