Review: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons - Juhina

Title: Article 5 (Article 5, #1)

Author: Kristen Simmons

Publication date: January 31st, 2012
Publisher: TorTeen

Genre(s): Young Adult (Dystopian)

Challenges: Dystopian, Debut

Source: Own
Format: Hardback

Pages: 364

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 The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

Article 5 was a novel that was more about mending a broken relationship than a dystopian world. I am not complaining, since I love the world Kristen Simmons created. She focused more on the relationships of the characters, their emotional dilemmas, and how far one would go for the ones they love? All of that was wrapped with a dystopian world that makes these decisions 10 times harder. I enjoyed the flashbacks of Ember and Chase, and that they were a couple before he had to go and "serve his country". A year or two later they meet each other, under the worst circumstances, when her mom gets taken away and Ember gets sent to a rehabilitation center. This is because Article 5 was broken because Ember was born out of wedlock. She ends up in the rehabilitation center and you get to read about the horrors of what goes there and Ember trying to survive and break out. 

Then came along Chase and they embark on a trip to reach her mother before it is too late. Ofcourse this isn't a typical road trip since they are technically considered fugitives and criminals running away from the law. This is when the suspense and thrill comes. I loved every bit of the trip, my heart would beat double its usual and I would flip the pages frantically to see what happens next. My only problem was with Ember, she has this rule that when the going gets tough, she runs away. literally. I was getting sick of this at some point in the book and due to her running away she caused herself to get into the stupidest most dangerous situations and I just wanted to bang my head. 

I've gotta say, I loved Chase. He was the composed, silent type. NOT a jerk or a 'badboy' but just guarded. He has his walls up, and seeing what he had to go through I understood his emotional detachment from Ember. I just loved how they slowly started mending their broken relationship and it was definitely different because they once were a couple. Article 5 was a wonderful start to this dystopian trilogy, and I know the second book would contain more of the 'dystopian' world, which is why I enjoyed how the first book was more about the characters and their emotional journey.