"Partials" by Dan Wells

From Goodreads: "The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to 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 threaten to launch what’s left of humanity into 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 discover 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 pulse-pounding 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." 

This book was one of my most highly anticipated books of 2012- everything about it intrigued me (especially the tagline, "The only hope for humanity isn't human"), however, after having finished it I  must admit that I am a tad disappointed with it (I can't help but wonder, did I set my expectations too high? To an almost unattainable level?). 

My largest complaint about this book would be how militaristic and science-y the storyline was and how in-depth of detail the author went into said parts. While I was reading all of the science-y stuff I constantly found my mind drifting off/ my eyes crossing, for instance portions of the book such as this: "... a screen full of viral images, a series of reports on the viral structure. It had two forms, one for blood and one for air; the Blob and the Spore, the yellow and the blue... The Spore was tiny, perfect for traveling through the air..." (46%). If I had to guesstimate I would say that at least a quarter of the book involved Kira standing in front of a computer screen analyzing the Paritals blood (while reading these parts I was super grateful that I have some background knowledge of how the human body works because had I not I know that I would have been even more so lost). 

That being said, I LOVED the characters of this book- main characters and secondary characters alike! I think that this batch of characters is actually the strongest (mentally, physically, and emotionally) that I have ever read before (from Kira, to Samm, to Isolde, to Madison and Xochi). Furthermore, while it was one of the "big secrets" that was revealed in this book was somewhat glaringly obvious in my opinion, that didn't alter my opinion of the book whatsoever (unlike a few other books that I have read recently, including "Blood Magic" and "Cinder") because the possibilities that it presents are endless (AKA the sequel is bound to be epic).

All in all, while I was a tad disappointed with this book was a tad disappointing I did enjoy it overall. This is a book that I know that I will read time and time again and I cannot wait to see what Dan has in store for us in the next book (here's hoping that a relationship between Samm and Kira develops in the next book- I can't be the only person who wants this to happen, right?). 

Rating: 8/10

I received this book from the author to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.