Title: Article 5 (Article 5 #1)
Author: Kristen Simmons
Release Date: January 31st 2012
Publisher: Tor Teens
Source: For Review
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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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.
The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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.
First reaction after finishing this book: Shame. What a damn shame. *heavy sigh*. Oh dear, this book could have well been my favourite of 2012 so far, but the characters just ruined everything for me. And you know how picky I am about characters, I prefer having amazing characters and zero plot but IF, like this thing here, if you've written such an original and addictive plot but with annoying and whiny characters, with love interest the charm of a goldfish, well.. you got a bit of a problem here.
Kristen Simmons is a very talented writer. She can write pretty damn good action scenes. My heart was literally pounding every second while I was reading this book. I couldn't put it down! Every second was valuable and dangerous. Her worldbuilding was fantastic, and unlike some other dystopians or post-apocalyptic YA novels out there, this is realistic. I could actually imagine this happening for real. Which makes it even more frightening and nerve-wracking. Knowing that in maybe a 50 years or so, our society and world could end up as corrupted as this.
This novel was intense. Like in every stage of Ember's journey there would be this obstacle that they needed to think of a plan for, and I loved reading about it. Especially the first part of the novel, it was very fresh and original, but after maybe 150 pages, when it all became very tedious and predictable. It even went to the point where I knew what was going to happen because it was so similar to the previous part of the story. I felt like everyone was very untrustworthy and I get that they don't/can't trust anyone, but I hate it when our main character does. Even when she's gone through enough shit to know better.
What brought me down was the main character. OH GUYS. Arrrggghhhhhh! I've lost count of how many times I wanted to smack her for her stupidity and how naive she was. Oh my God! She was like one of those people in a horror movie, the one who does something incrediblity stupid and unjustified and everyone is screaming for her to go back/do something? Yep. That's our main heroine Ember. Oh geez. For someone who claimed to be smart and all that, she was freaking useless. I would have just left her there to go and die or something. And it doesn't help that her love interest soldier has the personality of a brick. Seriously. Not swoonworthy at all. He didn't show any emotion or anything. WTH.
Call me a heartless bitch or something, but I didn't care for her mum at all. I wouldn't have bothered to go and save her if she acted like a doormat to her ex-boyfriend and had let him abuse her.The only characters that I did like, was Sean and Rebecca. I thought they were really sweet and I would have preferred them as main characters instead of secondary.
Rant over. I still feel like shaking my head at this. Thinking how much I would have loved this book if the two main characters were different. Oh well. Still unsure if I would be reading the next one.
