Article 5 (YA)

Article 5. Kristen Simmons. Tor. 368 pages.

Beth and Ryan were holding hands. It was enough to risk a formal citation for indecency, and they knew better, but I didn't say anything. Curfew rounds wouldn't begin for another two hours, and freedom was stolen in moments like these.

If you enjoy YA dystopias, then you should give Kristen Simmons' Article 5 a try. There's no guarantee that you'll love it or even like it. You may not even want to finish it. But. I think it's worth trying for yourself--especially if your library has a copy. There are so very, very many dystopias available now that it is easy to tire of them. You do have to be in the proper mood to enjoy a dystopia, and if you're already tired of the genre, well, give it time--plenty of time. It's better to wait and get back in the mood than to push it.

And if romance annoys you, well, Article 5 may be one that you're never in the mood to read. BUT. That isn't a bad thing. I am not against *some* dystopias having *some* romance. I'm just of the opinion that the romance should be natural, should feel authentic and not forced. Romance should never, ever, ever be a requirement for dystopian novels. And when 90% of the focus is on romance and only 10% given over to world-building, well, it can get annoying very quickly. If you LOVE romance, then there shouldn't be a problem with Article 5. (Though I'm not saying that every reader will love this hero and heroine.)

I honestly don't know how I feel about Article 5. So I'll stick with what I do know. Article 5 was not a painful read. I read it in two days. And it was, for the most part, an easy read. It was a book that I definitely wanted to finish. And at the end of it, I didn't regret my time. But did I like it enough to say that I liked it? I'm not sure. Ember, our heroine, was an odd heroine. She didn't seem all that smart. And some of her rigid ideas of right and wrong seemed a little out of place considering the world she lived in. I can't really give an example without spoiling the book. But when you're trying to survive, fighting to live, and there are people hunting you down, people who are very brutal, who wouldn't hesitate to shoot you dead no questions asked, then you shouldn't be lecturing your boyfriend on how he was wrong to use violence to protect you from being raped and possibly killed. You just shouldn't. There were a couple of scenes where Ember was just impossible to like, impossible to understand. Chase is the boyfriend that she has a love/hate relationship with. (She feels she always knows what is best, what is right, what they should do, how they should do it, even though Chase has way, way, way more experience in dealing with the real world.)

Read Article 5

• If you enjoy YA dystopias, YA science fiction
• If you like YA romances
• If you like action/survival novels

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews