Review of: Breaking Point by Kristin Simmons (#2 in the ‘Article 5’ trilogy)

Genre: YA, Dystopian

Breaking Point continues the story begun in Article 5. You can read my review of Article 5 here.
If you haven’t already read Article 5, consider yourself forewarned that parts of this review or description for Breaking Point could possibly be spoilers for Article 5. 😉

In Breaking Point, Ember and Chase have just managed to escape from the Federal Bureau of Reformation facility where they were being held, by faking their own deaths. Now, if they can manage to stay out of sight of the FBR soldiers until they’re forgotten about, it seems like they should be in the clear. When a resistance movement recognizes them and takes them in, laying low becomes much more difficult. There is an entire movement ready to fight the FBR forces, and they are fueled by any tales of resistance they can come by. So when an unknown sniper begins taking out the FBR soldiers, they credit Ember with the kills. An unwilling celebrity, Ember struggles between trying to tell them the truth–she isn’t the sniper–and using the convenience of infamy to aid their survival. Chase thinks they should leave the resistance and go into hiding–keeping a low profile clearly isn’t working. After everything, Ember still finds herself conflicted between wanting to hide from it all with Chase and burning to avenge the death of her mother by joining the resistance.

This was a very solid follow-up book. I think I’ve usually been more disappointed by the second book in a series than by any other class of book, but this was an exception. It kept the tension and action, even though the relationship drama settled down a bit. There were quite a few twists that I definitely did NOT see coming, and I’m curious to see how they’re resolved in the last book.

The dystopian world wasn’t really developed much more beyond everything that happened in ‘Article 5’. There was one specific change that I can think of, but the development of the setting was pretty much left exactly where it stood in ‘Article 5’ and ‘Breaking Point’ mainly focused on the action. That’s par for the course in YA fiction, but there was definitely room for more world development. Whereas ‘Article 5’ could have been considered to have an actual political message, ‘Breaking Point’ did not expand on that and lost the Orwellian vibe I was feeling after ‘Article 5’.

That took a little bit from my perception of the depth of the story, but I still enjoyed reading it.

Overall, if you like Dystopian themed YA fiction you should give this series a read. I’m ordering the third and final book right now!

I really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars