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A review by bookph1le
Partials by Dan Wells
4.0
After a string of disappointing YA books, particularly of the speculative fiction/dystopian sort, I am thrilled to finally find something that delivered everything a good book should: an interesting premise, fast-paced action that kept me reading, and a strong female protagonist. Some minor spoilers will follow.
First off, I would love to sing Mr. Wells' praises for creating a believable, flawed, strong, strong, strong female lead. Seriously, I can't emphasize that enough. I find it frankly alarming how many weak, frail female 'heroines' exist in YA lit. I'm sick to death of reading about whiny girls who need boys to rescue them. Kira is none of these things. She is hot-headed, highly intelligent, and more than capable of taking care of herself. That's not to say that she's perfect. At times, I wanted to shake her soundly or talk sternly to her about how mean she was being, but I felt that this only added to her character. Good characters need flaws, and Kira has them. However, she also has many attributes that I really loved. She's fiercely loyal to her friends and is willing to sacrifice herself for her ideals. Though she does sometimes need her friends' help, this is for logistical reasons and not because she's too weak to handle things on her own. I really think Wells deserves a badge of honor for creating such an awesome female lead.
I also really admired the way romance was handled in this book. Though Marcus is Kira's boyfriend, he doesn't own her. Sometimes they have differences of opinions that cause them to argue and that even create rifts between them. I thought Wells did a fantastic job of capturing how difficult it can be to maintain a relationship. I was also very happy to see that when the females in the book don't agree with their male significant others, they voice that opinion. This is very true of Kira, but also of Madison, who defies her husband in several big ways throughout the course of the book. These are not females who are defined by their relationships, which I sincerely and heartily applaud.
Wells's world building was pretty stellar. His descriptions of the crumbling remnants of New York made me think of the series Life after People, with nature taking over in a big way. I found it fascinating to read the descriptions of the buildings and of the scavenging habits of the people left behind. Wells has created a real, stark contrast between the world as we know it and the world as it could be. We like to think we're so significant but, really, everything we've created could simply crumble in a matter of decades if we weren't around to care for it. Wells uses iPods to particular effect, when he describes the inscriptions on the backs of them, the reminders of a consumer culture that was powerless to stop the collapse of the world.
I enjoyed the many factions that he created within this world, and I found them all quite believable. If the world fell apart, would humanity really hold hands and put aside their differences? The motivations of the various groups were eminently believable, in my opinion, and Wells handles them very well. No one is really clearly good or clearly evil in this book. The good characters sometimes do bad things and the bad characters have facets that make them more than just a cartoon villain.
Though this book was tied up in the end, there are still many compelling questions that make me look forward to the next in the series. I'm very interested in learning still more about the Voice and about the Partials, as well as Kira's background. At three quarters of the way through the book, I had a feeling that Wells was leading me somewhere juicy with Nandita, so I'm very eager to find out exactly what's in store there.
The one thing that kept me from giving this book five stars was the writing. Though Well is very innovative and I found the book exciting and a fast read, he lacks the polish of some of the other YA authors I've read. I couldn't shake the feeling that if I could combine him and, say, Maggie Stiefvater, the end result would be something exciting that also had a lot of lovely writing--something more like Ship Breaker. Still, much like James Dashner, Wells has a real flair for the high concept, rip roaring, pulse-pounding novel, and I am very much looking forward to the next installment.
First off, I would love to sing Mr. Wells' praises for creating a believable, flawed, strong, strong, strong female lead. Seriously, I can't emphasize that enough. I find it frankly alarming how many weak, frail female 'heroines' exist in YA lit. I'm sick to death of reading about whiny girls who need boys to rescue them. Kira is none of these things. She is hot-headed, highly intelligent, and more than capable of taking care of herself. That's not to say that she's perfect. At times, I wanted to shake her soundly or talk sternly to her about how mean she was being, but I felt that this only added to her character. Good characters need flaws, and Kira has them. However, she also has many attributes that I really loved. She's fiercely loyal to her friends and is willing to sacrifice herself for her ideals. Though she does sometimes need her friends' help, this is for logistical reasons and not because she's too weak to handle things on her own. I really think Wells deserves a badge of honor for creating such an awesome female lead.
I also really admired the way romance was handled in this book. Though Marcus is Kira's boyfriend, he doesn't own her. Sometimes they have differences of opinions that cause them to argue and that even create rifts between them. I thought Wells did a fantastic job of capturing how difficult it can be to maintain a relationship. I was also very happy to see that when the females in the book don't agree with their male significant others, they voice that opinion. This is very true of Kira, but also of Madison, who defies her husband in several big ways throughout the course of the book. These are not females who are defined by their relationships, which I sincerely and heartily applaud.
Wells's world building was pretty stellar. His descriptions of the crumbling remnants of New York made me think of the series Life after People, with nature taking over in a big way. I found it fascinating to read the descriptions of the buildings and of the scavenging habits of the people left behind. Wells has created a real, stark contrast between the world as we know it and the world as it could be. We like to think we're so significant but, really, everything we've created could simply crumble in a matter of decades if we weren't around to care for it. Wells uses iPods to particular effect, when he describes the inscriptions on the backs of them, the reminders of a consumer culture that was powerless to stop the collapse of the world.
I enjoyed the many factions that he created within this world, and I found them all quite believable. If the world fell apart, would humanity really hold hands and put aside their differences? The motivations of the various groups were eminently believable, in my opinion, and Wells handles them very well. No one is really clearly good or clearly evil in this book. The good characters sometimes do bad things and the bad characters have facets that make them more than just a cartoon villain.
Though this book was tied up in the end, there are still many compelling questions that make me look forward to the next in the series. I'm very interested in learning still more about the Voice and about the Partials, as well as Kira's background. At three quarters of the way through the book, I had a feeling that Wells was leading me somewhere juicy with Nandita, so I'm very eager to find out exactly what's in store there.
The one thing that kept me from giving this book five stars was the writing. Though Well is very innovative and I found the book exciting and a fast read, he lacks the polish of some of the other YA authors I've read. I couldn't shake the feeling that if I could combine him and, say, Maggie Stiefvater, the end result would be something exciting that also had a lot of lovely writing--something more like Ship Breaker. Still, much like James Dashner, Wells has a real flair for the high concept, rip roaring, pulse-pounding novel, and I am very much looking forward to the next installment.