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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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. (Description from www.amazon.com).
Article 5 states that "Children are considered valid citizens only when conceived by a married man and wife." So Ember's mother was arrested for non-compliance. Her only love, Chase (a soldier) came to arrest her mother. Ember was sent to a rehabilitation center where children under the age of 18 are sent to be groomed by the MM (Moral Militia) into models of morality and chastity. There Ember is abused and tries to escape numerous times, only to have Chase break her out. Chase is AWOL and they both encounter a lot of harrowing situations to try to make it through to the underground railroad to a safe house. I don't want to say much else because it will spoil a lot for the reader, but the author includes some twists and turns that I didn't figure out.
It took about 5 chapters for me to really get into Article 5. It wasn't the writing, I think it was the fact that I have read so many dystopian novels this year and they all seemed to blend together. But I think the story really started after the escape anyway.
Luckily, there is a sequel, because the author did not give any background information about what happened to the United States as we know it and why the Federal Bureau of Reformation exists. I really hope she gets into the back story in the next novel. A solid debut.
Article 5 states that "Children are considered valid citizens only when conceived by a married man and wife." So Ember's mother was arrested for non-compliance. Her only love, Chase (a soldier) came to arrest her mother. Ember was sent to a rehabilitation center where children under the age of 18 are sent to be groomed by the MM (Moral Militia) into models of morality and chastity. There Ember is abused and tries to escape numerous times, only to have Chase break her out. Chase is AWOL and they both encounter a lot of harrowing situations to try to make it through to the underground railroad to a safe house. I don't want to say much else because it will spoil a lot for the reader, but the author includes some twists and turns that I didn't figure out.
It took about 5 chapters for me to really get into Article 5. It wasn't the writing, I think it was the fact that I have read so many dystopian novels this year and they all seemed to blend together. But I think the story really started after the escape anyway.
Luckily, there is a sequel, because the author did not give any background information about what happened to the United States as we know it and why the Federal Bureau of Reformation exists. I really hope she gets into the back story in the next novel. A solid debut.
No comments:
Post a Comment