Author: Gemma Malley
Genre: Dystopia
Subject: Longevity
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Release date: October, 2007
Length: 320 pages
I got this book: Borrowed it from the library.
From Goodreads:
"It's the year 2140 and Longevity drugs have all but eradicated old age. A never-aging society can't sustain population growth, however…which means Anna should never have been born. Nor should any of the children she lives with at Grange Hall. The facility is full of boys and girls whose parents chose to have kids--called surpluses--despite a law forbidding them from doing so. These children are raised as servants, and brought up to believe they must atone for their very existence.
Then one day a boy named Peter appears at the Hall, bringing with him news of the world outside, a place where people are starting to say that Longevity is bad, and that maybe people shouldn't live forever. Peter begs Anna to escape with him, but Anna's not sure who to trust: the strange new boy whose version of life sounds like a dangerous fairy tale, or the familiar walls of Grange Hall and the head mistress who has controlled her every waking thought? Chilling, poignant, and endlessly though-provoking, The Declaration is a powerful debut that will have readers agonizing over Anna's fate until the very last page."
Personal opinion:
I had never heard of this book before but the library has this new feature where they recommend books based on what you read before and this was one of them. It sounded interesting enough so I picked it up. I liked how I first got an impression of life at Grange Hall before the real action started without it being a too boring introduction. The subject matter is new to me. I have read dystopian novels before but this subject I hadn't read about yet. It is a realistic image of society that is shown here and that makes it more frightening. There was one minor thing I disliked though. This was the fact that sometimes the story wasn't told from Anna's point of view anymore but from someone else's. This was sometimes done in an unclear way, so I had to pay attention to notice. Other than that I liked the story and the character development too. Anna and Peter clash several times and it takes Peter a good while to convince Anna about her former life. This was all done in a very realistic way. The ending of this book was bittersweet. It is not a happily ever after ending and this also contributes to the realistic feel of the story.
I liked it!
Purchase links: Amazon
Challenges: Dystopia Challenge
Other reviews: Sci-Fi Fan Letter, Madigan Reads,
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