I know this is my second time posting this year and both reviews have been complaining about books.
But I can’t help myself.
I checked Article 5 out of the library just about a month ago and picked up the book the minute I got home from school. It seemed right up my alley. I love science fiction books, especially when they’re set in a dystopian future. When I saw the word “war” I jumped out of my seat and grabbed it before anyone else could.
I was a little disappointed.
The book did cover what I wanted it to: post-war effects and a character caught in the middle of it. But it also had another topic and as I continued to turn the pages I realized it was going to take over. This genre was romance, which I don’t typically read – unless it’s The Fault in Our Stars.
The back cover for the book mentioned a female lead character and I was ecstatic to see what she was going to have planned. Overthrow the government? Join the military? Kill people?
Nope.
Instead, she was a little girl who still can’t get over her boyfriend who joined the government’s soldiers to keep the well-being of articles. These “articles” are just strict laws and if you break them you are taken away from your family. You have to be Christian, cannot own a single book, families have to have a mom and a dad with at least one child, gender roles should be assigned, and children are only considered citizens if they have both a mom and a dad. When I heard these laws, I almost started laughing because of how stupid and horrific it all was; how stereotypical and homophobic of the government. I would never want to live in a world that messed up.
So Ember Miller has a single mom and they are both eventually caught. Here’s the plot twist: Ember’s ex-boyfriend is the soldier that separates them. Ember is crying and can’t save her mom. All she does is cry.
Seriously? She can’t fight back?
Immediately, I knew that this wasn’t what I was aiming for.
Anyways, she lets the government put her in an all girls camp, and complains the whole time about how her life is awful and is one bad dream. She doesn’t exactly befriend a girl, but has an acquaintance with her, and she snaps back to the general, is the daredevil and tries to escape multiple times. I liked her because she didn’t just sit around and drown in her tears. She took initiative and was a strong leader. She was later severely punished for breaking the rules but I would rather do that then just assume this is my fate.
After the first one hundred or so pages, I realized I wasn’t enjoying the novel as much as I had anticipated, and since it was a personal reading novel I decided to drop it. Hopefully I’ll be able to read a better book soon.