Pure

Where do I even start in my love for this book? Seriously. I picked up Pure on a whim, on a hunch that the cover was holding something immensely interesting, and I was dead on. Julianna Baggott doesn't just rehash the same old dystopia that is thrown around so often in young adult fiction. Far from it. What you'll find here, hidden in the pages of Pure, is a romp into the gritty and very realistic lives of those who survived the Detonations. It isn't pretty my friends, but it's fascinating.

Pressia's dystopian home is imagined and described beautifully. Baggott lures the reader into a world that has been torn apart. Whole towns leveled to the ground. People who are fused to inanimate objects, or worse yet, their own loved ones. What show more really comes through more than anything else here is the haunted existence that these survivors live. They've come to terms with who they are now, but so many of them cling to their remembrances of the "the Before" to stay sane. Those who survived only did so because they gave up a part of themselves. The hurt, the anguish, the spark of survival, Baggott shares it all with us through this dark and desolate world she puts her characters into.

In terms of the characters, I really enjoyed them all. From the Pressia, all the way down to the normal townspeople, each character is built lovingly and realistically. Pressia is a character who is hard not to fall for. Despite her self acknowledged flaws, she won't give up on herself or her companions. When things get tough, we meet Bradwell and Partridge. Bradwell is the epitome of what a survivor is. Never getting too close to anyone else. Until, that is, he meets Pressia. Partridge is a gorgeous mirror to the ugliness that surrounds Pressia and Bradwell. With his perfect clothes and skin, his enhanced DNA, he becomes the odd man out. However it is only by working together that these three can ultimately save themselves, and those around them.

I'm rambling I know. That's how much I enjoyed Pure. So much that I can't quite put into words how much I loved it. The action in this book is copious, the world is beautifully built, the characters are strong and lovable. Everything about Pure is new, refreshing and amazing. I've read dystopian fiction. I love dystopian fiction. It is because of this that I can say that Pure far outshines everything else I've read in this genre so far. If you are okay with a bit of grit in your reading, pick up Julianna Baggott's new book and prepare to be sucked in. show less

Pure is a dystopian tale with a post nuclear apocalyptic setting in which some people were saved and sheltered by a dome built in anticipation of the nuclear attack, but most weren't. Outside the dome, most people who survived are either maimed in some way and or fused to whatever they were near at the time of the explosions. Pressia, a young girl on the outside, has a plastic doll's head where her right hand should be. Her friend, has living birds fused into his back. {the author's creations here are wonderfully Miéville-eske!)

To both sets of people, the other is just that 'other', neither really knows the other - only what they have heard, or been taught. Outside the dome it's a rough world and survival is the story; inside the Dome show more life is comfortable and controlled. When Partridge, a young man in the Dome, learns his mother might still be alive on the outside, he finds a way to escape. Eventually, as one might expect, he connects up with Pressia and the two join forces in what become common cause. They are joined by others.

I'm not going to belabor the plot summary here. I'm not particularly a reader of YA fiction, though I have read some. I am however a reader of Julianna Baggott (I've read all of her adult fiction and her three volumes of poetry) and a fan of dystopian fiction. Pure is a clever, surprisingly complex adventure tale with pretty much non-stop action (and here is where I remember what a snoozer I thought Never Let Me Go was...). It's decidedly addicting. No magic wands to solve any problems here! And, damn, it's nice to read about girl action heroes...

The book is fairly complete in itself, despite being the first part in a trilogy. That is, if you think you will be able to stop at just that one. show less

Julianna Baggott’s gripping and stunningly imaginative dystopia provides an immersive experience that guarantees we understand the horrific results of the “detonations” that destroyed the world.

This dark tale is full of characters who physically fused with their surroundings during the heat of the bombs. These were no ordinary bombs but nanotech-enhanced weapons that disrupted molecular structures. That means there are now people who are part bicycle, or flecked with glass, or even fused with one another. The heroine of the story, Pressia, was 7 at the time of the detonations, and because she was holding a doll at the time, one of her hands now is the doll’s head.

When the story begins, Pressia is just about to turn 16, an age at show more which all citizens must turn themselves over to OSR, or Operation Sacred Revolution, the organization that now rules the city. OSR claims it is training people to take over the Dome, an experimental environment constructed before the Detonations. The Dome was intended to provide sustainable living in the event of nuclear or biological attacks or environmental disasters. Those who happened to be inside of the Dome at the time of the Detonations are the only ones who survived intact, and are known by those outside the Dome as “Pures.” Those outside are known as “wretches.”

Most Wretches believe that the Pures are a benevolent, godlike group, who are only waiting until it is safe to come out of the Dome and rescue those on the outside. But then Pressia meets Bradwell, a brooding, intense, attractive boy about her age with scars on his face, and birds fused into his back. He teaches an underground course called “Shadow History,” in which he reveals disturbing information about how and why the Detonations really happened, and how and why some got into the Dome and some didn’t.

In addition to Pressia, a Wretch, the book also follows the story of Partridge, one of the Pures. Partridge’s father, Ellery Willux, is one of the most powerful men in the Dome, but Partridge perceives him as evil, and wants to escape the Dome and find out the truth about what happened to the world and to his mother, who never made it into the Dome.

In the meanwhile, things are heating up on the outside. The OSR is increasing its schedule of “death sprees,” which is when they let soldiers form tribes for 24 hours and compete to kill people, the idea being to winnow the weak from the general population. They also are increasing neighborhood patrols, and in particular, they seem to be looking specifically for Pressia.

Pressia, Partridge, and Bradwell are about to have their worlds collide, and in the process, everything they thought they knew will get upended.

Discussion: There is not one aspect of this book that is not stimulating. The author has taken the usual dystopia format and transformed it with China-Mieville-imaginative style, turning it into a nightmarish landscape with astounding creativity.

The horrors of the pre-Detonation world are not overlooked by Baggott either. Of particular note is the “Feminine Feminists” movement, advocating dedication to home and family, whose female members must be covered head to toe in whole-body hosery.

Baggott’s story poses many questions, including: What happens to the human spirit when the world has gotten so deformed? Can love and goodness survive a world turned dark and brutal? At what point does hope seem quixotic? This book offers up a rich array of answers through some unforgettable characters.

Evaluation: Although this is only the first of a trilogy, I would not hesitate to read this book as soon as you can get your hands on it. It is head-and-shoulders above most of the other dystopias you will read, and one of the most unique stories generally I have read in a long time. show less

I received this book for review from Netgalley upon request. When I started reading it however, I wasn't very thrilled with it. I figured the reasons were two:
1. Because of the narration voice. It's third person PRESENT tense. I have never read a novel written from this perspective and it sounded distant. As if I was listening to a National Geographic film on the lives of antelopes and baboons. It just made me feel like I was miles away from the action, looking at the characters from binoculars as a silent spectator and nothing more. It was only after I finished reading the book that I figured the importance of this distance. It gives perspective of the characters that the close narration may otherwise obscure. I looked at Partridge, show more Pressia and Bradwell from afar, but I think I got to know them on a deeper level that I thought I would. It was as if the characters revealed themselves on their own, without the help of the narrator. And in my opinion, that was superb work.
2. The world-building wasn't what you usually see in a dystopan novel. The books of this genre that I've read always talk about perfect people. Yeah, they suffer through hunger and government control, but otherwise there's nothing wrong with them. They're beautiful, strong and unaltered in any way. "Pure" is the first novel I read that actually describes damage. It's grotesque, it's scary, it's really totally sad, but it feels true. After a war, there are casualties, though we never usually see them. There are maimed people, dead people, damaged people. Here, the majority of the population is suffering from the Detonations that almost ended the world. We see the casualties, we see the sick, we see the fused. It's tragic. At times it's too much, because it makes you think that it feels real. Too real.

There were lots of twists and turns, unpredicted most of the time, which was great because nowadays it's really easy to guess what's going on. Here, there was suspense and I really liked that. I loved the story, even though the beginning felt kind of burdensome. After the 10% though that changed. I started seeing the point of all the hiding, the action, the scheming. It was interesting and entertaining.

The difference between the Domed world and the world outside was clear cut. There was a solid line between the two which made it obvious that what was inside, what was pure and protected, hid evil, coldness and corruption. While the outside world, though it was grotesque, obliterated and sick, hid beauty, life and virtue. I liked that. One particular quote stuck to my mind. It goes like this "Beauty, you can find it here if you look hard enough."

Each of the characters started out on a mission of his or her own. One wanted to hide, another to escape. Each one only cared for themselves. They had their vision on the world in and the world out. Whether right or wrong, they didn't know, but they planned to explore it. In the end, they weren't separate people anymore. They were together, working for a common cause. Because they knew that one can't do much, but when there are more, anything could be accomplished.

The characters:
*Partridge - I never got the feeling that he was a spoiled child. He acted mature from the very beginning. True, he didn't see some obvious things, but not everyone can. I loved how close he kept the memory of his mother. It felt intimate and precious.

*Pressia - she was a just a girl. Yet, she was also strong, stubborn and self-dependent. She wanted to be normal, pure, beautiful. And who could blame her? Don't we all want that? She wanted to live in a nice house, with her parents around, to have a pet and to go to school. All things that we have and never pay attention to. It's when we lose them that they start to matter.

*Bradwell - I think he was my favorite from the beginning. I loved his passion, loved his birds, loved his toughness. He was a guy with a spirit of survival. He was dead, so he could live.

*El Capitan and Helmud - I kept on thinking that Helmud isn't just a moron, and was pleasantly surprised to see him think on his own.

Even the minor characters were important, and I hope that I'll see more of them in the next novel.
All I can say is that it's a great read, intense and full of sadness. It's dark and deep and real. If you have a weak heart, it isn't for you. It's for strong people who realize the importance of life, sympathy and love. show less

adult sci-fi (teen-friendly). Sort of an extra dark/twisty Hunger Games, with the priveleged living safe in the Dome and everyone else left to be suffer as Wretches and Dusts and Beasts and such. I need to request the second book from my library right away.

When the Detonations were released, the Dome went up to protect the lucky - or, some say, the rich and powerful - and those outside were left to heal as best they can. Everyone outside, like Pressia and her grandfather, have fused with something and survive as best they can. Those inside don't have it all perfect either, however, as we find out from Partridge, a boy who doesn't quite take to the "enhancements" being done at his school and whose father is in power but doesn't seem to like him much.

The third-person present-tense narration takes us between several perspectives, but most often those of Pressia and Partridge. While those outside think the Dome represents safety and some inside - like Partridge - find it stiflingly show more controlled, the reader can see just how messed up this society is. The strong worldbuilding carries the story well even through some chancy plot twists, and left me interested enough to try the next book in the series. show less

PURE has the distinction of being one of the most hyped books of early 2012. Film rights, a massive auction and a huge advance to the author, a great deal of talk from every corner of the publishing community. As a book that straddles the line between YA and traditional adult fiction, PURE has a lot going for it on paper. And the idea for the book itself is wonderful. I read the synopsis and knew immediately that I needed to read the book. But the moment I turned on my kindle and started reading, I ran into a large number of issues that damaged my reading experience.

The story of a young girl named Pressia, a victim of the Detonations left with a doll’s head fused in place of her hand, and Partridge, a boy raised in the Dome, PURE is a show more post-apocalyptic, science fiction-heavy adventure story. On page one I realized immediately that PURE was going to have a lot of one thing – description. Baggott is a wonderful descriptive writer, with a great attention to detail and imagery that leaps off the page. When description is not accompanied by plot, though, it becomes boring very quickly. We are treated to pages of descriptive passages of deformities and the wastelands after the Detonations, but it wasn’t until 50% in exactly for me that anything began to happen. When a book takes over 200 pages to reach a firm start to the book, it’s not a good sign.

Where PURE suffered was pacing. For me, it took 75% of the book before we get to the real chunk of the story with break-neck action, real character development, and the revelation of plenty of things I had begun to suspect. In fact, a lot of the twists were obvious and convenient while others were definitely awesome and took me by surprise. Pressia, Partridge, and their comrades are for the most part very well written, strong characters. For the most part. Secondary characters, though, often faded into the background or simply served as set dressing. Some even seemed like flat caricatures created from clichés, and others were there and gone without any real purpose. I also felt that the two additional points of view besides the important leads Pressia and Partridge – the POVs of El Capitan and Lyda – detracted from the narrative, especially since neither brought much to the table besides access to additional intrigue that the reader did not need to know.

The world building for me was standard YA-level post-apocalyptic dystopian world building. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atomic blast did not create anywhere near the level of mutations caused, leaving me scratching my head, especially after Hiroshima is mentioned (also, if you ever visit Japan, Hiroshima is a very lovely city – try the okonomiyaki!). If you are a victim of a nuclear bomb, three things might happen – you’ll die a quick and painless death, you’ll die of radiation poisoning (either a few days or weeks later, or maybe even months or years thanks to cancer) and it will hurt, or you’ll be lucky and just have a lot of burns or be crushed by a building you’re in. Fun times.

(I have been told that I need to stop poking holes in this, that this is a book and not real life, but still, I think people have a right to know that a nuclear bomb isn’t going to fuse them to their cat or their beloved cardboard cutout of Edward Cullen. But in case you are curious, click HERE to learn more about surviving a nuclear bomb.)

However, this book is extremely thought provoking, particularly aspects of the culture inside the dome and the role of women in their society. It definitely drives to the heart examining gender roles, and also the way that human beings cope in the face of danger. Picturing myself in their situation, I don’t know how I’d have made it either way. Being fused to my computer would totally suck, and having to breathe through a fan in my throat? No thanks!

I will definitely be reading book 2 if only to see what Baggott can think up next, but I hope her editor helps her cut down on a lot of the random excess description. If this book had been more about plot and the progression of the story rather than about description, it would have been five very enthusiastic stars.

VERDICT: Bogged down with too much description and attention to detail, PURE’s wonderful premise and interesting characters are overshadowed by the world they live in – which is rarely a good thing. show less