The Declaration - Part One

Last night I started Gemma Malley's The Declaration. While I was pretty intrigued by the concept of the book, I have to say that I am, so far, unimpressed. Granted, I'm only two chapters in (haha), so we'll see how it goes.

The most poignent aspects of the novel so far, for me, are the parallells and points of commonality between it and other, well established by the publication date of this one, novels.

Example #1: Prefect. So, I just learned that the term prefect exists in a whole multitude of ways outside the world of the Harry Potter series (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefect), but that is my first and most automatic association; as I'm sure it is for many people. Apparently this is a (common?) title for students of advanced standing in schools within the UK and countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, but I feel like maybe she should have chosen another term. Maybe she was trying to hook Harry Potter audiences. Maybe it's just a common enough term that those who are familiar with it wouldn't stumble over it's repeated use. I'm not sure, but it struck me.

Example #2: A child who should not exist that is hidden away in an attic. When Anna is found in The Declaration, she is a child who exists illegally in a world that has limited reproductive rights and is, thus, hidden away in an attic. In the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix, the main character is a boy named Luke who exists illegally in a world that has limited reproductive rights and is, thus, hidden away in an attic.

Maybe neither of these things really matter, but they have served to form my first impressions of the book. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully this won't turn out to be just a compilation of bits of stories told in other novels.