In teenage Ember’s dystopian world, the Bill of Rights has been replaced by the Moral Statues. If you’ve read the Handmaid’s Tale, then you know where this is going (albeit there is no sex by proxy in Article 5). It’s a rigid Christian world, and people found in noncompliance with the statues are arrested and…no one knows what happens afterward.

Ember lives with her single mother, and when her mom is arrested for being in noncompliance with Article 5 (having a child out of wedlock, Ember herself), Ember is taken to a sort of reformatory. She’s taken there by none other than Chase Jennings, her former friend who joined the Moral Militia and seems to have bought into its creed.

Ember doesn’t spend long at the reformatory. She desperately wants to find her mother, and (surprise and slight spoiler) it turns out Chase is willing to help her. He’s not so brainwashed by the Moral Militia after all. They break out of the reformatory and go on the run. They’re pursued by horrible people and run into many dangerous situations.

The premise is underdeveloped, but for me, that doesn’t always spell death for a dystopia. After all, Delirium has a completely ridiculous premise, but Lauren Oliver’s writing and characterization made me buy into it. I love dystopias so much that I more willingly suspend my disbelief for them than for other genres. While Miller’s writing here is solid, it never stands out. It’s competent but never really above average. The combination of average writing with a thin premise and underdeveloped world makes Article 5 pretty unmemorable.

My other main gripe is that Simmons advances the plot by making her protagonist do stupid things. Protagonists should definitely make mistakes, but the frequency of mistakes Ember makes strains credulity. The book is basically a chronicle of her and Chase’s run from the Moral Militia. You’d think after a while, Ember would learn that it’s not a good idea to make herself too visible. And yet she does, time and time again. The climax of the novel is brought about by her doing just that, in a moment of emotional turmoil. Ember doesn’t seem to learn from her mistakes, and it made me want to shake her. I understand that it’s necessary to keep the plot moving forward, but it’s not great writing to do it this way.

Article 5 isn’t a bad book. It’s just that it’s competing in an overcrowded field, and there’s nothing that really makes it stand out from the pack. If you’re looking for an action-packed read and haven’t gotten your fill of dystopias yet, Article 5 may satisfy you. But there’s definitely better stuff out there.