Partials by Dan Wells **Review**

Partials by Dan Wells

Series: Partials #1
Pages: 482
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: 29th March 2012
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones

Goodreads synopsis:
Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.


When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.


Combining the fast-paced action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Battlestar Galactica, Partials is a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our sense of humanity is both our greatest liability, and our only hope for survival.

I'm definitely really getting into my dystopian fiction at the moment, and Partials is one of the best, and most unique, that I've come across so far!
The story follows protagonist Kira, a 16-year-old intern in the maternity ward of East Meadow hospital - one of the toughest jobs in her world, seeing as none of the babies born on the ward for the past 11 years have survived, thanks to the virus that wiped out most of the human race after the rebellion of the Partials, bio-mechanic soldiers.
This premise is a really interesting one, and I found that, despite some of the points against the novel, which I will mention in a moment, the story managed to remain interesting enough for me to want and need to know how it was going to end.

The point against the novel that I'm talking about is mainly that, at times when there isn't really too much action, the pace of the novel is a little slow, and I did find myself slowing down with reading it, and getting a little distracted. This may be partially to do with the length of the book, but having said that, I don't feel like any of the novel was wasted - everything that was in the book was mostly crucial to the story line, so it all had a point.
So I guess that the slower bits that added to the length of the novel, also helped to enhance the world that the novel is set in, and I can't really complain about that! As I said, the premise of the novel is fantastic, the story line is mostly really gripping, and the world-building is fantastic, so I can easily overlook the lack of pace in places.

I also really enjoyed the mixture of characters in the novel. We have a typical divide between the 'good' characters (being Kira and her friends) and the 'bad guys' (being the senate and the 'government'). However, things are not as clear cut as we might think! Yes, the senate are the bad guys, but at the beginning we also think that all the Partials and The Voice (a group of rebels fighting against the senate) are bad guys too - but this may not be entirely the truth...!
Kira's character is a really interesting one, and I loved seeing how her character developed and adapted throughout the novel to deal with everything that was thrown in her way. I'll be really interested to see how her character changes further, in the next book in the series.

The end of the novel is definitely something worth mentioning. The last 60 pages are really fast-paced and exciting (kind of making up for the lack of pace earlier in the novel), and it definitely had my heart jumping around in my chest!
The cliffhanger at the very end is huge and so it's going to be a very long wait until I get to find out what will happen next. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more in this series, and would also definitely read more from this author after this series - he's a really great writer.

I recommend this to all fans of YA, dystopian fiction, science-fiction and fantasy. A great read!