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megsbookishtwins's review against another edition
4.0
“Because no one needs to live for ever. I think that sometimes you can outstay your welcome."
The Declaration takes place in a world where death by disease and old age has been eradicated. Except for Surpluses. Surpluses were not supposed to be born, surpluses were born because their parents broke The Declaration. Anna is a surplus and she has to prove that she is useful. To serve Legals.
I really loved Anna, yes she was annoying at times but I think that really added to the story and made her more realistic and more dynamic. Anna has been raised to believe that her parents were selfish and she needs to prove her usefulness. Anna is naive, but she changes with experience and when Peter arrives. She learns to ask questions and she learns to care for others. This really shows great character development.
This book is written mainly is the perspective of Anna, and I really enjoyed reading her journal extracts as that added to her character development. It switched perspectives sometimes towards the end of the book, which I think worked really well in revealing the plot twists. The Declaration kept me captivated from the start and there was many twists and turns which kept me turning pages.
I really enjoyed the romance between Anna and Peter. The romance wasn't at the forefront of the story, which I really liked about the Declaration. The Declaration is a very well-constructed and well thought out idea and if you are a fan of dystopia's then I highly suggest you give this a go.
The Declaration takes place in a world where death by disease and old age has been eradicated. Except for Surpluses. Surpluses were not supposed to be born, surpluses were born because their parents broke The Declaration. Anna is a surplus and she has to prove that she is useful. To serve Legals.
I really loved Anna, yes she was annoying at times but I think that really added to the story and made her more realistic and more dynamic. Anna has been raised to believe that her parents were selfish and she needs to prove her usefulness. Anna is naive, but she changes with experience and when Peter arrives. She learns to ask questions and she learns to care for others. This really shows great character development.
This book is written mainly is the perspective of Anna, and I really enjoyed reading her journal extracts as that added to her character development. It switched perspectives sometimes towards the end of the book, which I think worked really well in revealing the plot twists. The Declaration kept me captivated from the start and there was many twists and turns which kept me turning pages.
I really enjoyed the romance between Anna and Peter. The romance wasn't at the forefront of the story, which I really liked about the Declaration. The Declaration is a very well-constructed and well thought out idea and if you are a fan of dystopia's then I highly suggest you give this a go.
mairelon's review against another edition
2.0
This book had potential, but I feel like Malley tried to tackle too many Big Issues in one book and ended up with something very generic. I also feel like the characters were unnecessarily cruel for the sake of being cruel with no real sense or story reason for it to happen. This book had some concept that I really liked:
-A world where immortals reign and anyone new born is considered "Surplus"
- An Edwardian aesthetic workhouse full of cruel kids
- A Heroine who is completely indoctrinated into her dystopian world's dogma
Unfortunately, I don't feel like the book delivered on any of these. The whole story felt really anti-climactic and underwhelming, particularly the ending. I know it was just the first in the series, but I still felt it dragged on and didn't progress much by the end. This, along with [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512] were chosen by students from a book club I organise, and I am honestly very surprised that I liked this one the least.
-A world where immortals reign and anyone new born is considered "Surplus"
- An Edwardian aesthetic workhouse full of cruel kids
- A Heroine who is completely indoctrinated into her dystopian world's dogma
Unfortunately, I don't feel like the book delivered on any of these. The whole story felt really anti-climactic and underwhelming, particularly the ending. I know it was just the first in the series, but I still felt it dragged on and didn't progress much by the end. This, along with [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512] were chosen by students from a book club I organise, and I am honestly very surprised that I liked this one the least.
Spoiler
Seriously what was up with those scarves for menstruating girls? I get that there are some tenuous worldbuilding reasons behind it but they don't really fit into the bigger picture and don't make much sense from a practical standpoint - why waste the costs associated with menstruation in Surplusses when sterilization would fix it AND prevent any further surplusses being born. It sounds awful but fits better with the worldbuilding.beatriix's review against another edition
3.0
Reseña aquí:
http://cherrytreebooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/resena-la-declaracion-de-gemma-malley.html
http://cherrytreebooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/resena-la-declaracion-de-gemma-malley.html
celiapowell's review
2.0
I think this was a little too young for me - I enjoy YA books, but this one was guilty of having one of its characters narrate part of the story through awkward diary entries, which wouldn't have bothered me at a certain age, but does now. Also, excessive use of capital letters! Argh!
Our heroine, Anna, is a Useful Surplus, a child born in an age where due to a long life enabled by drugs, children are illegal - surplus to requirements. She was brought into the system when young, and has conformed to their requirements, hence her status as Useful. Then Peter, a teenage surplus is captured, and proceeds to change Anna's ideas about the world. And he says he knows her parents.
It's an interesting premise, but I didn't believe in the characters - the story starts in an fascinating place, and swiftly goes off on very unrealistic paths.
Our heroine, Anna, is a Useful Surplus, a child born in an age where due to a long life enabled by drugs, children are illegal - surplus to requirements. She was brought into the system when young, and has conformed to their requirements, hence her status as Useful. Then Peter, a teenage surplus is captured, and proceeds to change Anna's ideas about the world. And he says he knows her parents.
It's an interesting premise, but I didn't believe in the characters - the story starts in an fascinating place, and swiftly goes off on very unrealistic paths.
arcanewolf's review
3.0
This was actually a pretty good read and i love how the author put in all the background stories of the politics and other characters to fill in the gaps of how this world came about.
She's made up a whole new concept to bring this dystopian world to life and I think it's important for authors to add just a dash of their own flavour to the book just to give some originality and make it unique to those other dystopian novels out there.
There were times where I had to re-read parts because I day dreamed through it the first time as there were parts that seemed irrelevant to know or just needed to be made a bit more exciting, cause there's a lot of knowledge about this world and sometimes your brain can get a bit overloaded.
But overall, loved the adventure, loved the romance, loved the twists: like seriously there a few twists that I never saw coming and I just liked the whole outline of this world Malley has created.
I liked it.
She's made up a whole new concept to bring this dystopian world to life and I think it's important for authors to add just a dash of their own flavour to the book just to give some originality and make it unique to those other dystopian novels out there.
There were times where I had to re-read parts because I day dreamed through it the first time as there were parts that seemed irrelevant to know or just needed to be made a bit more exciting, cause there's a lot of knowledge about this world and sometimes your brain can get a bit overloaded.
But overall, loved the adventure, loved the romance, loved the twists: like seriously there a few twists that I never saw coming and I just liked the whole outline of this world Malley has created.
I liked it.
emleemay's review against another edition
4.0
My opinion on this book swayed back and forth between 3 and 5 stars, so I eventually settled on 4 and I'm now going to do my best to explain why.
Why it got 4 stars
This book got 4 stars for being a highly original and intriguing story. I'm a real lover of dystopian societies, especially those set in a foreseeable future, and this is one unlike any other but with elements that are so cleverly woven with the current thoughts and fears that it makes it seem like a tragic possibility.
The book tells the story of a society where longevity drugs mean that the body never grows old and dies, they keep all the organs working and eradicate diseases such as cancer, heart disease and AIDs. But a society where no one dies cannot exist unless no one is born either.
Hence the declaration. Signing the declaration gives you eternal access to longevity drugs, as long as you swear to never have children. Any children born illegally are called 'surpluses', and sent away to surplus houses where they are taught of their lack of worth. How they are a burden to mother nature and the Legals who were here first, they are trained to be slaves to the Legals and to expect beatings and mistreatment as a punishment for their parents' sins.
It's an incredible and well-constructed idea and you can feel the frustration at being told your nothing by people who have selfishly warped nature in order to avoid death. It questions some of today's issues, particularly some practises found in China, and is a story about the value of life... and, strangely, of death. I cannot wait to read the second book in this series.
Why it didn't get 5 stars
Quite simply, I didn't like any of the characters. The protagonist, Anna, was selfish and bratty and just really quite pathetic at times. Also, Peter was a drip. I've never been a big fan of the male hero coming in and saving the helpless princess, but if you are going to go down that route, at least make your hero memorable. There just isn't much to say about Peter, other than the fact that he was boring. The most interesting character was Mrs Pincham and the strange twist to this story that does come as quite a shock.
I am eagerly anticipating more and just hope that the author can develop her characters to match up to the standards of the the very imaginative story.
Why it got 4 stars
This book got 4 stars for being a highly original and intriguing story. I'm a real lover of dystopian societies, especially those set in a foreseeable future, and this is one unlike any other but with elements that are so cleverly woven with the current thoughts and fears that it makes it seem like a tragic possibility.
The book tells the story of a society where longevity drugs mean that the body never grows old and dies, they keep all the organs working and eradicate diseases such as cancer, heart disease and AIDs. But a society where no one dies cannot exist unless no one is born either.
Hence the declaration. Signing the declaration gives you eternal access to longevity drugs, as long as you swear to never have children. Any children born illegally are called 'surpluses', and sent away to surplus houses where they are taught of their lack of worth. How they are a burden to mother nature and the Legals who were here first, they are trained to be slaves to the Legals and to expect beatings and mistreatment as a punishment for their parents' sins.
It's an incredible and well-constructed idea and you can feel the frustration at being told your nothing by people who have selfishly warped nature in order to avoid death. It questions some of today's issues, particularly some practises found in China, and is a story about the value of life... and, strangely, of death. I cannot wait to read the second book in this series.
Why it didn't get 5 stars
Quite simply, I didn't like any of the characters. The protagonist, Anna, was selfish and bratty and just really quite pathetic at times. Also, Peter was a drip. I've never been a big fan of the male hero coming in and saving the helpless princess, but if you are going to go down that route, at least make your hero memorable. There just isn't much to say about Peter, other than the fact that he was boring. The most interesting character was Mrs Pincham and the strange twist to this story that does come as quite a shock.
I am eagerly anticipating more and just hope that the author can develop her characters to match up to the standards of the the very imaginative story.
hayleyg84's review
3.0
When I first started reading this book, I loved the concept and expected to give it a much higher rating. It's an interesting premise for a book and realistic enough to have that slightly unnerving prophetic edge that a good dystopian story needs. The idea and problems associated with the human race finding a cure for death were explored within this but I just felt like more depth was needed. To be fair, I'm not the target audience and so maybe that's why I felt that events were sometimes rushed or just not developed as well as they could be. In some places characters felt more like caricatures than real people. The good people were very good (for example Peter coming to find Anna just didn't feel believable to me. For someone who has been hiding all his life, why would you voluntarily give yourself up to rescue someone you had never even met?) and the bad people did not seem to have any redeeming features at all. However, I still throughly enjoyed this easy read and will definitely read the next one.
sleepflowerrr's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
steviehamlington's review against another edition
5.0
This is my all time favourite book.
I love Gemma Malley and all of her books but this is hands down my favourite one.
Her world building and her premise is amazing. The story is really well told, in a multi third person POV, it’s amazing. Plus the first person journal entries littered throughout from Anna.
Beautiful story, beautiful book.
It just gets better each time I read it. I will not ever stop re reading this book.
I love Gemma Malley and all of her books but this is hands down my favourite one.
Her world building and her premise is amazing. The story is really well told, in a multi third person POV, it’s amazing. Plus the first person journal entries littered throughout from Anna.
Beautiful story, beautiful book.
It just gets better each time I read it. I will not ever stop re reading this book.
laura_vee's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5