I finished this book a few days ago and I have been letting it settle in my mind, hoping my thoughts and feelings would sort themselves out.They haven't. I'm still emotionally entangled with "The Declaration."
It begins in a society where the technology to prevent aging has been discovered -- 'longevity drugs.' The people no longer suffer from illness or die from old age. They realize they must control their population size, since the births of children who also will not die will quickly overpopulate the world, depleting resources and making everyone miserable. And so all members of the society must sign a declaration that, so long as they take longevity drugs, they will not reproduce.
Some people still do, illegally. And if they're caught, their children (called 'surpluses') are put in an institution that trains them to be servants to the legal, legitimate members of society. Surpluses cannot take longevity drugs and are taught to take up as little room, resources, etc., in the society as possible, and to hate their parents for their selfishness.
It's a lovely setup, isn't it? Well, it gets better from there. Our main character is a surplus named Anna who finds out that her parents are searching for her and want her back. Only Anna is thoroughly convinced that, as a surplus, she must learn her place and disassociate herself from anything wrong or illegal, as a penance for her existence.
The book is oppressive and creepy. It's solid. It shifts in point of view, revealing character motivations and actions that add a perfect amount of tension to the story. The depiction of this kind of future is fascinating, and the economies and emotional effects are very believably handled.
Happily, there's a sequel, which already won my affection for being titled "The Resistance." I can hardly wait to sit in this world with these characters a little longer.
2 comments:
Wow, that is fascinating. I am amazed at these amazing plots authors come up with. I would never think of that but it is something that would make sense and obviously having too many people here at one time would be a problem. Wow, I'm intrigued. Thanks for the review. I will have to check it out.
Thanks, Telsha! If you have any spare time (bahaha!), read this one. And I'd love to hear what you think of it.
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