Description: 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.

 

My thoughts: This is what I look for when I read the first book in a series! Forget what the book was about, or whether I liked the characters. My favorite thing about Partials was that something actually happened! This wasn’t one of those books where an author drags you along the whole first book, only for nothing to happen except that cliffhanger that forces you to read the next book. So much happens in this book. From some things I thought would happen to other things that didn’t correlate with my predictions at all.  

Besides being happy that this book wasn’t a 400+ page filler, I was impressed by the political related topics that surfaced. These topics included freedom of speech, women’s rights, and the freedom to choose. What made these aspects even more interesting is the fact that humans are dying out. And with survival being the main focus in the book, it forces the characters of the story and the readers of the book to question things. For one, how important is the freedom of choice when we’re all about to die? And do the need for other freedoms change when extinction is right around the corner?

Something that also made the book stand out was the main character.  Kira was smart, strong, and could definitely take care of herself. And something that was refreshing about her as a female character was that she dealt with the problems at hand, and not the romance related aspects in her life. There were bigger fish to fry in this case, and thank God she didn’t worry about the shrimp.

With that said (I feel like I’m about to contradict myself), I am actually excited about the romance that seems unavoidable in the next book. And although a lot happened in the first book, a lot is (thankfully) going to happen in the next one too. I can’t wait!