Book: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Published September 2012 by Grand Central Publishing|431 pages

Where I Got It: borrowed a copy

Series: Pure #1

Genre: YA-ish Dystopic/Post-Apocalyptic

You can find Pure on goodreads & Julianna Baggott on twitter, facebook and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters…

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost–how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash…

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked: Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss–maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it’s his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

What I Thought:

I really liked Pure!  I wasn’t sure about it at first, but as I kept reading, I became more and more fascinated by this world.  I mean, the Detonations happened, and people are fused to whatever happened to be near them when they happened.  Like fans or doll heads…and for some mothers, their children are fused to them.  It’s an odd, scary world, and it’s one I wouldn’t want to live in.

This world is so vividly dark and oppressive and horrible, and the fact that some people are okay just because they happen to be in the Dome- at least, okay in the sense that they don’t have this damaged bodies.  I feel like there’s so much more to this world than what we get in this book.  I’m definitely intrigued enough to keep reading the series- not right away, as this series can wait, but I’m intrigued enough to keep going.

Pure was hard to get into at first, because I wasn’t quite sure what was going on- and it does take some time to get into the book.  Once things get going, it was pretty interesting, even though I wasn’t completely sure why bombs were dropped, and why it’s so important that the earth regenerate itself.  I’m not sure if I missed something, or it wasn’t explained, or if it’s something we’re getting in the other books in the series.

I’m also not sure about the multiple narrators- I actually didn’t mind that Pressia and Partridge narrated, as the story focuses on them.  You really got a sense of what things were like and how different things were, depending on whether you were in the dome or not.  Every once in a while, you’d get a chapter from one of the other characters, which made it interesting, because you got all of these different perspectives.  At the same time, it meant that there was a lot to keep up with, and that made the story a little less enjoyable.

I think this book leans more towards the adult end of the spectrum, but at the same time, I think it’s something older teens would like to.  So it’s kind of YA, but it’s kind of adult too.

Let’s Rate It:

I really liked Pure, more than I thought I would!  I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series, because I’m curious about quite a few things.  Pure gets 4 stars.