Kristen Simmons - Three

Unfortunately, I kind of forgot that I promised to review this book as soon as I bought it; luckily, I was rereading some of my reviews last month and found the promise I made to you, if there's anyone out there, and pulled Three out of the bottom of the pile and started to read it immediately.  I apologise profusely and have rectified my mistake; I need to reread some of my reviews after this one and see if I've made any other promises that I've not kept.  With this being a review of the third book in the trilogy, it was too hard to keep spoilers out of it but my advice is to skip to the end if you want a simple summary of my feelings on this book as there is too much important information in the first two books to skip them entirely.

Three is the third book in the Article 5 trilogy from Kristen Simmons which is told from Ember's point of view and focuses on her and Chase Jennings, her first love.  The Article 5 trilogy is set in a war torn America, there are no police but are soldiers who enforce the law of the land, known as Moral Statues, dictating to society the moral code that people should live by.  Punishments are severe if these Statues are broken, going from being arrested to the punishments (with long imprisonments and death being common).  Prior to Three, in Breaking Point, having faked their deaths in Article 5 due to both Ember and Chase having fugitive status and no familial ties, Ember and Chase are trying to keep a low profile and are taking in by the Resistance.  At the same time as that, there is a sniper going around shooting FBR soldiers and the Bureau's number one suspect is Ember which makes it even more difficult for our heroes because now the Resistance are cautious around her because she could draw too much attention to them.  Eventually, even though it's not true, Ember embraces her identity as the sniper so to gain attention and help so she can save her friend, Rebecca, Ember's friend from the reformation school, from a rehabilitation centre where it goes wrong for Ember and Chase but they do escape in the end with Rebecca with the help Sean and Tucker.  However, much to their horror, on their return to the safe house, they discover that the safe house has been burnt down and very few have survived, which may not include the leader, Wallace.  This sparks something in our heroic duo and leads onto Three.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Definitely one for those that like dystopian fiction

Favourite Characters: Chase - many great things about him

Favourite Part: He opened his hand, and in his palm was a yellow flower - like a rose, but smaller.  When I looked at it, he unfurled my fist and placed it within.
I prodded the tender petals - those that had survived his grasp.  Most were bent or torn, but it was still beautiful.  Something fluttered inside when I imagined him finding it and carrying it for me.
"I think I might be broken."  He didn't look up.
I moved closer, feeling his sadness washing over me.
"We're all broken," I said.  "We just have to put each other back together."
My loose fist holding the flower came to rest in the center of his chest, locked between us.  He leaned down, his forehead touching mine.  His eyes closed.
"What if I'm too far gone?"
"Then I'll find you," I said.  "And I'll bring you back." - Page 84

Good Points: Chase and Ember's relationship; great end to the trilogy; Jesse

Bad Points: Everything went horribly wrong in the last hundred pages; Sean and Rebecca were left out a bit

Three picks up just after Breaking Point, following the destruction of one of the Resistance's final safe houses, with Ember and Chase trying to find Three's hidden settlement with the survivors of the safe house.  Our heroes have decided that they need to make a stand and stop running from the Federal Bureau of Reformation (FBR) and they need help making a stand.  As they search for Three, they come across the remains of another safe house of the Resistance's who initially attack them, believing they are part of the FBR.  Fortunately, a member of the other group is part of Chase's past, much to his surprise, and the two groups band together to find Three where Ember and Chase can start to make a difference.

Chase and Ember's relationship, the whole reason why Chase is a fugitive, will always interest me because it continued to develop through the series and hit a major landmark in Three and didn't become stagnant and a pointless part to the story.  While important to the story, it didn't overshadow their personal mission to help the Resistance and overthrow the current government which gets a big thumbs up because it showed a level of maturity, where they will fight for what they believe in, knowing that they need to do this to be together, that I don't see a lot of in young adult dystopic fiction.  Chase even goes out of his way to try and save someone else rather than smothering Ember because he knows she'll be alright.

This was a great and bittersweet end to the Article 5 trilogy as it was action-packed until the very end and while Chase and Ember fans will be happy, it comes at a cost for the pair for the pair.  Simmons has tied up enough loose ends for the readers to be satisfied but has left the ending open and ambiguous enough so that they are left wanting more and they can fantasise what Chase and Ember's lives are like now.  As with every genre, they are similarities between this trilogy and other dystopic books where the main characters try to overthrow the tyrannical government, I found the ending to be different in a way because the government hasn't been completely overthrown yet.

While not my favourite character, Jesse, Chase's uncle, was an intriguing character as he was a mystery to me at first and has been since his introduction because he has hidden his motives throughout.  I was glad he returned, which I predicted after reading Breaking Point, as he brought some insight into Chase's past and family that we don't get from Ember or Chase.  As we learnt more about his backstory, Jesse became even more interesting and more human rather than the self-centred ex-military man I originally perceived him to be.  His motives are noble in the end and I really felt for him as he is reunited with his nephew and Ember gets to know the truth about the past.

Chase and Ember were my favourite characters in Breaking Point but I found Ember to be a bit whiny this time around so Chase has taken the top spot.  He cares deeply for Ember and is protective of her as well as others around him.  Even though he is protective of Ember, he understands that she is independent, as I said in my review of Breaking Point, and equally passionate about the Resistance's cause as he is so he doesn't crowd her and leaves her to do her own thing while he does his.  Chase still puts on his brave face, keeping his emotions hidden as much as possible, occasionally slipping when he is worried about Ember in the heat of the moment.  He finally cracks and confesses about his past to Ember and thinks he's broken; this was an incredibly sweet moment which I will speak about in a bit.  I've always been intrigued by Chase and I've always wanted to know what had happened to him in his past and I'm glad he's finally opened up, this wonderful young man who loves Ember.

As it seems to be the tendency in the final book of a trilogy of a young adult dystopic fiction, or in the ones that I've read recently, everything kind of went wrong for the main characters in the last 100 pages or so.  It just happens so quickly when the books is going at a nice pace and this can become overwhelming in a way as the whole world crumbles around these characters.  Maybe it's so you know how the characters feel, confused and disorientated, but it can be a bit too much and might work better earlier in the book, or in the series.

While Sean and Rebecca are only secondary characters to Chase and Ember, they originally had a bigger part to play in Article 5 and Breaking Point.  However, in Three, they seem to have faded into the background with all of the characters, making them seem unimportant which is a shame because they were interesting characters beforehand, and gave a different perspective on relationships to Chase and Ember.  Part of me wishes they were more prominent or we heard from their point of view because it would have added a first-hand account of their suffering rather than learning it second-hand from Ember.

He opened his hand, and in his palm was a yellow flower - like a rose, but smaller.  When I looked at it, he unfurled my fist and placed it within.
I prodded the tender petals - those that had survived his grasp.  Most were bent or torn, but it was still beautiful.  Something fluttered inside when I imagined him finding it and carrying it for me.
"I think I might be broken."  He didn't look up.
I moved closer, feeling his sadness washing over me.
"We're all broken," I said.  "We just have to put each other back together."
My loose fist holding the flower came to rest in the center of his chest, locked between us.  He leaned down, his forehead touching mine.  His eyes closed.
"What if I'm too far gone?"
"Then I'll find you," I said.  "And I'll bring you back." - Page 84

As I've said, Chase has always intrigued me because he hid his past from Ember in a way as he's never really spoken about it and I've wanted to know what has happened to him to make him like this and now I've found out, even though it's not an immense amount of detail, what happened in Chicago as he confesses to Ember.  I found this part to be incredibly sweet as he holds onto Ember's hand, accepting her comfort and though it's alluded to before, Chase comes across as this vulnerable, tender soul that has been crushed slightly, like the flower he gives Ember at this moment but is still beautiful.  I've always found the flawed characters the most interesting because they hide parts of their life which eventually come out (like Jesse) and Chase hid the truth about Chicago because he believes he's broken and is scared she will leave him once she discovers the truth.  It makes him more three dimensional to me as a reader and I just want to comfort him and help him like Ember does and if an author can do that, they are doing their job right.  This moment also illustrated this sweet quality between Chase and Ember that has been a major draw for me in this trilogy because it's the foundation of the relationship, their comforting and listening to one another.

Three has many things I love about it and were points that I loved about this series; Chase and Ember's relationship was one of them because it continued to develop, hitting different landmarks over the series which made it interesting; some of the characters Simmons created were intriguing too because of their mysterious backstory (Jesse and Chase) because having secrets that are revealed makes them more three dimensional in my mind because it can reveal their true motives for hiding the secret, even if it's subtext.  While I enjoyed this book, there were two downsides for me this time as well, one of them a common complaint for me; the pace suddenly picked up within the last 100 pages or so and everything went horribly wrong for the characters which was overwhelming for me.  As well as the rapid end, Sean and Rebecca, two characters from the series, became more minor characters this time around which was a shame but is a minor annoyance for me and I can overlook it in the end.  Three was a wonderful end to the Article 5 trilogy with a bittersweet twist which was action-packed throughout with most of the loose ends tied up enough that readers will be satisfied with where Simmons has left the characters' stories but open enough to allow their imagination run wild with new stories and adventures that Ember and co. can get up to.  All books/series should be like that in my opinion because books are supposed to spark your imagination.

Other Books by Kristen Simmons