Ruins (Partials Sequence # 3) by Dan Wells Review

Name: Ruins (Partials Sequence # 3)

Authors: Dan Wells

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: March 11th, 2014

Format: ARC copy
Buy the book on Amazon
464 pages

Summary:
Kira, Samm, and Marcus fight to prevent a final war between Partials and humans in the gripping final installment in the Partials Sequence, a series that combines the thrilling action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Blade Runner and The Stand.

There is no avoiding it—the war to decide the fate of both humans and Partials is at hand. Both sides hold in their possession a weapon that could destroy the other, and Kira Walker has precious little time to prevent that from happening. She has one chance to save both species and the world with them, but it will only come at great personal cost.

Goodreads

My Review:

The Partials series has always been a solid one for me: none of the books have ever been “the best” or “the worst.” They have simply just been good, and reliably good at that. There are parts with action, parts with dialogue, parts with romance, and parts with character development, and Dan Wells has excelled at writing all of those parts in a manner that genuinely makes you want to keep reading. This last book was no exception.

Kira is one of the most underrated heroines I have ever come into contact with in a YA book. She’s intelligent, she’s quick on her feet, and she knows what she’s capable of. Sure, sometimes she thinks that she alone can save the world, but are her thoughts really so self-involved if she actually can save the world? More importantly, Kira really cares about those around her. Whether she loves them, hates them, or simply sees them as allies, she tries to do whatever she can to keep everyone alive. She was a delight to read about.

This book really focused on the fascinating apocalyptic world that Dan Wells created. There was still a significant amount of character development, especially when it came to Marcus, but for me this book was more about how everyone could possibly survive all the horrific incidents that had happened. All the deaths, all the backstabbing, and all the failures really came to light in this final book. It was interesting to meet some of the original players in the creation of the Partials, especially because they had become so far out of touch with reality by the time they met the main characters. Wells did a particularly wonderful job of creating these three-dimensional characters, though I do wish he would have played them, and their plot lines, up a bit more.

In the end, I really did enjoy this series as a whole. While there was no spark of lightning that I sometimes feel when I know a book is never going to leave my head, at the same time there was no moment that I thought any of these books were too boring and that I would have to put them down. And, to be honest, I would rather be thoroughly engaged in an entire series than feel that amazing spark in the first book, only to find it extinguished in the subsequent books. Wells did a great job of creating such a wonderful world and such engaging characters, and I look forward to reading more books by him in the future.

My Rating: