Partials

Long Island, N.Y., is the last outpost of humanity in adult author Wells’s (the John Cleaver series) YA debut. Wells prefers immediate impact to consistent world-building (for instance, the skin of corpses in a rat- and rot-infested apartment building has somehow been preserved), but it’s an intriguing world nonetheless. Weakened by war with an engineered life form, the Partials, humanity was knocked out by RM, a virus that the few survivors have been unable to cure or breed an immunity to. Every baby born since “the Break” has died, and a desperate government has mandated reproduction, hoping for a miracle. Kira, a 16-year-old medic, is tired of death and terrified of forced fertility. When her friend Maddy conceives, Kira concocts a plan to capture a Partial and use its biological material to find a cure. She’s not prepared for the shocking humanity of her target, Samm, or for what she learns about herself. Though long on historical description and political debates, readers who enjoy SF-oriented postapocalyptic stories will relish this one. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger Inc. (Mar.)