Tuesday 13 September 2011

Book Review: The Resistance by Gemma Malley


Title: The Resistance
 Author: Gemma Malley
Series:  The Declaration #2
Published:  2nd September 2008
Length: 323 pages
Warnings: violence, one quick reference to sex
Source: Library
Other info: The first book is The Declaration, which I reviewed here, and the third is The Legacy. Malley has also written The Returners, and her next book is The Killables.
Summary : The year is 2140. Having escaped the horrors of Grange Hall, Peter and Anna are living freely on the Outside, trying hard to lead normal lives, but unable to leave the terror of the Declaration—and their experiences as surpluses—completely behind them. Peter is determined to infiltrate Pharma Corporation, which claims to have a new drug in the works; "Longevity+" will not just stop the ravages of old age, it is rumoured to reverse the aging process. But what Peter and Anna discover behind the walls of Pharma is so nightmarish it makes the prison of their childhood seem like a sanctuary: for in order to supply Pharma with the building blocks for Longevity+, scientists will need to harvest it from the young. Shocking, controversial, and frighteningly topical, this sequel to Gemma Malley’s stellar debut novel, The Declaration, will take the conversation about ethics and science to the next level.
Review: We pick up a little after we left off at The Declaration, my review here . Anna has been made Legal, and is currently living happily with Peter and Ben. Then Peter joins his family business-which is Pincent Pharma, manufacturers of Longevity, the source of all the problems in Book 1. Meanwhile, Anna becomes involved in something that may be a bit more dangerous than she thought, and we meet Jude, Peter's half brother who's the reason for his being a surplus until one of his parents died. A good basis for a sequel to a very good book.
It was done very well too. We see a lot of different things happen which all cleverly intersect at various points in the novel, completely different to in book one but still exciting and relevant to Peter and Anna's world. It takes a lot of twists and turns in the plot; some of which you see coming, some of which you don't.
If you say that The Declaration was Anna's book and The Resistance is Peter's book, then Peter shows up a lot more in Anna's than Anna does in Peter's, which is a shame as I quite liked Anna. I hope that we see a bit more of Anna in book 3, The Legacy. I'd also like to see a bit more of Ben, the baby brother, because although he's not that important right now, somehow I feel as though he should be.
The writing again is in third person, with just the one diary entry from Anna this time. Which is a shame because, even though I shouldn't have expected any when Anna said her final entry in The Declaration,  I really enjoyed reading the diary entries.
It's interesting watching the characters develop a bit more, especially Jude, who starts off being very unlikeable but by the end was one of my favourite characters. I also really liked Dr Edwards, who I also didn't like very much, but has had a huge personality change by the time we're done with him.
Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a very good sequel that still keeps me wanting to read the final book in the trilogy.

4 comments:

  1. I thought this was a good sequel too! I didn't like it as much as The Declaration (in fact, it's probably my least favourite in the series), but I still thought it was great and enjoyed finding out about Jude. Great review! :)

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  2. New follower here! I'm also participating in Reading Vacation's Young Bloggers Unite and am thrilled to participate with you guys and the other great bloggers!

    Benji
    www.readerbenji.blogspot.com

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  3. Nyaa I simply can't wait to read this book! The Declaration was amazing (now one of my favourite books)!

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  4. Nyaa I loved the Declaration and cannot wait to start reading this sequel,this review was really helpful and I can't wait to go to the libary tomorrow to take it out and dive in !!!!

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Thanks for taking time to read this!
Comments are much loved.
Nina xxx

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