Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

I am going to get back on the reading horse. Life is just so busy!

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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 is a great dystopian novel and I am pumped that there is a sequel. Why? A few reasons. The first being the rule. In this novel if you come from a divorced family (before the war because after the war divorces are illegal) or if you do not have a nuclear family- you are sent to a reform school as a child and the adults are put on trial. There is only one church that everyone must follow. Most of literature is out-lawed. Men and women must follow the traditional gender roles.  I want to know more about the "war" that took place so I have a better understanding as to why these five articles are in place.

The novel took me a little bit to get into but I don't know if it is because I have been so busy or it was actually a slow start.  But I really enjoyed the book. I really liked how Ember fought to get back to her mother. I liked how her relationship with Chase was love hate. The author gives you glimpses of their past which answered a lot of my questions and made their relationship more well-rounded.

Chase - sigh - I fell in love with him because he really does love Ember. Wait till you get a look at what he is willing to do for her. Plus the physical description of him, not shabby. But Chase has some personal demons, stemming from being involved in the war and now working for the new government. It's changed him and he knows his only focus is Ember.

Great read.