{Review} Partials by Dan Wells

Title: Partials
Author: Dan Wells
Format: Library Hardcover
Publisher: Balzar + Bray
Release date: February 28, 2012
Date Read: March 29, 2013
Rating: ✭✭✭

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them--connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

Dan Wells, acclaimed author of I Am Not a Serial Killer, takes readers on a pulsepounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question--one where our humanity is both our greatest liability and our only hope for survival.

Oh, man. This book made me feel like humanity was my nasty ex, and I had just dumped his ass before snapping my fingers in Z-formation.

By that, I mean most of the humans in this book pissed me off - though they were supposed to. 

PARTIALS takes place in a futuristic world where humanity is quickly going extinct after a virus released during the Partial-Human war kills off babies less than a week after birth. Kira Walker, sixteen, is a medic-in-training. When someone important to her becomes pregnant, she resolves to find a Partial, experiment on it, and try to save the human race. But there’s more background to the war and the Partials than she initially thought, and what she discovers will turn her world upside down. 

That was about the shittiest blurb I’ve ever written but GIVE ME A BREAK OKAY AND THIS WILL BE A MINI REVIEW BECAUSE I’M TIRED.

The world-building and plot was amazing, hands-down. It was extremely immersive, and even though I didn’t understand a lot of the medical talk being the idiot that I am, I still appreciated the effort Wells put into it. It was very, well, scientific.

The politics and government in PARTIALS was brilliant, and this book made me feel like humanity was my nasty ex, and I had just dumped his ass before snapping my fingers in Z-formation. I mean, TEAM NATURE, Y'ALL.

By that, I mean I was cheering when I read about the flora and fauna taking over the cities.

I didn’t like most of the characters, Samm the Partial being an exception. I loved how sweet and mysterious he was without being a huge jerk. While Kira was a determined badass, she was also boneheaded and whiny. Her friends annoyed the crap out of me, particularly Madison and Marcus, her boyfriend.

There wasn’t a lot of romance in PARTIALS, though when there was, it was with Marcus, Kira’s boyfriend. Not Samm. Unfortunately.

YOU CAN HEAR ME GROANING FROM HERE

The writing was average for me, honestly. Some people didn’t care for it and others couldn’t get enough, but I found it to be alright.

PARTIALS didn’t consume me as much as I thought it would, being a predictable read and all, but it was good anyway.

Oceana is a French-blooded teenager who enjoys stalking British boys and asking them to marry her. She was diagnosed with severe fangirl disorder in 2011. Able to curse like a sailor with an angelic voice.