Anna Covey is a 'surplus'. She should not have been born. In a society in which aging is no longer feared, and death is no longer an inevitability, children are an abomination. Like all surpluses, Anna is living in Grange Hall and learning how to make amends for the selfish act her parents committed in having her. She is quietly accepting of her fate until, one day, a new inmate arrives. Anna's life is thrown into chaos. But is she brave enough to believe this mysterious boy? This is a tense and utterly compelling story about a society behind a wall, and the way in which two young people take the chance of breaking free.
The Declaration has an extremely interesting concept. What if a person could take a pill that granted them long life? What would happen to the world? Are there any rules? Are there any consequences? And all of these questions are answered to create the backdrop for an extremely interesting story.
So what made me give this book a two-star rating?
For some reason, I always felt distant or detached from The Declaration. Maybe it was the long diary entry at the beginning of the story, Anna's boring life as a surplus or Anna being a character who I just couldn't connect with. I wasn't sucked into the story or glued to the pages of the book. I wasn't shocked, I didn't smile and I didn't care if the characters failed or succeeded. I felt nothing.
This book was a fast read with an extremely interesting concept, but the detachment or distance involved with The Declaration made me not enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
