Kira Walker has found the cure for RM, but the battle for the survival of humans and Partials is just beginning. Kira has left East Meadow in a desperate search for clues to who she is. That the Partials themselves hold the cure for RM in their blood cannot be a coincidence—it must be part of a larger plan, a plan that involves Kira, a plan that could save both races. Her companions are Afa Demoux, an unhinged drifter and former employee of ParaGen, and Samm and Heron, the Partials who betrayed her and saved her life, the only ones who know her secret. But can she trust them?
Meanwhile, back on Long Island, what’s left of humanity is gearing up for war with the Partials, and Marcus knows his only hope is to delay them until Kira returns. But Kira’s journey will take her deep into the overgrown wasteland of postapocalyptic America, and Kira and Marcus both will discover that their greatest enemy may be one they didn’t even know existed.
I enjoyed Partials, but I didn't think it was all that great so I went into Fragments hoping for something more thought-out and a faster pace. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Fragments was actually a little slower than the first book and as a whole was actually less enjoyable. This book comes in at over 550 pages and I forced myself through so much of it - there were some parts that seemed like they could have been cut down or totally edited out and so many parts where the pace just dragged. If I had to use one word to describe the pace of Fragments it's sluggish, very very sluggish...
It's not that I didn't enjoy this book, it's just that so many things seemed irrelevant and whilst the action scenes were fantastically written, there just weren't enough of them. The world-building was all done in Partials so you'd expect the second book to be all business but there is just too many pages about Kira and company trudging through wasteland and rivers and not enough action, or mystery or romance. Still, I'm very glad to see the romance between Kira and Samm finally become obvious.
The characters were either fantastic (Ariel, Haru) or awful (Kira, Afa), I said before that Kira seemed too perfect, and too clever and I carry on that complaint. I hate overly intelligent people who don't seem to have any flawed and unfortunately Kira just rubs me up the wrong way, Afa also seemed completely pointless and just seemed to be in the book to add some moral conflict. I did however really enjoy reading the other side of things and following Marcus, Ariel and Haru.
There were some plot-holes that I have to raise though - Kira is totally clueless when it comes to technology since it was all rendered useless when she was a kid, and this is often shown however at some points she's using techy words totally confidently... as well as that, Isolde's baby is born at the end of the book and due to certain spoiler-y circumstances is born with an odd strain of RM, however these spoiler-y circumstances would have also occured when Ariel had her baby at the start of Partials... so how come her baby didn't show the odd strain of RM?
Overall, Fragments was a let-down for me. I may still read the third book, but I won't have high hopes for it, since Fragments was so sluggish, and none of the main characters really did it for me.
Book released 28th March 2013 by HarperCollins Children's Books
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Partials (Partials #1)
Ooh, too bad. I have yet to read the first book in the series but everyone seemed to have liked it. However, I can not stand sluggish books, I have very little patience aha. Plot holes too? Blah. Thanks for an honest review!
ReplyDeleteAlise @ Readers In Wonderland
Awh, too bad! I am super excited to start the series because people really liked Partials. I will have to curb my enthusiasm a little, I am overly-excited way too often and then let down.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will like the third book more!