Audio Book Review: Kristen Simmons - Article 5

Kristen Simmons - Article 5

• Pub Date: January 31, 2012
• Publisher: Recorded Books
• Format: Audio book, 10hr 49min
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Source: Library

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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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

Perhaps I'm over the dystopian genre. Maybe I'm in need of more adult reads too. This one just didn't really do it for me. It was entertaining enough, and I was seriously shocked by the world Ember lives in. The whole Moral Statutes were tough to swallow. But other than that, I felt like there was a lot of luck that got them through. Here's my list of things I observed while listening to this book:

-Many of the verb tenses were wrong or just weird. This book is first person and past tense. Ember would start to recall a memory seemingly out of nowhere in this audio version (perhaps the print version makes it more clear). If the book had been written in present tense, this wouldn't have been so jarring. It's not just my preference for present tense, I swear.

-"Laid" was used as the past tense of "lie." "I" was used when it should have been "me." And I think I heard an instance of "tighter" when it should have been "more tightly" but I could be wrong. I can't read my handwriting.

-Spoilery notes you have find on my Goodreads page if you want.

Thus ends my notes. I guess I had lots to say about the technical stuff. I shouldn't HEAR errors in a novel. A misplaced comma is one thing, but I can actually hear the wrong grammar. It's sad.

About the actual story: the main issues are in that spoiler area you can find on my Goodreads page. Like I said before, the whole idea of the Moral Statutes was scary as hell. The whole reason why she goes to the original rehab center freaks me out. I can see something like that happening here someday. But their story revolves a lot around luck and dumb people. That's not stuff a good story is based on. Aside from that, I guess I'd like to see how this works out. It doesn't end with a cliffhanger, so if I don't pick up the next one, it won't bother me that much.

Bottom line: It's entertaining enough, but it's not a must-read.

Rating:

3/5 book sharks