Audiobook Review – Ruins (Partials, Book 3) by Dan Wells (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic
Length: 12 hours and 40 minutes (464 pages)
Publisher: HarperAudio
Release Date: March 11, 2014
ASIN: B00I8PJLUY
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in The Paritals series
Source: Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the final book in the Partials series. It was a decent ending, for the most part I enjoyed it. Things do start off a bit slow though.

I listened to this on audiobook, the audiobook is well done. The narrator does an excellent job with all the different character voices and conveys emotion well. I enjoyed listening to this.

There are spoilers ahead from previous books for those who haven’t read those.

Kira is working with Dr. Morgan to try and find out if her DNA holds the secret to cure Expiration Date. Meanwhile Samm is across the country doing what he can to awaken the Partials that were put in a coma and used save the humans from RM. Everyone comes together in this book in a struggle to prevent another all out war between the Partials and Humans and to save both species from extinction.

For the most part this book is very well done. My biggest complaint is that things start out very slow. Kira is hanging out with Dr. Morgan and obviously not finding any answers there…time passes and passes. Samm is helping rehabilitate some of the Partials that were in a coma for 10 years, he wants to leave and find Kira but also wants to fulfill his promise to stay and help the humans cure RM. Both Kira and Samm seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern.

We spend a lot less time with Kira and Samm as the story continues. There are many different POVs throughout the story. We hear a lot from Marcus and also from Ariel. I didn’t really like how having so many POVs broke up the story. However, I understand why it was written that way. All the multiple POVs do an excellent job of portraying the chaos that this world is going through. They help to broaden the story and let the reader see what is going on at multiple locations at once.

Samm has grown quite a bit as a character throughout the series. Marcus has as well. Kira still feels the need to run headfirst into the most dangerous situation possible, no matter the consequences (even the other characters in the book make fun of this). One character we also see a lot more of is Heron, she has always been kind of mysterious so it was very interesting to learn more about her.

I also enjoyed the inclusion of a new fish-like type of Partial and the crazy Blood Man. Both added a lot of mystery and interesting twists and turns to the plotline. Most of the story is wrapped up well, although there are some questions that remain unanswered.

Overall this was a decent end to this series. This was another end to a dystopian/post-apocalyptic series that made me feel like “eh, well I am glad that series is over with”. I didn’t really love the ending, I didn’t hate it either. I enjoyed some of the new plot elements, but thought the pacing varied a lot throughout. This is definitely a decent post-apocalyptic series, so I would recommend this series as a whole if you are a fan of those kind of books.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Series Reading Challenge
– Chunkster Reading Challenge (450+ pages)
– Audio Book Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge