Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Article 5 

Author:  Kristen Simmons

Publisher:  Tor Teen

Publication Date:  January 31st 2012

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

-------------------

Another series, blah.  BUT I must say that Article 5 is actually a pretty decent book.

I thought the world that Ms. Simmons created in Article 5 was quite good with the exception of how the punishments took place.  I was/am a little confused with all the going to trial, but wait no trials, but wait there is trials.  I don't freaking know.  Did they do away with trials for breaking the laws? Anyways, I was slightly confused with what exactly would happen when you broke a law in Article 5.  Other than that, I thought the dystopian future Ms. Simmons brought to Article 5 was a little scary with the curfews and how so gung-ho people were with following the rules, and even turning people over for breaking the laws.  Okay, so the curfews aren't really scary, but it sure does suck.  I just thought that she definitely painted a not so nice picture of what Ember and others are going through living in such a world, and it ain't pretty.

The characters are not my favorites. Ember was a little too whiny and made some pretty stupid decisions, and I hate characters especially female ones that act foolish and even a little pathetic.  I found her constant mistreatment of Chase pretty fucked up.  I mean how can you keep on saying to yourself how he betrayed you when you are actually running to safety with him.  Yes, he is helping Ember and yet she blames a lot on him.  I would have left her ass a long time ago if i was Chase.  Because of all this I didn't really believe the romance.  How could he want her, I wouldn't.  The plus side is that in the last couple of pages a new Ember starts to emerge, she seems stronger and more like someone I can like.  I'm thinking in the second book she will be stronger, at least I hope so.

There were some flaws in Article 5 for me but some good things, too. For me the last couple of pages promised a better more kick ass Ember in the next book, and that would be a vast improvement already.  I will continue on with this at least for the next book, just to see if Ember grows.  To say I will ride out this series till the end,  I don't know,  I have to find out how the second book turns out. 

Goodreads Rating: 3/5 

(actually gave it a 2.5 but since goodreads doesn't allow that I bumped it up instead of down because this is Ms. Simmons debut and her dystopian world did frighten me. Moral laws, really? Now that's scary)