By Dan Wells, published by Harper Collins.

Kira found the cure for RM- the disease that kills human babies after three days of life. But without a Partial to extract the cure from, the doctors at the East Meadow hospital are unable to replicate the cure, so babies are still dying. On top of that, Kira has become friends with the Partial Samm who has only a year left before he ‘expires’ and dies.       Kira’s stepmother Nandita left and never came back at the end of Partials, leaving behind a photo with a note on it: Find the Trust. Determined to find out who she really is, who ‘the Trust’ are, and to find out how to replicate the RM cure and stop the expiration dates on the Partials, Kira begins a terrifying journey through the toxic, abandoned wastelands of America to seek answers.

After seriously enjoying the first in this sequence, Partials, (Review HERE) I couldn’t wait for this sequel! Right from the beginning I was totally hooked in. There was a time gap between the ending of Partials and the start of Fragments, but that made it even more interesting and made me want to read on, because I wanted to discover what had happened.

The plot was really great and I enjoyed every single second of it. Although about three quarters of this book (which is a lot- this is over 550 pages!) was just Kira, Samm, Heron and Afa (a new character) travelling through the deserted wasteland that used to be the U.S.A., the author managed to avoid repetition and the reader reaching boredom by cleverly throwing in some unexpected action and natural disasters. He also broke up their journey by adding in chapters with Marcus (Kira’s boyfriend back in her hometown) as he went through his own times of danger with the invasions of Partials and a raging war re-starting. I really enjoyed the switching of scenes! In Fragments, the settings were even more vivid, and even more terrifying. I really loved them- the backdrop for the Partials sequence is the most brilliant vision of the future I have ever read!

I also found it ingenious that, at the end of Partials, there was about fifty pages of emails and letters to and from members of ParaGen: the people who created the Partials, the artificial humans. I read them yet didn’t quite know how they connected to the story, but it was really clever how they actually belonged to a character who made his appearance in this book. Reading back on those letters in the first book, it really made some connections clearer in Fragments.

I absolutely adored Kira’s dedication and determination to unite the Partials and the Humans and save both of the doomed races. She is a really unique protagonist, who was ready to forgive the Partials for their rebellion and try to save them- she was the first ever person on the new Earth to volunteer for that. Even when, towards the end, when she had the key to the cure for RM in her hands, she didn’t take it just because it was unfair to the Partial race because it would mean putting them all in a comatose state and experimenting on them. She had real guts and courage, not only for that, but also for crossing the whole American continent when it was full of constant acid rainstorms, and flooding, and so many more terrors. I also liked her shaky friendship between Heron and Kira, because although negative, it changed the course of the plot at points and made for some riveting plot twists at the end of the book. I came to really love the character of Samm- I hadn’t liked him much in Partials, but he really developed a personality in this one. He also did such an unpredictable thing at the ending which will probably cause many problems in the third book… he kissed Kira, knowing she had a human boyfriend back at East Meadow. That annoyed me only because Kira kissed him back- where’s her loyalty for Marcus gone, when he was doing so much to save her and not give her location away to the Partials who want to kill her?

Overall, I really loved this sequel. It was full of thrilling plot twists, and the many deaths brought tears to my eyes- Dan Wells has packed so much emotion into this powerful book. I thought it would be a dragged out story when I saw it had about 560 pages, but it was absolutely brilliant and I devoured it in about a day and a half. Recommended, but be sure to read Partials first!

By Dan Wells, published by Harper Collins.

Kira Walker lives in the world of the 2060’s: where there are only 36,000 people left on the planet. The artificial humans, the Partials, were meant to just win the Isolation war… but they got out of the US’s control and wiped out 99.96% of the planet’s population with the RM virus. Now, the remnants of the human race are all residing on one island, but the youngest citizen is fourteen. Babies only last three days before dying, as they are not born immune, but in a desperate plan to revive the human race women are forced to have one baby a year, in the hope that one might be born with instant immunity to the RM virus, Admist all of the attacks by the terrorists who go by the name of ‘The Voice’, Kira is a sixteen year old medic who is getting more heartbroken by the day watching babies die in the maternity ward. When her best friend falls pregnant, she knows she must save Madison’s baby, along with the rest- she can’t stand any more deaths. An epic adventure follows, for Kira and her friends… but can she really find a cure for the virus, when the enemy is holding the secret to it?

I noticed that the sequel to Partials would be out soon, and realized that I still haven’t gotten round to reading this, Partials,  I picked it up straightaway. I wasn’t all too sure what I was in for, but I was drawn in right from the first page. The death of a non-immune baby on the first page really shocked me, and created instant questions in my head- Why did he die? What happened? I was totally engrossed throughout, too! The plot was cleverly written with some great and unpredictable twists- especially the Partials involvement in the RM virus. Also, I loved the medical detail and accuracy in this book- I’d normally get lightheaded at a slight mention of blood, but the author has made Kira’s medical-breakthrough scenes really, really interesting. In fact, the medical elements made this story scarily realistic!

Kira was a very bold and confident protagonist. I absolutely loved her personality and her determination right from the start, and understood all of the choices she made, especially the one about her relationship with Marcus at the end (Although I was almost crying at that point. Gosh, it was so heart-breaking!). She was well-developed, with realistic and believable emotions. I also loved the characters of her friends- Haru and the others who went all the way to Manhattan to get a Partial with her, as well as Madison, whose pregnancy was the thing that made Kira decide she would be the one to cure RM. Also, the character of Isolde was pregnant at the end, but she seemed to get forgotten about. I want to know if her baby was immunized or not, so I hope that’s shown in the sequel.

Partials was, in all, a brilliant read. I loved all of the characters, and even had a soft spot for the Partial they captured- Samm. The plot was scary and with some great dystopian elements… Dan Wells has created one of the most terrifying apocalyptic visions of the world I have ever seen, and I can’t wait to read more, in the sequel (Fragments), and the e-Book novella!