The Declaration Trilogy - Gemma Malley

Titles: The Declaration, The Resistance, The Legacy

Series: The Declaration

Author: Gemma Malley

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children

Rating: 3/5

Pitch:

Sixteen-year-old Anna should not have been born. It is the year 2140 and people can live for ever. No one wants another mouth to feed, so she lives in a Surplus Hall, where unwanted children go to learn valuable lessons . . . at least she wasn't put down at birth.One day, a new inmate arrives. Anna's life is thrown into chaos. He says things about her parents and the Outside that couldn't possibly be true . . . Or could they?

(Goodreads)

My review :

For once, I'll talk about all three books at the same time. Since I read the three one after another in the same book and since, overall, they have the same strength and weaknesses, might as well do them at the same time instead of repeating the same things. 

I didn't like the characters. None of them. Neither Peter, nor Anna, nor Paul, nor anyone. Anna is annoying at best and she needs a shot of adrenaline or a few slaps across the face. Peter is a living cliché of the wannabe-hero who doesn't think more than needed. The others are like cardboard figures in a puppet theatre. They don't have enough substance to live outside the purpose the author created for them. 

The construction of the books is similar for the three. The beginning is long, almost boring. In the first book it was rather hard to live. I had the impression of pedaling in the mud before it really started. In the other two, curiosity kept me going. 

The ending of the books wasn't that bad. The ending of the first one made me laugh (I guess it was supposed to be tragic but all just came together so neatly at the last moment that it was just hilarious). The second one's was nice. The third's made me laugh too because was well done. I liked it.

Other than that... The story is original and if the characters had been better, it would have been real good. Moreover, some parts were so long and difficult, and the clichés, the plot twists too easy... The book has its own strength and weaknesses but the reading wasn't any less good. It's not the worst nor the best dystopia I read. For the summer, it's still quite nice and not so bad and it's enough.