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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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.
***
(This might contain small spoilers of Article 5. Sorry)
It's not as bad as I thought it was, and definitely not as bad as some other reviews that was written about by others. I will say this is a fast read. Much faster than I originally thought because... well I thought I'd struggle for a long time to read this whole thing and I read it in... 1 day or so. There are obvious flaws, of course. But what the hell, every book has flaws and I actually think it's good enough to be given a chance.
The story is set on a newly formed dystopian world, where there are plenty of citizens remembered the old orders of the US before the War. Freedom is stripped and even saying a remotely rebellious or insulting thing about the MM means death (Damn, the whole situation reminds me so much of mainland China, only in the book it's worse). Our heroine, Ember Miller, is also one of the prisoners/Sisters/whoever the hell they are. Only that she doesn't know what truly happened with her mother until... her escape.
To my surprise, Ember is not exactly the whole package of heroine. First is that she doesn't know how to fight. That kind struck me because I always read heroines that can seriously kick ass :). And she's not remarkably strong either. Okay, she's strong. But NOT remarkably. She doesn't exactly have a extremely strong mind or rebellious. That's kind of a flaw in the book. Even though I like that girl, she's a little flat of a character and usually fade into the back of my mind easily.
Chase is another story. Mostly I wanna punch him in the face because he acts nonchalant all the time when we all know the struggling and longing in his heart. Okay, I totally get that he's... kind of been tortured by the MM. But jeez, that makes him so hard and sometimes HATEFUL. Despite his really deserved-to-be-kicked-in-the-butt attitude, I like him because he's a really strong character comparing with Ember. And he's got strong emotions too. A good character for a dystopian novel, but definitely not my personal favorite.
The setting is really good, because come on, a control-freak government that can't stand any criticism and desperate to hold absolute power on the people? Perfect setting for a dystopian novel. But the plot is a little bit weird. I can't actually feel attached to the story until Ember's escape. And there's a whole vacuum of the story in my mind that I can't actually put a finger on. I feel like something's missing but I don't know what it is. It doesn't feel good. And I have to say that's a little too predictable for me. But excitement still exists. Phew.
I'm reading Breaking Point now and I hope more rebellious act means greater excitement :) (Although I won't post the review soon because I'm planning to read Oath Bound)
Rating: 7.5/10
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