Friday, October 5, 2012

Ashley's Review of Partials by Dan Wells

My Pre-Reading
Paul's Review

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I really love a good post-apocalyptic novel, and this one nailed it right on the head. I guess you could call it a YA dystopian, but I felt like it was more sci-fi than anything. A virus that killed nearly the entire human population, man-made beings that are basically enhanced humans, and a city trying to rebuild after a devastating war? Plus, all of the virology included throughout most of the book. Definitely more sci-fi than dystopian, I would say. Plus, it just takes place in the future, with all of the cities and burroughs and everything retaining their previous names.

I really liked Kira's character, and I absolutely loved how much she grows and changes over the course of the book. She starts out with one mentality, although she does sometimes disagree with the Senate, but by the end of the book she ends up a completely different person. She's a great, strong heroine, and I think Wells did an excellent job of taking a girl in bad circumstances and turning her into such a dynamic character. Actually, almost all of the characters are dynamic and changing and multi-dimensional.

I also really enjoyed how Wells constructed the world that Kira and her friends live in. It was different enough from this present world to be something new and exciting, but similar enough so that it was relateable. The people that survive RM are completely diverse, and I found that really refreshing. It's kind of nice to read a book where the author specifically notes that people of all races and creeds can come together and join forces in light of a tragedy.

And of course, the secret tying the Partials and the humans together. I found it really interesting, and I cannot wait to see how the rest of the series progresses in an attempt to solve that conflict. And I have so many other questions that I need answers to as well, so I'm hoping the sequel doesn't leave as many open ends!

Although some parts of the plot did drag on a bit, and the virology tends to be a little bit long winded, I still really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to fans of sci-fi YA, and even dystopian YA. I will most definitely be reading the sequel and the prequel novella! A very strong 4/5 for this one, and I think if the pacing was a little quicker, a couple more questions had been answered, and we hadn't been left hanging so much at the end that it would definitely have been a 5! Go pick this up and read it soon, this is a book you won't want to miss.


--Ashley

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