Book Review :: Pure, by Julianna Baggott

Pure by Julianna Baggott
Published by Grand Central Publishing
on February 8th 2012
Pages: 431
Goodreads

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.

Last updated on 19 January 2022

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About Pure by Julianna Baggott

I actually read Pure by Julianna Baggott in Large Print, which was a bit odd really. It felt as if I was reading the book really fast because I turned the page every few seconds, but at the same time, it had a lot more pages (551!!) than a normal print sized book. The physical book was also larger, which meant it was super heavy in my bag.

Pressia lives outside the Dome; Partridge lives inside. Pressia lives with her grandfather in a small building that used to be a barber’s shop, back before the detonations.

Partridge lives inside the Dome with his father – who doesn’t pay him any attention and who doesn’t seem to mourn or care that Partridge’s mother died in the detonations – remembering his brother who died years before.

The detonations happened years ago; a worldwide explosion of nanotechnology that blasted the earth and fused humans with their surroundings, but kept those who were lucky enough to be inside the Dome, safe.

The story follows Pressia as she tries to escape from the soldiers who come after her on her 16th birthday to put her into soilder training, and Partridge, who escapes from the Dome to the outside.

Their paths cross and as Pressia is avoiding legal requirements and Partridge is trying to find his mother, but will be killed on the outside because he doesn’t know how things are, they are on the run together. They, with Bradwell, a young man near where Pressia lives who decides to help them, discover all sorts of things about the Dome, about people wanting to rebel against the Pures, about the detonations and the science and people behind them, and about family members who end up playing a large role.

My thoughts on Pure by Julianna Baggott

What I found really amazing was Baggott’s imagination. It’s incredible! The detonations caused humans to be ‘fused’ with whatever was around them, touching them, or being held by them, at the time of the explosion. So Bradwell, for example, was running through a flock of birds, and now has live birds fused in his back, all still alive and…flapping. Pressia, as a young child, was holding a doll at the time, so one of her hands has been fused with the doll’s head. Other characters are fused with actual humans. Amazing imagination!

One thing that I didn’t really enjoy, but I think that I got used to after a while, was that it was, much like Unwind, in the present tense. I find it harder to get into a book normally if it’s written like this, but I think because this story was so good, it didn’t affect it too much after a few chapters. It is also written from different characters’ perspectives, a chapter to this character, the next to another etc, which I quite like.

With interesting characters who have depth and …well, character, soldiers who have guns fused into their arms, mechanical locusts, poisonous food, a fancy car, and a man called El Capitan, Pure was a great read with a mild cliffhanger ending. I do recommend it (just like Good Reads recommended it to me) and I can’t wait to read the next one…which apparently comes out in February.