Partials (Partials Sequence #1)
by Dan Wells
Blurb: 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.
My Review:
Partials was so different than what I expected, while I expected an epic search to find a Partial, the story focusses much more on the dystopia side of it all and the community. I really enjoyed Partials and even though the pace is slow I kept reading.
The story is without a doubt the most important part of this book. The story carries everything and while the pace is slow, I did want to keep reading. Things might not happen fast, but things are happening and there are so many hints and pieces and plot twists I didn’t see coming. Around halfway thorugh the pace picks up a bit and I read the second half even faster than the first half. Really the story is great, Dan Wells has done an awesome job with creating this story and he shows he really knows a lot about medical stuff. The story is a bit complicated at times and I think this really is a book you should read in a few days, because else you might loose track of the story. There are some small parts of the story that didn’t make sense at first and some small flaws, but many of those are explained later in the story and suddenly start making sense.
The characters is the one point I think could’ve used more attention. We dod get to know the characters, but I didn’t feel their emotions. i didn’t really felt like I really knew who they are. I missed the connection with the characters. I loved the story and the characters where interesting, but I think that I would’ve loved this book even more if the characters had more personality. Kira is the only character I think I got to know quite a bit during the story, her motivations and believes are obvious pretty early in the story and they determine what she does most of the book. Sadly I didn’t really care much about the rest of the characters, they didn’t felt alive and I had no clue who they are and why they do what they do.
The world building is done really well. The world is original and intriguing. Pretty soon much of the important parts of the world are explained. Later on pieces of world building are added and the world really comes alive.There are still a few gaps and questions left, especially about what caused the break, why the partials where created in the first place and what the Isolation war is. I hope we find out the answers to most of these questions in the next book.
To conclude: Partials is an original, slow paced book with a great story. The story is done really well and even though the pace is slow I wanted to keep reading. My only real issue with this book is the fact that there isn’t much attention to the characters, their personality and character development. The world building is also really done well and Dan Wells has created an original and intriguing dystopia world. I am looking forward to the next book in this series!
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I also had my doubts with this book. I liked it, but it lacked something. I just finished book 2 and liked it a lot better! I had to get into it, but the pace was higher, which I liked. Great review!
I really enjoyed it, but indeed it just lacked something. I already ordered book 2 and am looking forward to reading it!
Ah, I love a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat and surprises you when you least expect it. I have never been particularly interested in reading Partials, but the two reviews I’ve seen for it throughout the past week have been so good that I can’t help but want to read it. Originality is always something I find the authors struggling with and I can’t wait to actually explore this intriguing world that everyone’s fussing about. I’m always the one for a character-driven story and it’s too bad that it didn’t live up to your expectations in that area, but I hope the sequel suits better for you:) Thanks for sharing, Lolita! You made me so excited;-)
Siiri @ Little Pieces of Imagination
I already heard from quite a few people that the sequel is better and more focussed on the characters than the first book. I ordered it immediately after I finished Partials and I am now impatiently waiting for it to arrive.If you like originality I would give Partials a try, even though it falls a bit flat concerning the characters, the story is really good. I hope you will read Partials and enjoy it :).
Great review! 🙂
Thanks :). When you have read Partials, tell me what you think of it!