Review - Partials (Partials #1) by Dan Wells

Title: Partials

Author: Dan Welss

Series: 1st

Pages: 472

Published: February 28th 2012 by HarperTEEN 

ISBN: 9780062071040

Source: Around The World Tours

Description: The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out. 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.  

I Give This ...

It's hard to write a review for a book that had elements that your really liked but also had some that your really hated.  It's especially difficult when one storyline is really intricate to the other.  I often felt like my dislike for a portion of the story was spilling over into what I did like.

I admired Kira's determination to do all she can to find a cure for the RM virus.  She's willing to go the extra mile to get the resources she thinks might help her find the answers.  But, she can't possibly be the first to think of this.  Makes me wonder how deep the control goes in the higher ups.  I liked how she has friends that are just as determined as she is.  And we're not talking about people in lower circles of society.  These are all teens that are connects, have important positions, etc.  Yet, they are willing to risk it all because they don't like what the world has become.

I really liked the idea behind this society, even though I felt like areas weren't really well explained at times.  But, I think we get just enough to get a little bit of a grip of what's really going on now.  And what might have happened in the past.  I was completely fascinated with that idea that we created robots to fight for and in turn the killed off most of the human race.  Totally plausible in my book.  I found the RM virus interesting.  But, I think that explanation of how it worked didn't make much sense.  It felt like it was trying to be scientific sounding, but came across as anything but.

So what bothered me?  It lies completely with the idea of mandatory pregnancy.  The way it was presented in this book just really got to me.  Women are REQUIRED to be pregnant at least once a year.  And they don't care how you do it.  The idea of being forced to have baby, fully knowing that it's going to die is just awful.  And most of the time the don't care a thing about the mother and how she reacts to all of this.   They study each infant like it's a science experiment and not a baby that could have had a future.  The common thought is that enough babies are born, maybe one of them will survive.  Not a society I would want to live in.

So, read with caution.  I might be the only one who reacted that strongly to the idea of being forced to have children that way.  Maybe it's because I'm a mom myself.