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.
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Review:
I had seen so much hype surrounding this book , mostly good reviews but with a few negative ones thrown in there. When there is so much hype around a book I find it a little intimidating to pick up but I am really glad I decided to give this book a try.
In this post-apocalyptic world, 99% of the worlds population was wiped out 11 years ago when the man made machines, Partials, released a deadly chemical called RM. Now the surviving humans live their lives in East Meadow, while the Partials live in Manhattan. Because many or most of the humans died during that attack, a lot of the people in East Meadow are teenagers. I thought this interesting as we get to see these teenagers having to work as adults and also their different opinions to the adults way of thinking. In this town, there is a government, and like most post apocalyptic novels, this government is not good.
I thought that all the detailed descriptions of the RM was fascinating. I'm considering doing biology in college so I really enjoyed the Virology side to this book. I loved reading about all of Kira's intense research and how the RM affected and killed the children. No child lives over three days in this world and it is the RM virus that kills them. I know that some of the science-y side to the novel will not appeal to some readers, I'm not saying I understood all of it, but I feel that that side to the book is important to the story.
The characters of the book were really good. Kira, our protagonist, is a very independent, stubborn woman. She is very much the kick-butt heroine of the story. At times I found her a little annoying as she was just SO stubborn and proud but I, on the whole, liked her. Marcus was a character I didn't like. I felt he was very possessive. Xochi was a characters I loved. She was loud, opinionated and just a super fun character. I really didn't like Haru. Samm, or the Partial was a really interesting characters. I felt that he was kind and caring but sometimes closed off and secretive. I enjoyed the dynamic between his character and Kira as they conducted their research. The character of this novel were very well developed and unique and I really enjoyed them.
The history / background history of the book, was some of my favourite parts. I really enjoyed reading about the history of the attack 11 years ago from both sides. I found learning about the Partials different ability's fascinating . I also thought it was really interesting the way that there was so much technology that no one could use because the people who had made and been able to use it had died. I did enjoy the history side but some of it was a little boring. When reading I felt myself skimming and my eyes jumping ahead, especially in a lot of conversations. I wasn't as gripped to the book in places but in others I was totally hooked.
The writing style of the books was definitely different. I have not read any other books by Dan Wells, but I do know that he has a YA series about a serial killer called the John Cleaver series. I had heard many good things about the author before picking this book up. I enjoyed the action scenes, Dan Wells can really write action scenes, but some of the conversations and descriptions were very boring and I felt myself just skimming. The plot was a good idea and I felt it was executed well.I did feel that the first 40 pages were very slow and I had to push myself to get to the good stuff. The ending has definitely left me wanting to read the next book but not as much as I was expecting. I feel like there could have been a bigger twist at the end to make the reader more excited for the sequel.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but didn't think it was excellent. I would recommend any post-apocalyptic / dystopia fans who are looking for a read more on the science-y side.
Rating :
Four Stars
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