Author: Gemma Malley
Rating: 3 1/2 stars
Summary: It's the year 2140 and Longevity drugs have all but eradicated old age. A never-aging society can't sustain population growth, however…which means Anna should never have been born. Nor should any of the children she lives with at Grange Hall. The facility is full of boys and girls whose parents chose to have kids--called surpluses--despite a law forbidding them from doing so. These children are raised as servants, and brought up to believe they must atone for their very existence. Then one day a boy named Peter appears at the Hall, bringing with him news of the world outside, a place where people are starting to say that Longevity is bad, and that maybe people shouldn't live forever. Peter begs Anna to escape with him, but Anna's not sure who to trust: the strange new boy whose version of life sounds like a dangerous fairy tale, or the familiar walls of Grange Hall and the head mistress who has controlled her every waking thought?
Review: Now that no one grows old, anyone who is born whose parents didn't opt out of the Declaration (document that says I won't have kids if I get the youth medicine), are illegal and sent away to be trained as servants. The kids, called surpluses, are not treated well, and are raised to hate their parents and believe they are don't deserve to live. The story drew me in, but I didn't feel for the characters. Usually, when characters are in situations like Anna's, I want to go into the book and save them, and I hate whoever is in charge of it all. That wasn't the case here, and I think part of the reason why is that Anna accepted her life, and believed that that was what she deserved. I didn't agree that she deserved it, but since Anna was so convinced, I didn't really disagree, either.
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