Book Review of "Pure" by Julianna Baggott

Title: Pure (Pure #1)
Author: Julianna Baggott
Classification: YA Fiction, Dystopian, Science Fiction
Source: eARC from the publisher

To be published on February 8th, 2012

Overall Grade:

A-

Recommended to...
Those in need of a chilling, yet beautiful dystopian.


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Summary (from 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.

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My Thoughts:

Haunting. This is the first word that comes to mind after reading Pure.

While this dystopian can be considered an almost political message on the atrocity of nuclear warfare, the narrative is really about the effects that nuclear warfare has had on each individual in society. Each individual in Pure, whether they were protected by the Dome or not, has had a sometimes literal and physical burden placed on their backs by the catastrophe that disfigured society inside and out.

Because of the serious and devastating effects of the Detonations, the tone of Pure is often bleak and even horrifying at times. However, there are several bright moments of extreme, haunting beauty, mostly coming from the relationships between the truly remarkable characters in this story.

The narrative in Pure is not just about the two protagonists, Partridge and Pressia. Rather, because the story is told in the 3rd person, the author was able to include two other narrators as well: El Capitan and Lyda. The minor characters in this novel were almost more interesting to me than the two protagonists, especially Bradwell and El Capitan.

The most surprising aspect of this dystopian is probably the depth of characterization that we see amidst a thrilling and violent plot. The grotesque nature of many of the characters added to this deep characterization, I feel. The individuals who were outside of the Dome when the Detonations took place were fused to whatever creatures, people, or objects that were near them at the time and are now referred to as wretches by the Pures who live inside the Dome.

For instance, El Capitan was with his younger brother Helmud at the time of detonation and is now forced to carry his younger brother on his back for the rest of his life. This bizarre character trait only adds to El Capitan's character, who ended up being one of my favorites from the novel.

Rather than take away from the rest of the narrative and the personality traits of each person, these bizarre character traits only help to maintain the deep effects of the Detonations and how they have shaped each individual character in the story.

This story contained more layers than the average dystopian novel today. While the plot was thrilling and the world fascinatingly bizarre, how these characters relate to one another in an incredibly bleak social setting is profound and moving.

I could not tear myself away from this book.

Read this book if you wish to encounter a story of rare emotion and thrill that sets itself apart from other novels in this often-saturated genre!
 
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Overall Grade:

A-

Recommended to...
Those in need of a chilling, yet beautiful dystopian.


Add to Goodreads | Pre-order from Amazon

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