End of Year List #4- Favourite Books Read in 2011 published before

I read a lot of great books in 2011. Many of which weren’t brand new, but still. In no particular order, here are the best books that I read this year that weren’t fresh off the press.  Links go to the review on Death Books and Tea.  

• Chain Mail Addicted to You by Hiroshi Ishizaki
• Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• Christine by Stephen King
• The Declaration  by Gemma Malley
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (did not review)
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
• Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
• Hetalia Axis Powers #2 by Hidekaz Himaruya

What did you think of all these books? Did you read them when they were out, or only recently, or not at all? Do you agree with me on these?

Book Review: The Resistance by Gemma Malley

Title: The Resistance

 Author: Gemma Malley

Series:  The Declaration #2

Published:  2^nd 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.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- The Declaration by Gemma Malley

Title: The Declaration

 Author: Gemma Malley

Series:  The Declaration #1

Published:  October 2007 by Bloomsbury

Length:304 pages

Source: Local library

Other info: Book 2 is called The Resistance and book 3 is called the Legacy. Gemma Malley has also written the Returners.

Summary : In the year 2140, it is illegal to be young.
Children are all but extinct.
The world is a better place.
Longevity drugs are a fountain of youth. Sign the Declaration, agree not to have children and you too can live forever. Refuse, and you will live as an outcast. For the children born outside the law, it only gets worse – Surplus status.
Not everyone thinks Longevity is a good thing, but you better be clear what side you’re on. . . . Surplus Anna is about to find out what happens when you can’t decide if you should cheat the law or cheat death. 

Review: In this future world, scientists have created a drug that can make you live for a very long time. And most people do. Governments have seen the problem with this-people live forever, have children that live forever, the Earth becomes ridiculously overpopulated. Solution:anyone who takes these Longevity drugs must sign the declaration to not have any children. If you take Longevity and have children, they are Surplus and should not exist.

Anna is one such Surplus. She lives at Grange Hall, being taught to be a Valuable Asset, Useful, a servant to the Legals. And she's happy like this. Then Peter shows up, who tells her that she's not a Surplus, that she's Legal, that she should be free. Anna doesn't believe a word of it. Until she overhears her House Mistress talking about her, saying that she's no use at all. Anna begins questioning the rules she's lived by, and then she attempts to go off with Peter to find out the truth. 

The world building was good, but slightly boring. It all came as one big block of text, somewhere near the beginning. And when I say a block of text, I mean it. There's five whole pages broken up only by occasional indents. No dialogue, just a full history. And while being very informative, just being told about it isn't very interesting.

The opening was good. It starts with Anna's diary entry, the only way that Anna is breaking the rules at all. These diary entries are the main way  that you see Anna really develop a more open mind, one more suited to break rules. There wasn't really any character development from Peter, which is kind of disappointing but expected anyway-I couldn't see much room for development when we were first introduced to him. 

I liked the overall plot and all the subplots going on. I liked the way they all tied up really neatly at the end. All the characters were worked into the subplots at some point, whether it be the one about life at Grange Hall, the circumstances surrounding Peter and the story of Anna's parentage.

I much prefered the narration from Anna's diary. I get that it couldn't always be in diary form, or various plot developments could not have happened, but the third person part was a bit bland and didn't really let you connect like you could when reading the diary entries.

The ending, as I said was tied up very  neatly. Perhaps too neatly. I can't see any room for a sequel, but there is one. I want to read it.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a book that's very strong and has something for almost everyone.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |