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A review by bookph1le
Fragments by Dan Wells
3.0
An excellent read. Wells's writing isn't as elegant as some other authors I've read, but the pacing in this book is fantastic, and it has a wonderfully diverse cast of characters. Unlike a lot of YA authors, he doesn't seem to be milking the cash cow by putting out unnecessary books; this series has plenty of story to go round, and this book is anything but the kind of filler I seem to have read from a lot of middle books in YA trilogies of late.
Full review:
Actual rating: 3.5 stars.
I was a big fan of Partials, the first book in the series. It was refreshing to see a YA novel that got into some fairly technical territory, that didn't center on a romance, and in which relationships between characters were conveyed in a complex way. So I had high hopes for Fragments and, for the most part, I was not let down. Some spoilers to follow.
First off, I'll start with my one gripe about the book: it was too long. I thought it needed some additional editing because there were passages in the book that did too much meandering without adding much to the story. I don't mind a long book, but everything that's in it needs to be there for a reason, which wasn't always the case in this book. It took me longer to read this book than is typical because I sometimes found it hard to get through some of the lengthier sections.
One key thing I think could have been done to make the book shorter: cut out the perspectives of those Kira leaves behind while on her journey. Though it was good to know what was going on, I found myself hurrying past the parts told from Marcus's point of view, simply because I wanted to get back to what was happening with Kira, which was really the main thrust of the story. Though important things happen back in Manhattan, they felt more inevitable, and I had the sense that those chapters were in the book just to keep the reader posted on what was happening. I think it might have been better to reserve the information for the third book, so that seeing Manhattan again would be more of a shock. Then again, I don't much like Marcus, so that probably colors my opinion on his sections. Still, Wells devotes far less page time to Marcus's sections than he does Kira's, which makes it seem as though they're less important.
However, there were a lot of things this book does right, and the top of my list is its portrayal of female characters. There's a disturbing trend in YA genre fiction that tends to make its female characters become passive participants in the action of the novel, but that was not the case in this one. Kira firmly takes the reins and does what she needs to do in order to achieve her goal of saving not only humans, but also Partials. This means that she sometimes makes morally gray choices, and I wasn't always comfortable with the choices she did make. Wells does a nice job of showing her inner struggle so that the reader understands her thought process and what leads her to make the decisions she makes.
But Kira is by no means the only remarkable female character in the books. Along with Kira, there's Dr. Morgan, Nandita, and--my personal favorite--Heron. All of these women are complex characters in their own right, and it's not entirely clear what their agendas are, particularly when it comes to Heron. There's none of the impression that there's anything out of the ordinary about what they're doing, not in comparison to male characters. Instead, all the characters are on equal footing, and all are as interesting, complicated, and complex as the next.
One of the big things that impressed me about this book was how nuanced a portrait it creates of the struggle between humans and Partials. Both humans and Partials do some abhorrent things, so I never felt like there was a "good" guy or a "bad" guy. I'm not opposed to there being clearly evil characters in books, but I often feel like YA books in particular distill complex moral questions to the point where they become cliched portrayals of good versus evil. In Fragments, the motivations of each group and each character have they're own sort of logic, and I thought it was easy to understand where everyone was coming from, even if I vehemently disagreed with their position.
Another nice aspect of the book is the severity of the repercussions the characters face. When they make a mistake or a wrong move, they suffer for it. I thought this was especially obvious during Kira's journey across the wasteland, and its ultimate outcome. A lot of other books I've read will talk about how hard a journey is without showing the reader just why it's so hard, but Fragments doesn't spare the details of the hardships Kira and her companions suffer, nor does anyone emerge completely unscathed.
I had thought the Partials Sequence was only meant to be two books, and I kept wondering how Wells would resolve all his plot threads by the end of this book, so I wasn't unhappy to realize there will be more books. Unlike a lot of comparable stuff on the market, Wells has plenty of story to fill at least three books, and this book suffers from none of the middle book syndrome I've encountered so much of as of late.
I have such admiration for the way this book tackles complex issues that I feel almost guilty giving it a 3.5 star rating, but the length issue and the writing, which is less than elegant at times, holds it back from reaching its full potential. Still, I'm very invested in this series and think it gets a lot of things right where other YA novels from the same genre tend to fall into simplistic traps. I'm anxious to know what will happen next.
Full review:
Actual rating: 3.5 stars.
I was a big fan of Partials, the first book in the series. It was refreshing to see a YA novel that got into some fairly technical territory, that didn't center on a romance, and in which relationships between characters were conveyed in a complex way. So I had high hopes for Fragments and, for the most part, I was not let down. Some spoilers to follow.
First off, I'll start with my one gripe about the book: it was too long. I thought it needed some additional editing because there were passages in the book that did too much meandering without adding much to the story. I don't mind a long book, but everything that's in it needs to be there for a reason, which wasn't always the case in this book. It took me longer to read this book than is typical because I sometimes found it hard to get through some of the lengthier sections.
One key thing I think could have been done to make the book shorter: cut out the perspectives of those Kira leaves behind while on her journey. Though it was good to know what was going on, I found myself hurrying past the parts told from Marcus's point of view, simply because I wanted to get back to what was happening with Kira, which was really the main thrust of the story. Though important things happen back in Manhattan, they felt more inevitable, and I had the sense that those chapters were in the book just to keep the reader posted on what was happening. I think it might have been better to reserve the information for the third book, so that seeing Manhattan again would be more of a shock. Then again, I don't much like Marcus, so that probably colors my opinion on his sections. Still, Wells devotes far less page time to Marcus's sections than he does Kira's, which makes it seem as though they're less important.
However, there were a lot of things this book does right, and the top of my list is its portrayal of female characters. There's a disturbing trend in YA genre fiction that tends to make its female characters become passive participants in the action of the novel, but that was not the case in this one. Kira firmly takes the reins and does what she needs to do in order to achieve her goal of saving not only humans, but also Partials. This means that she sometimes makes morally gray choices, and I wasn't always comfortable with the choices she did make. Wells does a nice job of showing her inner struggle so that the reader understands her thought process and what leads her to make the decisions she makes.
But Kira is by no means the only remarkable female character in the books. Along with Kira, there's Dr. Morgan, Nandita, and--my personal favorite--Heron. All of these women are complex characters in their own right, and it's not entirely clear what their agendas are, particularly when it comes to Heron. There's none of the impression that there's anything out of the ordinary about what they're doing, not in comparison to male characters. Instead, all the characters are on equal footing, and all are as interesting, complicated, and complex as the next.
One of the big things that impressed me about this book was how nuanced a portrait it creates of the struggle between humans and Partials. Both humans and Partials do some abhorrent things, so I never felt like there was a "good" guy or a "bad" guy. I'm not opposed to there being clearly evil characters in books, but I often feel like YA books in particular distill complex moral questions to the point where they become cliched portrayals of good versus evil. In Fragments, the motivations of each group and each character have they're own sort of logic, and I thought it was easy to understand where everyone was coming from, even if I vehemently disagreed with their position.
Another nice aspect of the book is the severity of the repercussions the characters face. When they make a mistake or a wrong move, they suffer for it. I thought this was especially obvious during Kira's journey across the wasteland, and its ultimate outcome. A lot of other books I've read will talk about how hard a journey is without showing the reader just why it's so hard, but Fragments doesn't spare the details of the hardships Kira and her companions suffer, nor does anyone emerge completely unscathed.
I had thought the Partials Sequence was only meant to be two books, and I kept wondering how Wells would resolve all his plot threads by the end of this book, so I wasn't unhappy to realize there will be more books. Unlike a lot of comparable stuff on the market, Wells has plenty of story to fill at least three books, and this book suffers from none of the middle book syndrome I've encountered so much of as of late.
I have such admiration for the way this book tackles complex issues that I feel almost guilty giving it a 3.5 star rating, but the length issue and the writing, which is less than elegant at times, holds it back from reaching its full potential. Still, I'm very invested in this series and think it gets a lot of things right where other YA novels from the same genre tend to fall into simplistic traps. I'm anxious to know what will happen next.