Article 5: Compliance is Mandatory [Hardcover]

Kristen Simmons (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 31, 2012

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Kristen Simmons’ Article 5 is a gripping, atmospheric story of survival. Alongside a fierce depiction of oppressive government, Simmons has created a bleak portrait of an America lost. I could hardly put it down. Ember Miller and Chase Jennings can be my post-apocalyptic wingmen anytime.”—Kendare Blake, author of Anna Dressed in Blood

 

“Subversion. Defiance. Desperate, struggling humanity in the face of state-sponsored tyranny. This book was engrossing, unpredictable and thoroughly REAL. Loved it.”--Jay Kristoff, author of Stormdancer

“Fast-paced, emotional and nail-bitingingly intense, Article 5 gripped me from page one and didn’t let me go once.”--Parajunkee.com

“There are only a few books that managed to keep me up at night this year, and ARTICLE 5 is one of them. A MUST read for any fan of the dystopian genre…even if you are not, it’s a must read anyways.”--Book Reader Addicts

About the Author

KRISTEN SIMMONS has a master’s degree in social work and is an advocate for mental health. She lives with her husband, Jason, and their precious greyhound Rudy in Tampa, Florida. Article 5 is her first novel.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tor Teen; First Edition edition (January 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765329581
• ISBN-13: 978-0765329585
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling debut January 31, 2012

By A Book Obsession.. TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

All of the major cities have crumbled, and basic rights are a thing of the past. Now control is based on a set of moral statutes, with harsh penalties for offenders. Being simply accused means a swift arrest and trial, and no one comes back from that. They are simply forgotten. Ember gets by as best she can while trying to contain her very free spirited mother. She's learned all the ways to blend in and stay unnoticed, keeping her life relatively normal, all things considered. However all that changes the day her mother is arrested for violating Article 5 in the Moral Statues by none other than her childhood love. With her life turned upside down, she finds herself in her own personal nightmare. The only question is whether she can survive it.

Ember (love that name!) is a flawed, but REAL character. Throughout Article 5 there were many times where I really wanted to strangle her for the poor decisions she was making, especially when it came to Chase. However, those mistakes only made her seem that much more real. We would all like to think that in a crisis situation we could keep our cool and know exactly what to do. Perhaps some of us could, but I have a feeling the majority of people would behave exactly like Ember. Her whole life has been turned upside down and people are trying to kill her left and right, she just isn't going to be able to accept all of that rationally, especially considering just how naive she was in the beginning. Nor would she be able to easily throw her trust into someone she felt abandoned by. She's entitled to have melt downs, and to be honest, she had a whole lot of character growth throughout Article 5, to the point where she is almost a completely different person.

The world behind Article 5 is so chilling and rather horrific. I love dystopian books; there is just something about them that calls to me. However, what sets Article 5 apart is how very real it felt. It very easily could have been happening now in our world, or at least in the very near future. All it would take would be for one single conflict to go bad, and land a terrible war on U.S. soil, with religious extremists rising to take over in the aftermath. The whole concept of morality being the controlling factor of society absolutely terrifies me. Forget the Bill of Rights, keep your head down and don't dare to make a single misstep or you will pay dearly. My heart bled for these characters, in their desperation to survive, especially Ember as her eyes were painfully opened to the horrors of her world.

This is one of those books where you are so far sucked into the story you don't even notice the flaws until it is time to write the review. When I first finished the book I eagerly stamped a five star rating on it via goodreads, but now as I look back I realize that much of the story wasn't perfect. The idea of persecuting people for "crimes" they committed many years before there was even a law against them doesn't seem really plausible. Especially since this would impact as much as a third of the population. Also there was the issue of the too short time in the camp leaving that feeling a little undeveloped, as well as a few other things. Does that mean I'm going to now lower my rating? Absolutely not, as the reading experience was so intense, it more than warrants the five. No book is ever going to be perfect, and in the end what matters most is being entertained and emotionally attached to the story, and Article 5 certainly fits that bill. So if you like a book that is so riveting and compelling, as well as impossible to put down, then Article 5 is one debut you won't want to miss!

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Things not to do while surviving in a post apocalyptic world June 17, 2012

By Ann

Format:Hardcover

The hype around Article 5 was huge, it was riding the dystopian fame wave and at the time it was on top. After reading the synopsis I was curious as to what these Articles specifically entailed. I searched every bookstore near me, and even in other cities while on vacation and when I couldn't find it, it just made me more fervent to get my hands on it-- this should have been my first clue. This was fate telling me I shouldn't buy it. I was about to give up my search and purchase it online when my local library got a copy and I thought "wow just my luck!". I am so glad I ended up borrowing it...
The cover itself is pretty dramatic with the ruins of a city in monochrome and the now signature plaid shirt being the only colour present. As you can probably guess it's Ember and Chase on the cover.
I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as possible and you can decide if you really want to keep going.
So America as we know it has ended... somehow - we never really find out, but since the story is primarily told from Ember's point of view I figure we're not told because maybe she doesn't actually know. I assume the reasons why will be revealed later in the series (hopefully). But basically, citizens are very religiously controlled, and are run on the ideas that primarily women are back to being less than men, we're baby making factories in marriage only and are allowably beat into submission while men are expected to do the "manly" things like join the military. It's all very Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaids Tale".
The book starts out with Ember narrating the motions of her army controlled life and how she "keeps" her disobeying mother from getting them arrested -- honestly though I felt like Ember did very little in the way of keeping them alive. I really figured she'd have some serious street smarts and survival skills what with being a post apocalyptic war survivor, but no-- she only knows "how to get the things she needs" because the military tells them when and where they can get them (go figure right?!). Her supposed "perfected the art of keeping a low profile", please, all she does is shut her mouth and do as she's told by the military, which makes her very ignorant about the situations and people around her. Altogether, it produces a very predictable and infuriating plot as you watch Ember struggle through this dystopian world.
Now, I'm just going to put this out here, because I'm sure you guessed what happens when girl meets previous boy love - they run off together into the wasteland of America to survive and look for her mom.
Ember's character...Oh boy where do I start. I wanted to smack some sense into her 90% of the time, I've never hated a character so much before. If she wasn't whining or hating on Chase for joining the military/carrying weapons/making the tough decisions that allow them to survive, she was reminiscing about friends we never see again, or how she "protected" her mom, all while making THE WORST life related decisions ever! She does things that NO ONE would do when someone's trying to save your life and especially when you have no outdoors experience or supplies (*face palm X 100*). She's so narrow minded, she only sees what she believes to be the right decisions and has a tough time empathizing with anyone else's reasons, basically it's her way or no way. However, there is a teeny spot near the end where she sort of redeems herself with an extremely well executed plan.
Chase. He has the patience of a freaking saint to deal with Ember. He's an incredibly well crafted character, and basically the idol for deadly hot looking soldier with the smarts and the skills for a post apocalyptic world. I honestly am not quite sure what he loves so much in Ember? Maybe her super morality and blood hound like determination once she finds some goal to latch onto. But while juggling Ember's mood swings, his plans, and on top of everything PROTECTING them while suffering with internal post traumatic stress he manages to stay functional. I really loved his character, probably because he was the only rational thing I could cling onto as a reader trying to tread through. While Ember has a dilemma with everything Chase does, I couldn't find a fault in any decision he made because the rules of survival are so much different in a broken world, and Ember really needed to get that into her head.
I'm not entirely sure if it was the author's intent to make Ember so irritating, with Chase as the counterbalance, but if it was she was highly successful at it, maybe a bit too successful where Ember was concerned. The romance in this book was really awkward and tense, all I really got from it was (in my own paraphrasing): Ember: I want you, but I don't even know you any more!! and Chase: You think I'd go AWOL for YOU if I didn't LOVE you?!, pretty much summed it up for me.
I have to admit the enemies in this book were well executed, you weren't quite sure of their intentions until it was too late. There were also some great action sequences and crushing revelations. But there was a moment, about halfway into the book where an event occurred that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I won't tell you what it is, but as a kid who grew up in a farming community, camped, and common sense in general of what to do with edible animals when it's post apocalypse and you're starving, I had to stop and take some deep calming breaths.
Near the end, Ember finally grows up a bit, has some realizations and it's like a weight lifted off your chest because she FINALLY gets it. So as long as she stays as this new person, I think I might be able to make it through a second book.
Simmons' writing style is pretty solid and easy to follow which made getting through this book a bit more bearable for me. I know lots of people enjoyed it, and a lot of people didn't. Overall I'm somewhere in between, but specifically, every time I think about that back breaking moment I'm on the "didn't enjoy it" side.

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't live up to the hype (or even the description!) February 1, 2012

By J. Tsao

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really wanted to like this book but it just didn't live up to the hype (or even the description!) It was an okay read, but that's it...just okay.

First of all, I felt as if I had read this book before. Totalitarian society, complete with militia? Handmaid's Tale, the Hunger Games, even 1984 (if you replace the militia with thought police) have that. Reform schools for teens? Declaration is one of many books that comes to mind. A resistance and underground railroad of sorts? Sounds like When She Woke or dozens of other dystopias. There was literally nothing unique in this story and the world just wasn't developed enough for me not to feel like it was a retread.

My major issue was that the main character, Ember, was completely unlikable and in fact, rather naive and, well frankly, stupid.

***Spoilers ahead*****

How she did not figure out that her mom was dead was beyond me. I'm still trying to figure out if the author intended that to be an actual "reveal" because it was completely obvious and predictable, as was Ember's immature reaction. I just kept thinking, "when will Ember find out her mom is actually dead, and when will she freak out on Chase and run away?" I just wanted it over and done with.

***End spoilers***

Another issue I had was the relationship between Ember and Chase. We know Ember is 17 and Chase has been in the militia for at least a year. So let's say she was 15/16 and he was 17ish when they fell "in love." The fact that he was willing to lay down his life for her and said that Ember was the only thing he loved, was just ridiculous and unbelievable. The author uses flashbacks to show us how in love Ember and Chase were, but I just kept thinking that she was 16 at the most and she's a completely sheltered, stupid brat so why is Chase so enamored with her?

I'm sure I'll read the next book, primarily b/c I'm very interested in finding out more of the backstory on the war and the destruction of much of the United States. There was very little of that in Article 5 and I think just a little bit more context would have helped the book.