Partials (Partials Sequence #1)

The world ended eleven years ago when humans battled a deadly virus and engineered beings called Partials. Now there is little left of the human race and every child that is born dies. With tensions and an appending attack between two human groups the cure is needed more than ever. Kira must venture into Partial territories in hopes of finding some answers but what she finds will both threaten and save her world.

I picked Partials up a year ago, there was an autographed copy waiting for someone to take it home and so I did. The synopsis pulled me in and I have to say the cover is appealing. However, books by male authors usually don’t satisfy me, so I never read it. I did end up buying the second book Fragments and now with the third coming out I figured it’s a good time to start reading. Right from the first page I was drawn in:

“Newborn #485GA18M died on June 30, 2067.....The average lifespan of a human child, in the time since the Break, was fifty-six hours.”

“They didn’t even name them anymore.”

Partials had me on the edge of my seat for the whole book, I couldn’t put it down. When I thought the story would slow down everything escaladed and didn’t stop. Dan created a complex world full of politics, gun fights, fight scenes, intrigue, and great characters. I loved his characters; they were developed well and were very realistic. Everyone had their own agendas and opinions of what was right and wrong. Kira is in the middle when it comes to what she believes. She doesn’t follow anyone blindly but carves out her own path. She just knows she has to cure RM and that’s what she sets out to do. Kira never whined or complained, she persevered and that’s what I loved about her.

Partials is a great quick read everyone can enjoy. I can’t wait to discover the truth about Kira and the Trust. On to Fragments I go. :)

Before I start reviewing this book I need to point something out. This book came out more than a year ago and that's how long it's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust. I could kick myself for not picking it up sooner but I guess, back then, I wasn't into sci-fi dystopian novels. Even today I'm sceptic cause I find most of them boring.

That's not the case with Partials. It blew me away. The beginning was rather slow but once you figure out who's who and their whole world starts making sense it's captivating.

Kira is living on Long Island with other remaining survivors after the war with Partials and deadly virus RM which wiped out 99.996% world population. Newborns die couple of hours after their birth because their immune system can't fight RM. Kira is tired of watching babies die(she works as a medic) and after her friend ends up pregnant she is determined to find the cure for RM. They decide to capture one of the Partials to run some tests on him.

Kira is one of the strongest heroines I've come across but she can be so infuriating. She's dead set on doing the right thing even if that thing would get her hurt or even killed. She doesn't see any gray areas. Her world is all black and white and it was pretty annoying hearing her judge everyone. Don't get me wrong, she's great but she was a little bit too good for my taste. I need to see some flaws in my main characters.

I couldn't get this out of my head and if some of you reading this already read Partials, please help me out get this one thing which didn't make any sense. Why did people create partials? I know there was a mention of a war and humans didn't wanted to kill each others so they created partials, terminators who look like regular people to fight instead of them. Who were they fighting against? Which nation? After that war partials turned against their creators because they were treated as slaves. I can understand why they rebelled and fought back to earn their freedom but it puzzles me why were they even created. And one more thing wouldn't be cheaper to create a partial with the same face and clone him, or whatever they did rather than creating other races and sexes? That's what I would do, to save up. I'm not racist or sexist.

There were some interesting characters, Marcus, Kira's boyfriend who's always up for a laugh, Samm, a partial who ends up helping Kira to find the cure and the loyal and fierce soldier, Jayden. Now I'm just gonna say something which is very typical of me. I had a crush on Jayden. There. I said it. I can't control my feelings towards fictional characters. I'm not crazy for lusting over a guy in almost every book I read, right?

Now that I've read Partials I want to bash my head on my desk because I don't have the sequel and I'm broke so who knows when I'm going to find out what happens next with Kira and the gang. This is why I don't read the first book in a series if I don't already have the sequel. It's pure torture.

With a scarily realistic dystopian future as its setting, Partials quickly captured my attention. As the stakes became higher and the plot picked up its pace, I found myself completely unable to put Partials down. Add in some (mostly) well fleshed-out characters and Partials was destined for success!

One of my favourite things about reading good dystopia is its ability to place me into a future I can envision with ease. Considering the state of the world right now, with some countries threatening nuclear war, I can easily imagine a future like we see in Partials, where a nation develops a technology that is able to fight their wars for them. I can also easily imagine that technology being advanced enough to begin to think for itself, and to dislike what it’s being forced to do under the command of humans, so it turns on them. And with the development of biological warfare, the idea behind a virus like RM touches so close to home, that it’s almost scary.

But as strikingly realistic as Partials’ setting was, it was its plot that truly took center stage for me. Fast-paced and breathless, I literally couldn’t put Partials down because there was never a calm enough moment – every time something got resolved, something else happened that forced me to keep reading. Whether it was an actual action scene, like when Kira fled from a group of Partials hell-bent on destroying her and her companions, or a political move that had me gasping out loud in astonishment, I was constantly entertained by Partials’ plot. Twists and turns abundant, not only was I constantly surprised by the direction Wells took the plot, but it made for such a suspenseful read that I finished Partials in one sitting.

The only thing I can say I didn’t love was all of Partials’ characters. I absolutely loved Kira – her determination to save her friends’ baby was truly touching, and her courage in the face of the unknown was inspiring. I loved that she had such passion for the things most important to her, and that she was able to set aside how she felt about her boyfriend, Marcus, in order to focus on what was more important – finding a cure for RM. I loved Marcus – his humour had me literally laughing out loud, and the happier moments between he and Kira warmed my heart. I was furious with him for trying to control Kira’s life, but it also allowed me to be proud of Kira when she stood up for herself and what she believed in. I also really enjoyed Samm and the strange relationship that he developed with Kira. I found him really fascinating, and his treatment at the hands of humans brought up some really interesting ethical questions that Wells managed to have Kira think about without preaching.

But with some of the other characters, I had a hard time distinguishing who they were. They weren’t fleshed out enough for me to get a good handle on their specific roles in relation to the plot, and I found myself confusing some of them during different moments. But considering the scope of the characters involved in Kira’s quest for a cure, I still think Wells handled it well.

With a shocking revelation towards the end about Kira’s past, the seemingly futile hope for a cure that’s just out of reach, and the promise that Partials and humans might need to work together in order to save each other, I think it’s almost redundant for me to say that I am eager for Partials’ sequel!

Originally published to: http://www.nobentspines.blogspot.com/

Okay so here's the thing, I don't want Kira and Marcus to be together. They seem more like really good friends who have known each other forever and know all the others secrets. No. Sorry- that seems like a definition for a guy best friend. Not a guy you want to spend the rest of your life with. So yeah, I want Samm and Kira together. They've only known each other for a little while. And she experimented on him....no she gathered data. They protect each other. They will be together.

Okay lets move onto Haru and Madison. In the beginning I liked Haru. In the end I wanted to strangle him. In the beginning I thought Madison was weak. In the end I wanted to hug her. (by the way, I don't do hugs so that is kinda a big deal)

Jayden....I liked him. Towards the beginning I though that he kinda liked Kira, but later I saw that he thought of her the way he thought of Madison (sister-like) Oh and Madison and him are the only real related relatives left in the entire world.

Xochi: I really don't have much to say about her. I liked her music obsession. And her trust in Kira.

Tovar. I am so confused.

Hummm. Okay what else is there to say without spoiling everything?? Eh. Not much.

Partials have petroleum and humans don't.

.....partials don't - nope wait. Can't say that.

.....Samm be- nope can't tell you that either.

Oh! I can tell you that Madison gets pregnant and that is mostly what sets Kira off.

Okay, let's try this.

Strongest Character: I think that Kira is by far the strongest and character. She risks everything so that people can have a future. She doesn't think of partials as the enemy, she just doesn't think of them as friends. Kira is a medic and she personally feels responsible for all the deaths of the babies she's is trying to save. She doesn't feel like she is doing enough. So, of course, she goes to capture what started everything. A Partial.

Weakest Character: I think that Xochi is the weakest character because she lets her hatred for her 'mother' rule every decision she has. It's rather annoying.

So, should you read this? Yes, yes you should!

Wow! This book was amazing! Set in a world where only a small number of people are alive and working to survive. A virus has killed off the rest of the population and continues to kill off any babies they have. The tiny government keeps lowering the age of mandatory impregnation in the hopes that eventually a child will survive. Kira works at the hospital and is a medic. When her friend becomes pregnant, she refuses to let the baby die. her and some of her friends set off to capture a Partial, the man made beings that are said to have created the virus. She figures that since they created it and are immune, that she can figure out a cure from testing their bodies.
The group captures a Partial and Kira is allowed to experiment on it, but the Partial isn't what she expected. Soon she has humanized Samm. With the lives on the line, Kira must discover a cure in the small amount of time she has been given. With forces working against her, Kira must try her best. Can she figure out a cure and save Samm? Kira will discover that everything is different than what she has been told, including herself.
I can't wait for the next book of this series! This is def one of the greats!

Imagine if you will the skyline of Manhattan as it crumbles in disrepair. Whole buildings overgrown with creeping vines. Wild animals running through the streets. The chilling sound of your footsteps echoing through the emptiness around you. This is the reality that Kira and her fellow survivors live every day. If you are thinking that Partials sounds like a haunting story, you'd be right on track with me. When I first picked up this book I was so excited to dive into the dystopian world that Dan Wells had built. I wanted to get lost in the vast ruins of the New York area. So I settled in, and started to read.

Kira's character was really the saving grace of this book for me. In fact, the majority of her fellow compatriots were. Kira is strong, opinionated, and one of the most selfless characters that I've ever met. Kira and her friends don't just sit by and let the government feed them lies, they stand up and do something about it. They of course still make mistakes, which shows the human side of them. These beautifully rendered characters are what brought the story to life for me. In this same vein, I loved the distinct lack of romance in this story. While there are still definitely connections between the characters, they don't overshadow the one goal that is key in this story. Survival.

My love affair with Partials didn't actually start until the second half of the book though. I'll be honest, I understood the aim of Dan Wells in the first half of the book. He uses it to build up the desolation of the city, to describe the way that RM works, and to map out the way that the government functions. It's all necessary. Still, it just didn't flow for me. After pages of reading about Kira's findings and scientific jargon related to RM, I was ready to put this book down. Now that I've finished, I'm honestly glad I didn't. Once all of the groundwork is laid, Kira and her rebellion take center stage and things pick up speed quickly. If the pacing had been a little different, I know I would have enjoyed this book much more.

At the end of the day, I also still had a lot of unanswered questions about the world in Partials. A few things had loose ends, and the ending felt to me like it came completely out of left field. It is intended to make things more interesting I'm sure, but I'm still not sure how it actually all fits together. On the bright side, this is the first in the series so I'm sure there is more explanation to be had. That's what I'm looking forward to. Though this started out slow, I would definitely still recommend Partials as a good first in the series. I'm excited to see what comes next.

Wow. I was not expecting what I just read, but it happened. It felt like the first time I read Divergent, although I must admit I still like Divergent more. Partials however, was totally unique, and it may not even be fair to compare it to anything else.
The idea of the novel didn’t seem that new to me. Robots basically took over the planet and now the remaining humans are struggling to regenerate the human race. Partials was so much more complicated though! It had so many twists and turns I never expected. First, I liked how long the book was. I still teared through the pages, but it was longer than most teen fiction books out there, and I enjoyed getting very in-depth within certain parts of the story. I must admit some parts were too “sciency” for me, but for people who really like science fiction, this would be a good novel to read.
I really loved the main character. She was simple and easy to predict, but that was what made her such a good character. The most important thing to her was saving lives, and she never wavered from her goals, which was invigorating. If her actions were predictable however, the plot made up for that in how unpredictable it was. The story kept changing, which made it hard to keep up at points, but at the same time made the story that much more believable and realistic. I felt like I was there at points throughout the book, which is a great accomplishment for the author, Dan Wells.
I would definitely recommend this read.

During the Isolation War humans made Partials to help them out.
The Partials look exactly like humans except they're faster, stronger, and not human at all.
But after winning the war the Partials rebel, unleashing a virus called RM onto the humans. Only a few who are immune survive the RM but it doesn't end there.

11 years after the RM was unleashed the few survivors are all banded together but things aren't going so well.
Every baby born dies within days, even hours, after birth because of RM.

Kira, a 16 year old medic, is sick of watching babies die and wants to find a cure for RM. But of course people have tried almost everything to find the cure and ended up with nothing.
There's one thing that they didn't try though...
a Partial.

What if the only way to save the human race is with our greatest enemy?
And what if everything we thought we knew was a lie?

...

This was a very interesting book and completely original.
If I thought it was so interesting, why did I only give it 3 stars?

Well...
This book had a lot going for it but it took forever to get to the point. It actually took me around 5 days to read this. 5 DAYS!! To most people that's not a big deal but I usually read a book a day so...
this was a problem.
Another thing is the fact that this book was very scientific and i'm not a science person. So a lot of the time I was falling asleep with the book in my lap.
No worries though! The book gets much more entertaining as it goes on!
By the end of the book I actually debated whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. If it wasn't for the whole boring era it would've gotten 4 stars! But alas, it was not meant to be.
So I do recommend this to any folks that wish to read this and I will be looking out for the second book.

Review originally posted at: http://framed-in-words.blogspot.co.nz/

I got this out a few weeks ago but only just got around to finish it today. This is what happens when all the library books you have requested ages ago come in for you all at once. I have about one month to read something like 17 books!
Anyway, I read the synopsis for this book and was instantly drawn to it, so I was very excited to start reading it a few days ago. I had quite a high expectation, and I'm very glad to tell you: "Yay!! I loved this book"!

Science fictions, especially for young adults, are usually quite hard to write. Because the background of the book have to be somewhat scientific, full of imagination, be able to capture the reader's interest yet have deepth. Most YA science fictions I have read disappointed me a little, but Dan Wells did a darn good job at this book, it captured and contained my interest, full of action, had deepth and knowledge as well as managing to write at a high standard. I'm impressed.

Partials started off a bit slow, I was not as entertained at the beginning as I was after that, but I was still curious enough to read on. But I guess this is understandable as the beginning needed to explain a lot of things, let the reader get used to the science-fiction environment and some terminology. So if you aren't too impressed by the first 30 or so pages, don't scream in frustration and throw down the book! Calm yourself and continue, you will be positively rewarded and grateful for that decision. The pace then gradually built up towards the climax and the whole story/plot evolved to the next level, drawing the reader right in. I didn't want to put the book down after the first 30 or so pages. From that point on, it was action-packed and would make your blood pump harder (or mine did as I "ran" along with the actions the main characters took part in). The climax was awesome, and you could clearly see where the climatic point was. Do you know what's one of the most annoying things that can happen while you read? Having to put the book down right in the middle of the climax! That's what I had to endure while reading between classes. *sigh* once again, the ending was a huge cliffhanger and I can't emphasis enough on how MUCH I WANT the next book. I didn't want the story to end and am looking forward to more actions (perferably not stupid actions) in the next book!

There were a lot of medical related knowledge in this book, involving many scientific calculations and examinations as well as some futuristic approaches to problems. I really liked that as the science subjects are my favourite subjects and I'm kind of good at that area, so it's nice to read something that had the right knowledge in it and was able to develop a story around it so well. Kira, the main character herself, was a medic.

The heroine was kick-ass and strong. I love strong central female characters. Kira was solid, brave and intelligent. She was so smart! Also, she never gave up and always believed there would be a solution to the problems she encountered, she was determined and trusting. She was always the lead in whatever action they need to take and was able to make others listen to her and help her. Some called her crazy (not really in a bad way) and I found lots of the conversations and actions funny and entertaining. Jayden and Samm were also other characters whom I really liked.

The writing style was a balanced combination of extended description and short sharp sentence/dialogues that pushed the pace forward. Dan Wells used the human senses to help in his descriptions and did so successfully. I couldn't complain much about his writing style as I did many other YA novels, so congrats! The book is written in third-person but using Kira as the central character. I have always found male authors who wrote in a girl's perspective weird and uncomfortable, but Dan Wells really gave me a brillant suprise. He is almost the only male author so far in books I read who has successfully written in a girl's perspective. I didn't found many faults in there and there were only a few places where I felt he could have written a little better as a girl which suggested that the author is a guy. But overall it was great.

All in all, it was an excellent read and I have to endure another long wait until Fragments comes out!!

Sometimes when I read a book I can kind of predict what comes next or at least the ultimate outcome. Well, that certainly wasn’t the case with Partials. Just when I thought I had everything figured out Wells threw something at me that took me completely by surprise. It’s safe to say that I didn’t find Partials the least bit predictable.

I’m not going to lie, sometimes I found myself wishing Kira would make the easy decision, but I can ultimately appreciate that it was a part of her personality. You’re probably thinking that sounds bad, but someone would fall down dead in a battle and she’d be all “I need to help them!” and I’m sitting there thinking “He’s dead! Run! Save yourself!” But like I said, I can appreciate that it’s just a flaw of her character.

I quite liked Samm and was incredibly surprised when a love triangle didn’t sprout up because of him. Marcus was a fantastic guy, but I’m not going to lie, if a love triangle were to pop up I’d be all about the Samm. I mean, this is a guy who saved Kira instead of himself (I won’t say any more than that for fear of spoiling).

The storyline of Partials was fantastic. I was a little bored in the beginning. It’s not that it was really going too slowly, but it just took a bit for me to get immersed into the story, but once I did I was never bored. Don’t let the size scare you off because once you get into the story you won’t even realize how quickly you’re turning the pages.

I also really appreciated that we got a few answers, but enough questions were left to leave me wanting more.

The Nutshell: Though it might take a little bit to get fully immersed in the story, Partials is definitely worth the read. There are plot twists and turns that Wells throws at the reader out of the blue and plenty of action but still enough down time to appreciate the finer aspects of the story. If you love dystopian and having your mind blown multiple times, read Partials.