Monday, April 23, 2012

Partials (YA)

Partials. Dan Wells. 2012. HarperCollins. 480 pages.

Newborn #485GA18M died on June 30, 2076, at 6:07 in the morning. She was three days old. The average lifespan of a human child, in the time since the Break, was fifty-six hours. They didn't even name them anymore. Kira Walker looked on helplessly while Dr. Skousen examined the tiny body. The nurses--half of them pregnant as well--recorded the details of its life and death, faceless in bodysuits and gas masks. The mother wailed despondently from the hallway, muffled by the glass. Ariel McAdams, barely eighteen years old. The mother of a corpse.

It has been eleven years since a deadly virus (RM) killed most of the human race. The survivors who had--for one reason or another--a natural immunity to the virus have joined together and resettled on Long Island. The youngest human alive is a little over fourteen. Not long after the novel opens, the school shuts down because there are no more students to teach, and the teens are deemed old enough to go into a trade or be apprenticed into a trade. (Kira is in the medical field. She's not quite eighteen yet, so she's not "required" to be pregnant yet. But the Hope Mandate legislates women's lives. Humanity must be saved. And that means every woman old enough must do her part. True, no baby has survived past a few days old in eleven years. But they have to keep trying, right? They just can't give up on finding a cure and successfully reproducing, right? Well, hope isn't easy to come by. But when Kira's best friend becomes pregnant, she becomes DETERMINED to find the cure that will save her baby. Nothing is more important to Kira than the cure.

Once Kira's plan is formed, Partials is quite the compelling read!!! Kira and a handful of her friends set out to do something risky--something that appears to be quite insane. But Kira knows it is the only hope for finding a cure.

I enjoyed this one. I did. I'd definitely recommend it.

Favorite quote:
Happiness is the most natural thing in the world when you have it, and the slowest, strangest, most impossible thing when you don't. (78)
Read Partials
  • If you enjoy science fiction, dystopias, or post-apocalyptic novels
  • If you enjoy fiction with a survival theme
  • If you enjoy unique coming-of-age stories 

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Amber said...

This one is on my to-read list. Great review!