Pure Review

448 pages

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.

Review (ARC):  
From the very first few pages of this book my imagination was freaked out. Julianna Baggott does such a great job of describing the characters in this book that its hard not to picture them in your mind. This is a novel that mostly concentrates on the lives of people after a nuclear apocalypse. If you weren't in the Dome then you didn't escape being marked in some way. And when I say marked I mean horrific mutations, like objects or people becoming part of you. Pressia is an impressively strong character despite life outside the Dome. Regardless of her ability to survive, her one weakness is the fact that she's ashamed of her deformity and she badly wants a normal life inside the Dome. Partridge on the other hand grew up in the Dome so its interesting to see the lies that they are told inside the Dome and his view on the world when he finally gets out. This novel is packed with action and full of all kinds of danger and unexpected surprises. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new dystopian novel to read.