Article 5: review

Title: Article 5 (Article 5 #1)
Author: Kristen Simmons
Genres: YA dystopian, adventure, survival, romance
Summary: 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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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.


It was okay. Probably won't leave a lasting impression, and I might pick up the next one in a year when it comes out, if I remember.

Usually for books I didn't like that much I rant and rant for paragraphs on why it sucked, what was wrong with like everything. But this one I am kind of indifferent to. It's not a waste of time to read, but there are plenty of better books out there right now. For a debut though, it's pretty well written.

Article 5 reminded me of the setting in Eve, with a school she breaks out of, running from the bounty on her head etc...so that part didn't suck, but already seemed familiar. I'm not bashing Eve though! That's where the similarities end.

And the romance aspect was stolen from Shatter Me, and thankfully reformed into something almost GOOD. (Shatter Me just sucked btw. Sorry.) You know, the love interest is who is a childhood-friend-turned-to-unfeeling-soldier thing. So even though it improved, that part bugged me just a little too much, probably why this book lost one of its stars.

The other star is lost because the protag's favorite book is Frankenstein! How can anybody like that book.

Ember, (I keep wanting to call her Amber or Emily. No idea why, it just isn't sticking.) is pretty much on a very long emotional roller coaster throughout the whole novel, and blinded by judgement having to do with her relationship with Chase. So, eye rolls were frequent, and I felt like slapping her a few times. Like, either get over him or just LISTEN to what he has to say, alright? -She didn't seem to hear me though. Overall, she was very annoying.

I liked the morals/ethics that appeared in almost every single chapter. Mostly regarding killing someone. haha...Really though, that had to be the best part. I put myself in Ember's shoes a couple of times, trying to decide if I would pull the trigger.

The cover is very cool, I think. Maybe my main problem was that I didn't actually remember what the summary was when it finally arrived at the library, so opened the book with different expectations. I read the subtitle, Compliance is Mandatory, and assumed that was Article 5 was in the book. When the actual Article 5 is something like...only married women can have children. And Ember's mom is unmarried. The result of that is this whole book.

Hm, I always end up writing more than I think I will.

3 out of 5 stars.

-Jane