Early Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure is a novel by Julianna Baggott and a YA Dystopian from Grand Central Publishing.


Book Blurb:


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. 


My thoughts:


Pressia Belze lives in the burned out rubble of the Detonations.  The air is filled with ash, the water tainted, food inedible.  The animals have mutated - so have the survivors.  But survive they have.


Off in the distance is the Dome and inside that Dome are the Pures.  People who escaped the Detonations - escaped the mutations.  They live in comfort, untainted by the outside world.  No one leaves the Dome - and no one is let inside.


Partridge Willux is one of the Pure’s living inside the Dome, his father one of the Dome’s creators.  On that terrible day of Detonation, Partridge and his brother were already inside the Dome - so was their father.  Sadly, their mother did not make it inside.
At least, that is what Partridge has been told.  


But now he’s not so sure - and if his mother is outside the Dome - she might still be alive.  Partridge is determined to find out the truth - and that means leaving the Dome.


Pressia can’t believe when she hears that a Pure has left the Dome.  Why would they do such a thing?  When she sees Partridge, Pressia feels compelled to help him - a Pure is not suited for the outside world - especially the world after Detonation.


Pure is a fabulous read   


Ms Baggott has created a world full of unbelievable heart break, populated with courageous survivors determined to live despite the environment surrounding them daily.


Pure is a very intense read, made even more so by the fact that the mutations are based, in part, on actual accounts of the devastation of the atomic bomb.


I give Pure 5 out of 5 stars.




Product Details
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (2-8-12)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1455503061
ISBN-13: 978-1455503063