Summary from Goodreads:
In the year 2140, it is illegal to be young.
Children are all but extinct.
The world is a better place.
Longevity drugs are a fountain of youth. Sign the Declaration, agree not to have children and you too can live forever. Refuse, and you will live as an outcast. For the children born outside the law, it only gets worse – Surplus status.
Not everyone thinks Longevity is a good thing, but you better be clear what side you’re on. . . . Surplus Anna is about to find out what happens when you can’t decide if you should cheat the law or cheat death.
Review:
The Declaration was a great, dystopian novel which offered valuable insight to what would happen if people could live longer-centuries longer. Malley’s writing style was easy to understand, non-convoluted and always included me, the reader. In short, I enjoyed her writing and the concept of the story.
At first, I didn’t like Anna because I knew that her writing everything down in her journal and hiding it away would lead to trouble for her. I knew she would be caught. However, as time passed and she became less stubborn and more accepting towards Peter, I liked her slightly more. For the most part, Anna was a good character.
Anna was known as 'Surplus Anna' in the Surplus hall where she lived. Her life's aim was to be a good Surplus, so she can go out and serve a 'Legal'. She was made to feel lower than low.
Peter was an interesting character and throughout the novel, I didn’t know whether I could trust him or not (much like Anna). I liked that Peter kept me guessing as to his true loyalties as it made the story much more interesting. Peter felt like a wonderful contrast to Anna-he was much more rebellious while she was much more rule-abiding, owing to the way she was brought up.
The plot was mostly fast-paced for which I was glad. Anna’s road to discovery was interesting to observe and I felt sorry for what had happened to her and those like her at the hands of greedy adults.
Mrs Pincent was the most horrible, evil character I came across and I was happy with what happened to her in the end. However, this was tinged with a slight sadness at what others had done to her. The more my hate grew for her, the more sympathy I felt for both Peter and Anna.
The ending was very rushed-all the concluding events occurred in a rush. Anna only knew her parents for a few days before they killed themselves to make her and her young brother ‘legal’. Her parents weren’t that well-developed as characters for me to have felt sorry for them.
The savagery of what Anna's parents had to do in contrast to what a civilised society everyone else thought themselves to be living in really shocked me. As a young person myself, I felt very sad about what happened in this book, but know that it could be a very real possibility one day.
Overall, The Declaration was well executed and I enjoyed it. The novel asks questions that society may be afraid to answer. What would we do if we could all live hundreds of years longer? Would we still have children? And if so, what would we do with them? In this age of constantly developing science, it may not be too long before we really do have to answer these questions.
I really enjoyed The Declaration and was eager to read the next book, The Resistance.
Book Rating: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
Concept: 5/5
Author: Gemma Malley
I wrote this review as part of Dystopian August which is taking place at Presenting Lenore.
