The Declaration By Gemma Malley
Allen & Uwin

Imagine if you could live forever and stay looking and feeling young forever. Sounds great, huh? Not until you read The Declaration, which is based on this exact scenario. Think about, if no-one ever dies something has to give and in the case of this book it’s the kids.

Yup, fast forward to a future where the old get to keep on living only if they don’t have children. After all, there are only so many resources on the earth and if the old’s don’t leave this world when their time comes society can’t accommodate children coming into the world.

Anna Covey is a child in a childless world. She believes she should not have been born and that her parents where selfish and cruel to have had her. She believes this as this is what she has been forced to believe. She is classed as a surplus – children doomed to live out their lives in servitude to adults. Surpluses are housed in Grange Hall where they are trained and indoctrinated. Anna’s is accepting of her unworthiness in this world and her fate as a second class citizen until a new boy comes to Grange Hall and he changes her world, making her question her beliefs and dream about the possibility of being free.

This totally compelling and extreme yet insightful dig at the obsession with anti-ageing and the desire to remain young, shows us the possibilities if that search for eternal youth is taken too far and the dire consequences.

BB rating: 5/5