Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Goodreads
362 pages, YA Dystopian
Article 5 #1
My Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

My 2 cents

I fell in love with this book.  It surprised me, because I didn't expect to like it this much!  It was , at times, very horrific.  Bad and violent things were happening to innocent people.  The story was so compelling!

Ember's mom is arrested and Ember is sent off to a rehabilitation center.   The kind with a tyrannical matronly woman in charge with lots of soldiers to back her up.  The ideas this society presented were just awful.  Basically, it sets feminism back in time about 100 years!  Woman are expected to be sub servant  obedient, and chaise.  And men were allowed to use physical force if necessary.  It was just sick!  

Poor, poor Ember.  She's never had a man long term in her life, other than her best friend turned boyfriend, Chase.  But Chase has been gone in the army awhile now, and Ember doesn't even recognize him anymore.  Ember doesn't take well to the new attitudes her government is expecting her to be, so she gets punished a lot.  Then the unexpected happens--Chase breaks her out of there and goes AWOL, as a favor to Ember's mother.

This is where the story really took off.  It become a lot more about Ember and Chase's relationship, and less about the tyrannical society.  Of course, they are on the run and there is danger everywhere, so there is still plenty of action!  Lots of love angst and action make me happy!

Like typical love struck teenagers, Ember and Chase were just so STUPID with each other!   Sometimes I just wanted to knock their heads together!  I understood both of their point of views, though.  Ember goes from a semi-normal life to a world where she cant trust ANYONE.  So its really hard for her to trust Chase, especially when his soldier training kicks in.  And I figured he's been through a lot, considering how this government treated its citizens.  

The ending almost seemed a little too easy to me.  I'm guessing the next book will start off with a bang!  The sequel, Breaking Point, releases Feb. 12th, and I will be buying and devouring it!