Gemma Malley

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Death of a person, pandemic mentioned
Score: Six points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

That's it. I finished The Declaration Trilogy. Here's a recap: I read The Declaration, the first in the series, one year ago, but it ultimately disappointed me. One year later, I read the second instalment, The Resistance, but that underwhelmed me. I picked up the final part, The Legacy, hoping it would be an improvement over The Declaration and The Resistance. It wasn't.

It starts (more like continues) with two new characters, Jude and Sheila who lead The Underground while Peter and Anna hide in Scotland. In Pincent Pharma, a character tells Richard Pincent that Longevity failed because a virus killed someone. Soon, the virus spreads into an epidemic, infecting and killing hundreds more people, leading them to question Longevity. It doesn't work as promised anymore. It can't make one immortal or reverse aging, so what's the point of taking it? The Legacy is the best out of the three, but the author still could improve it. Like The Resistance, the characters are boring and hard for me to connect or relate to them. The pacing in book three was as atrocious as the previous two as the first 200 pages had nothing much happening in them and only in the last 80 pages did something happen. At least the concluding pages and the epilogue where Longevity is long gone and the world returned to normal finished The Legacy on a high note.… (mais)

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Death of a person in the past, pregnancy
Score: Six points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

One year ago, I read the first instalment of the Declaration trilogy, The Declaration. Unfortunately, it ultimately disappointed me. One year later, it was time to read the second part, The Resistance, which initially sounded promising. However, the author didn't improve her writing as she underwhelmed me again with this one. I should've lowered my expectations after seeing the low ratings and reviews.

It starts (more like continues) with the first character I see, Peter, whose surname I forgot, living in London after escaping from the Surplus Hall. After a few pages I soon observe Peter secretly entering the Pincent Pharma complex, the home of the immortal drug, Longevity, and surprisingly, his grandfather, Richard Pincent. They have a new drug in the works that promises to be even better than its predecessor: Longevity+, which uses stem cells to stop and reverse aging. However, it comes with a price; to be immortal, one cannot have children (their official names are Surpluses.) Peter abhors this idea because it only allows old people to live and no new people to be born as a measure of controlling the population. I was wondering how all the people are immortal, well now I know, but come on, stem cells? Really? Is that all it takes to cheat death? I don't believe that. This time the characters weren't annoying but boring and I couldn't connect or relate to them. The pacing was another weakness in The Resistance as the first 200 pages had nothing much happening in them, but the last 100 were faster paced and ended on a cliffhanger. The final part, The Legacy, is up next.… (mais)

6/10, I was hoping that I would enjoy this sci-fi novel released more than a decade ago considering that I didn't enjoy the last one that I read however this wasn't any better at all, it was not that good of a dystopian novel and I won't see myself picking up the next two books in the series, where do I begin. It starts off with a diary entry of all things from the main character Anna Covey or Anna for short and she describes what happened to the world when people became immortal so children weren't really a thing anymore which seemed interesting to me but I was wondering how did they become immortal in the first place, I don't really know. The writing style was flat and even patronising at times, and so were the characters, I didn't feel anything for them. In the first half of the book, nothing happens except that I got to see Anna living in the orphanage for so long and then she meets another boy whose name I forgot and I can't believe it, this is the millionth time I've seen a romance shoehorned into a dystopian/sci-fi novel. The action finally picked up around the second half, and then the author decided to drop the ball and make the book drag even further, and it ended in a fizzling out cliffhanger. I won't recommend this to anyone and if you want a better dystopian novel try 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.… (mais)

Will Hodges is a loner type in school with a bit of an anger management problem like his dad. He witnesses the aftermath of a murder for which a former immigrant friend is charged. Will tells this story and about the nightmares that have plagued him in recent months where horrible things are happening to people and he wakes up in a sweat. He is also being followed by people who act like they know him and stare at him with hollow, sad eyes. When they finally get close to him, they tell him that he is a “Returner” like them. He doesn’t know what this means and he doesn’t want to know, until his nightmares begin intruding on his waking life. Told in Will’s anguished and angry voice the story winds from the present to the near past to the more distant past and back as what being a “Returner” means for Will is revealed. Returners come back again and again to absorb the pain and suffering of humanity. But Will finds out he is something more, something darker and he has to decide if he accepts his role as destiny or if he can change the course of his life. The Returners say he cannot escape his destiny but Will has to decide for himself. The narrative unfolds in a slow, mysterious way which may not suit all readers, but the twists in the book make this a worthwhile read.… (mais)