Review : Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Summary (from Goodreads)

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

Personal Thoughts

Article 5 has been on my to-read list since quite long now. Dystopian novels are slowly becoming one of my favorite genres these days, so I had high hopes going into Article 5.

All I can say is, I wasn't disappointed.

We are immediately introduced to Ember, the protagonist, who lives with her mother in this society of the future. She is pretty much blind to everything around her until her mother is taken by the FBR for having a child out of wed-lock. 

Ember and her mother are taken away to these asylums, but in different ones.
Ember instantly starts worrying for her mother because she has been the one who has been looking after her for a long time.
I instantly liked Ember as main character. She was brave, caring and a risk-taker. I especially liked the fact that she was ready to do anything, even endangering her life, in order to save her mother. Ember kept blaming herself a lot in the book. On numerous occasions, she felt guilty and this feeling of guilt only increased. Throughout the book, Ember underwent a lot of personal growth. At the end of the novel, she was no longer the same person that she was in the beginning ; shy, quiet and naive.

I love main characters who gain maturity due to certain circumstances. It makes them more or less realistic.  

Chase is the other main character in Article 5. He was a very complex and deep character. Readers get glimpses of the different sides of Chase and the author does a great job at showing them. There was the old Chase, who was kind, sweet and head over heels for Ember and the new Chase who was a soldier, appeared ignorant and seemed very serious. I loved Chase as a character as well. He was someone who was complicated and difficult to figure out.

The romance in Article 5 was somewhat fragile. The relationship between Ember and Chase seemed very delicate. Before Chase was recruited as a soldier for the FBR, Ember and Chase were very close friends. In fact, they loved each other very much and were about to begin a relationship. Unfortunately, they no longer kept in contact after Chase left.
Ember was devastated and hurt that he never replied to her letters. To make matters worse, Chase was among the soldiers arresting her mother.
So, their relationship had gone through some tough times and continues to do so throughout the entire novel. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

The plot of the story is about Ember doing everything to find and save her captured mother. It was about being on the run from the authorities. I'll admit that this plot line is very common when it comes to dystopian novels.
Kristen Simmons has built a fantastic world full of harsh conditions, cruelty and injustice. Through Ember's eyes, we get to know a lot of details and descriptions and the author does a great job at bringing to life this futuristic world.

For a debut novel, this was amazing. The writing in Article 5 is simple yet addictive. It kept me on the edge and couldn't wait to see where the author was bringing me.
While reading Article 5, I felt anger, pain, guilt and love just as Ember did because the writing was that good.

Overall, I found Article 5 to be a satisfying read although the plot is one that is a bit overused.
I recommend it to fans of Divergent by Veronica Roth and Legend by Marie Lu.
Trust me, you'll enjoy this book which is full of action, fast-paced and absolutely thrilling.

To end, I cannot wait for the next installment in this promising new series.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 4/5