The Resistance by Gemma Malley **Review**

This is the second book in The Declaration trilogy, and therefore this review may contain small spoilers for the first book. If you haven't read book one yet, and are worried about this, instead visit my review of The Declaration.

The Resistance by Gemma Malley

Series: The Declaration #2
Pages: 336
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release date: 8th November 2012
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones

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Thanks to Bloomsbury for my review copy

Goodreads synopsis:

This synopsis contains spoilers for the first book in this series, The Declaration. If you haven't read the first book, but intend to, do not read this synopsis, or review.
Read my review of The Declaration HERE.

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 rumored 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.

After finishing the first book in this trilogy, The Declaration, I was so in love with the story, so gripped by it, that I had to start this second book straight away! The Resistance starts pretty much where The Declaration left off, and we quickly become introduced to Anna, Peter and Ben's new life together as 'legals' on 'the outside'.
What first struck me about this, compared to the previous book, was the shift in perspective; whereas the trilogy had started off almost entirely from Anna's point of view (breaking off only briefly to focus on other characters, such as Mrs Pincent, the House Matron in the surplus hall), this book is much more focused on Peter, and mostly told from his perspective. It does switch between characters a lot more, because of the different sub-plots that meander through the book, so we do still occasionally see Anna on her own. We also have a new character, Jude, who is introduced fairly early on, and whose point of view we see pretty often, as his story begins to merge with Peter's. However, the story is still certainly centred around Peter and what is happening to him (the other characters' separate stories all come together at the end, and all have an effect on what happens with Peter).

I really enjoyed this shift, because although we do get to know and love Peter throughout The Declaration, it is Anna who we sympathise with more, and it's really Anna's story. It was good to get to know Peter more intimately, and to see him overcome such enormous problems made me love him even more than before.
I also really enjoyed seeing Peter's character struggle with his own, personal conflict. He's such an independent thinker, that he began to doubt and question the motives of all of those around him, even the one person who has always been there, throughout his entire life. To me, this showed a great amount of intelligence, and to overcome it definitely took huge amounts of courage, so I felt like his character had grown and developed a lot more by the end of the book.
This is the same with Anna. Even though we see her less than in the previous book, it's obvious how much she has evolved since we last saw her. Despite having been incarcerated in a surplus hall for almost her entire life, she has learnt to start thinking independently, begins to question things and form her own opinions and goals in life. It was brilliant to see Anna and Peter becoming more like a family as well - despite the difficulties they both faced, both on their own, and together. It was awesome to see them come out of it all stronger than before, and much more sure of themselves and what they wanted. They're a seriously enviable couple!

Not only did I enjoy how much the characters had grown, I also loved how the story developed as it went along. Obviously I don't want to say too much about this, for fear of giving anything away, but I can say that the story held even more excitement for me, than in the first book (which I didn't think would be possible). The Declaration builds the dystopian world for us, and kick-starts Anna's story, but what the story really is, is Anna's journey, as she and Peter leave Grange Hall behind, ready to fight against 'the Authorities'. We don't really get to see much of the world outside of the surplus halls.
It should be fairly obvious from the title of this one though, what this story follows! We get to see much more action than before, and learn more about 'the Underground', and their plans to remove Richard Pincent, owner of the Longevity drugs, from power, and restore humanity to a 'natural' state. By the end of the book, the revolution is getting into full swing, and I was on the edge of my seat with excitement!
I adored where the story went, and loved the shocking twists and turns that the plot took along the way. I didn't see any of it coming, and I was utterly captivated by every single page.

There are many things that I'm looking forward to in the final book of the trilogy; obviously I can't wait to see how it ends, and how everything is resolved, but I also can't wait to see what happens with Anna and Peter, and their current, rather exciting 'situation' (though I shall say no more about that - you'll just have to read it and find out what it is for yourself. Trust me, it's good!), and I also want to see more of Jude, discover more about him, get to know him better (because a couple of the things he did, I wasn't expecting from his character at all), and see what he does next. He's certainly an interesting personality!

I really enjoyed The Declaration, but I loved this a hundred times more. As when I finished the first book, I'm going to have to start the final instalment straight away.
This is a seriously addictive trilogy, and one I highly recommend!