Puro

Too much detail. Not enough story. Just couldn't care about the characters. The idea of the story has potential but would be much better with tighter editing.

I thought this was a wonderful book. Its description was really vivid and the story was solid. I would love to see this be made into a movie because I think the landscape would just be fantastic.

I never thought I would reach a point where I would say 'you know what, maybe I've read enough post-apocalypictic dytopias for a bit'. But maybe I have. This is likeable and readable. The author sidesteps the obvious love triangle in a pleasing way. It reminds me of Harry Potter, in that much of the plot of the protagonists is shaped by the story of their parents, which neither they nor the reader fully knows yet. I remain slightly divided about whether the fusings (disfigurements where the victims became fused to inanimate objects, creatures, or other people during the atomic bomb) were too far fetched and gimmicky, or a really interesting idea. The world is very 'small' and both the bad guys and the good guys feel slightly too omnipotent. But I am looking forward to seeing where this goes next.

In this future, post Detonations, the lucky few live in the Dome while the wretches live out in the scorched, barren, abandoned world. The wretches, or survivors of the Detonations, all have some kind of deformity caused by the fusing of their bodies and whatever they were near. Some are people fused together; some fused with the dirt and rocks, many fused with glass and metal. An interesting world that Pressia and Bradwell belong to.Meanwhile, in the Dome are the Pure - those who were protected in the dome before the Detonations. The kids in the dome seem to have normal lives, but they are being "coded" to become stronger, smarter, faster. They believe that they must improve themselves in order to survive when they reclaim the earth outside. This is the world Partridge and Lyda belong to. When Partridge escapes the dome, the two worlds collide. Pressia and Bradwell team up with Partridge to find Partridge's mother, who he recently discovered may not be dead. This book is well written and has a strong central cast of characters. The first in a planned trilogy, I look forward to the next installment.

Doubtless the postapocalyptic, disadvantaged-outsiders-versus-privileged-insiders setting will provoke comparisons with The Hunger Games, but that's not fair to The Hunger Games. The emotional development of the teens in this book is consistent with age 10-12: some adults are capable of saving us (and we want that), and some are mean and distant; Right and Wrong are clear; we have a few quirks and flaws, but nothing serious; we do not second-guess, worry about our responsibilities to the world, worry about who we really are and what we were told to be, or what others think of us, all of which are prerequisites to true teenagerhood and necessary emotional developments prior to getting involved in intimate relationships, which two of the narrating characters think they want to do, which, on account of their stagnated emotional growth, just looks like ephebophilia.What's interesting? The idea, and sometimes the descriptions, of people who were in the atomic blasts and ended up fused to objects, animals, even other people. Unfortunately, the author freely admits that she got this idea from other sources.So this book gets the old Dorothy Parker. "There is much that is new and good; but the good is not new, and the new is not good." More accurately comparable with Twilight, though fortunately the boy with a mean streak to whom the girl is attracted isn't actually stalking, emotionally abusive, or consciously manipulative (he is a conspiracy theorist, which was almost interesting), and the other boy in the girl's life has already been revealed to be her half-brother, so none of that fake feminist "which boy should she choose" garbage should ensue - actually the author can have a prop or two for having implied that women were forced to join "Feminine Feminists" in a fascist regime just before the apocalypse - but we're still talking about books in which emotional ten-year-olds are fighting emotionally twentysomething battles and exploring their sixteen-year-old bodies. No sequel for me, thanks.

3.5 stars. Pretty creepy with all of the ways people were malformed. A lot of the action was really graphic.

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 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.

Pure is a post-apocalyptic story involving survivors who have fused to their surroundings. If, when the detonations exploded, you were touching a radio, it melted or bonded to your body. If you were touching another person, you might have fused to each other. The story starts ten years after the Detonation. Every child must become a soldier once they turn 16, and Pressia, one of the two main characters, is going to be 16 in two weeks. The other main character is Partridge. He has become very suspicious of the Pures who live in the Dome. Pures are people who were untouched by the Detonations and have nothing fused to their bodies. He has decided to search for some answers to his mother's death, and the secret attempts to enhance humans. In his search for answers, he enters Pressia's world.Definitely recommended for strong middleschool readers.

BIZARRE & WEIRD!

I was very excited to read this book. It sounded like a great idea for a story. I expected so much more from this story. It was very hard for me to get through this one. I kept reading on in hopes that something exciting would happen and that the story would get better. The closer and closer I got to the end of the book, the more anxious I was to get this story over with and go on to a better boo
It lacked emotion, was dark and dreary, no humor whatsoever in the story.There was nothing to draw me in and keep me wanting more. The story was so hard to get into. I felt my mind wandering way too many times. I needed PLENTY of coffee to get through this one.

I had a very hard time connecting with the characters.I felt like I was in a room full of family and friends who couldn't care less if I was even there! The characters felt disconnected from each other as well as from the reader.

The character El Capitan wasn't introduced until three quarters of the way through the story and then all of a sudden he had a voice and was narrating one of the chapters. This book was just all over the place and gave you no chance to get to know a character and love them before moving on to another chapter and another character's perspective. Point blank, there were too many point of views and not enough connection! This book left me feeling empty inside-just like the characters.

Is this a good book? It's hard to say. The majority of it left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable and it quite probably contributed to the feeling of gloom and doom that settled on me for the final day of reading it. Certainly the writing is beautiful, and the author succesfully portrays a feeling of bleakness and despair. However... it feels somewhat like she is trying too hard to squick out the reader - with her indepth descriptions of the outside people being fused to this or that and the sheer level of "this world is nasty" that she dumps on it. There's hardly any hope, at all, just this permeating despair that can soak into the mood of the reader and infect them. If this was what she was trying to do - then congratulations. However, this level of discomfit and overall unhappiness does not lead me to wanting to read the follow-ups. The characters too lack depth and relationships between them (especially Pressia and Bradwell) could have been better developed and the plot relies far too much on coincidence to be plausible. I loved "Hunger Games" and would have to say, that this is a poor substitute.

Now, to read something happier.

Though the Post-Apocalyptic future is a common theme among movies, TV shows, and books, Julianna Baggot was able to take this used idea and give it a fresh light. Pure is the first of this exciting trilogy where the worlds of the Pure and the Fused are explored after the detonations have long gone off. The lives of the main characters are forever changed when the Pure from the untouched dome mixed with the ashy, post-detonation world of the Fused. An invigorating novel that explores family, government, and survival.

One of the darkest post apocalyptic tales ever written, Julianna Baggott takes the reality of a catastrophic destruction of the Earth and turns it into the most devastating catalog of events and characters. It is hard not to become emotionally involved in the lives of these characters, and Julianna's writing is so powerful it will make the reader weep for the sadness that surrounds them.

I did enjoy this book and would recommend it to fans of post apocalyptic fiction. The surreal appearance of some of the characters was very inventive, and sometimes quite disturbing, as it was probably meant to be.

This one's a little bit of a mixed bag, but overall a good thing. Read an e-arc of it courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley. Creative, appealing characters, weird, slow at some points. It's either a dark and grotesque dystopian older-YA novel, or a kind of simple dystopian science fiction coming of age novel. I'm going with the latter. If you have a reader that loves both the Hunger Games or Blood Red Road and China Mievill's Perdido Street Station, perhaps this might do the trick for their next read. Mind you, it's the first in a series, so there's no real resolution (argh).

15 year old Pressia is living in a post-apocalyptic, dangerous and grim futuristic DC, after the bombs that caused much death as well as physical burns and mutations to the populace, save for those who were protected in the Dome. Mutations such as Pressia's doll hand, fused when she was very young, or the birds fluttering in teen Bradwell's back; what was close to a person at the time of the explosions got fused to them. It gets pretty grotesque; some people were fused to the earth and became Dust creatures that suck the unwary underground and devour them, others are group fusings of humans, packs roaming around hunting, which just confuses me. How do they move? Hive mind can only take you so far with that many messed up legs.

Pressia is instructed by her grandfather to stay hidden so the informal, bloodthirsty military junta (I forget its real name) won't find her and either impress her into their force when she turns 16 or use her for target practice. But she ends up meeting rebellious young teen Bradwell instead, who has privileged information left from his scientist parents about the role of the uninjured "Pure" Dome people and the sinister nanotechnology involved in the explosions. A dual plot line is from the third-person perspective of Partridge, son of the Dome's leader and a teen Pure living in the safe but controlled life of the Dome who escapes in search of his mother outside, purported by his father to be dead but perhaps a rebel instead. When Patridge and Pressia meet, they embark with Bradwell on a dangerous quest to find Partridge's mother and find themselves hunted on all sides. An interesting third perspective which raised the age appeal of the book for me is that of more complex character older teen El Capitan. He's a grim and ruthless junta member with blood on his hands and a younger mentally challenged brother fused to his back, and yet a certain quality of rough frontier honor about him.

A friend of mine mentioned 'Pure' to me a while back. Supposedly, it was the talk of the town at a book expo she attended. Because of that, I decided to take a stab at reading this novel by Julianna Baggott. Let me tell you first that I, personally, think this novel is best suited to older YA readers. It's a dark read and might not please the younger YA set, even if they liked 'The Hunger Games'.

The Negatives:

As far as page count goes, this book was *way* too long. It took me 300 pages (almost exactly) to get to a point where I cared about the story and even then, I wasn't too overly invested in the plot or characters. Part of my trouble with 'Pure' was the voice. I can count on one hand the number of books I've enjoyed that are in present tense. My mind was auto-correcting to past tense throughout the entire novel. As you can imagine, that made it really hard to get 'sucked in'. I finished this book not because I was on the edge of my seat, but because I had pushed through hundreds of pages and felt I needed to at least see the story through to the end.

Pressia lives in a world where people are fused with objects. You'll walk down the street and see a girl with a dolls head fused to her hand, a man with a fan in his throat, or even a boy with birds stuck to his back. There were some cring-worthy and shocking combinations described in 'Pure', not all of them easy to grasp. That was the most difficult part to understand in 'Pure's world.

Also, purely subjective, I was a little turned off by how dark the novel was. I'm okay with dark, but usually like a little happy mixed in. I'm not talking a musical number, but something-- some little ray of hope. I didn't get any of that in this novel. I finished it feeling a lot like I did when I read 'Mockingjay'. 'Pure' started on one note and kind of continued on that same note. The one tone storytelling made for a pretty lackluster finale.

The Positives:

As far as characters, I enjoyed them well enough. Pressia was the most likable character of the bunch, followed by Bradwell, Lyda, and then Partridge. Lyda's character wasn't explored in much detail, though she played a major role in 'Pure'. Still, however, she had more personality than Partridge. If I were to choose my favorite character, the award would go to Bradwell. He came off a little flat to me, but you know what, he seemed like a cool guy. He and Pressia's banter in his butcher shop early on in the book was probably my favorite part of the novel.

Each chapter was told in a certain persons point of view. Unlike some authors, Baggott didn't try to stick to a pattern. Personally, I prefer that. Some novels I've read have had alternating characters point of view and because of that, events felt a little forced. While some of the events in this novel did seem a bit, er, contrived, I like how she didn't follow a pattern.

Overall:

I like dystopian novels. I've read 'Matched', 'The Hunger Games', 'Legacy', and quite enjoyed them. However, 'Pure' just wasn't my kind of book. I didn't finish wanting to read more or even looking forward to a sequel. If you like gritty, dark worlds, you may like this novel. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

This book was recommended when I was looking for a book with a strong heroine lead for a 13-year-old. Store staff said it might be a bit much for an early teen, so I decided to read it before I gave it my god daughter. Wow! This book was amazing. However, I'm not giving it to my god daughter because I don't want to give her nightmares. This novel could be appropriate for older teens, though.In Julianna Baggott's dystopian society, the Detonation occurred about 11 years ago, fusing people to whatever was near them. During the Detonation, 7-year-old Pressia was holding a doll and standing at an airport window. The teenage Pressia has a doll head for a hand, a crescent scar around her left eye and burns on her face. She doesn't really remember the Before, but her grandfather tells her stories about Disney World, winning goldfish at a fair and her parents. Pressia is brave, empathetic and artistic, taking after her mortician grandfather. With money being of no value, Pressia has learned to be a great barterer and scavenger, stocking the burnt out shell of a barbershop that they live in with food and other items that might come in handy. But she'll be 16 in a few days, and the OSR, a ragtag government agency, demands that all 16-year-olds turn themselves in for military training, and the teens kids know they will be either a soldier or a target.Baggott's description of American society after the Detonation is unique, weird, a little scary and I loved it!Of course, there's always an elite segment of society that escapes the horror. The rich, powerful and super smart have been planning ways to protect the elite in the event of a nuclear disaster. They have created the Dome to live in until the earth is habitable again. Those in the Dome don't have scars and aren't fused with anything. They are Pure. Youth are raised and taught ala 1984 and Brave New World. History is written so that those in the Dome are worthy and the "wretches" outside are not just unlucky, but stupid. Adults are told by the government what topics are permissible and what's off limits. You don't want to suffer the consequences for not following the rules. No one leaves or enters the Dome.Partridge is the younger teenage son of one of the most powerful men in the Dome. He's not as strong, charismatic or ambitious as his older brother Sedge or his father. He really misses his mother who died during the Detonation, trying to convince the wretches to enter the Dome. Or did she? He finds some signs that his mother might be alive on the outside and he escapes the Dome to find her. But can a Pure survive outside? Will his father look for him? Is everything he was taught in history true? was fun. I liked that the teens were smart and capable. The romance part was sappy and didn't quite mesh with the rest of the book, but I guess it's a required element. The book was told through the POV of several characters. Pressia and Partridge tell most of the story, but some of the minor characters have parts to fill in pieces that we wouldn't know otherwise. Each narrator on the audio book did a good job.

Pressia Belze lives in a harsh and hard world, a world wracked by wars and detonations, separations and hatred. Outside of the Dome that protected the city and people inside from the world-ending Detonations of nine years before, everything is warped, twisted, fused, changed. Pure is definitely a striking and original dystopic debut: twists, turns and betrayals come and go and always turn out different than expected, harder parts of life are not glossed over, and the omnipresent feeling of danger and being watched all lend themselves to an engrossing, enveloping and often disturbing read. Pressia and the story of her struggles are one of the better examples of these two genres (dystopia and post-apocalyptic) I've read and is a promising beginning to a series. Through its occasional and minimal stumbles, Pure's plot is addictive and striking: this is not a novel that you will want to put down and continue later.One of the things I liked best about this novel and author was that Pure is a very developed and thought-out novel. This is a world that is utterly destroyed and ripped apart in a frighteningly possible way, very alien to our current situation and yet it doesn't take too much of a stretch of imagination to believe in Baggott's harsh and unyielding future. The dystopic elements of the darker novel aren't just for show or used as an accent like curtains on a window. No, the controlling forces and people within Dome/the militaristic OSR outside are the main driving forces for the plot and the events throughout Pure, and are happily used well within the frame of the story. This is one of those young-adult novels that features a romance by-plot: it doesn't stop the show to focus on the touchy-feely emotions of the teen leads. I just wish it had been a first person novel: the events of the past, the action, the characters all feel slightly removed thanks to the third person perspective used. With so many shifting, main perspectives floating directing around the story (at least five that I can remember), and with several of those feeling rather unnecessary in the first place, it's hard to feel a concrete connection to all the goings-on at times.Pressia herself is likeable, if distant for the reasons mentioned above. She's strident and tough: a survivor in a harsh reality where millions simply vanished, or were horribly affected by the Detonations. I also really like that Pressia isn't perfect: not in looks, not in attitude, not in her actions. She fumbles, she falls, she makes basic mistakes, but Pressia does not give up or give in: this is a protagonist to respect. What made me happiest is that she is never a stagnant character: she grows, matures, learns and adapts to new information and situations. At sixteen, Pressia is on the run from the violent and bloody leaders of the people outside, Operation Sacred Revolution, her own government. Being in her narrative is a constant whirl of emotion and thought: Pressia is not one to sit idly by - ever. Take her conflicted relationship with the "Pure" Partridge: it's a constant flux of guilt, curiosity, anger, shame, jealousy, and opportunism. It's real and believable. Forced by her own "government" to kill or be killed, Pressia is a girl with limited to no options given to her, so she does what few do and creates her own path. What resonated with me most about Pressia and her life was the unique but clever treatment of memories from Before as currency: I thought that spoke rather elegantly and ingeniously of each characters individual wish and desire for better times, a reminder of hope and love in this dark painful life to get them through the Dusts/Beasts and other terrors. Like Pressia, Partridge is a likeable character constrained by his surroundings. Like the Dome itself, duty and expectation weigh upon and have his whole life; this is a kid that is easy to commiserate with. His typical teenage family problems and concerns are much more relatable than Pressia's fused dollhead, mysterious past or bounty on her head. Partridge is one those rare male protagonist that isn't utterly foreign or alien; Baggott does an admirable job of distinguishing his personality without veering into female-like tendencies/thoughts. Unlike Pressia, Partridge has far more leeway in the direction his life will take; though not without its own macabre risks (tickers!) his life is a stark conparison to the beaten-down, ignored and hated masses outside the Dome. I can't say which character I enjoyed more: there was a nice dichotomy present with the both of them that showed the most rounded view of the novel. These are two characters whose combined story arc absolutely ASTONISHED me. I thought I had called where this novel was going, dreaded love-triangle and all, but I was dead wrong. I did find the pairing off of the teenage couples to be a bit much; strains my credulity meter that it's that easy for two couples to fall in love, but to be quite fair, romance is far from the main focus of this novel. Ms. Baggott can most definitely write a twist and stand all expectations of her work on their head.Pure can surprise you with its characters, its surprising revelations, or even its bleak and dark tone. No character is safe in Pure, and several losses hit me hard. Occasionally gory, Pure is a lot of novel. And with so much going on, oftentimes parts of the book are less developed and well-done. I felt that the information on the sciences and "coding" left a lot to be desired. How do they upgrade people? Using what technology? I thought that at least two of the POVs used were unneeded and superfluous to the basic story of Pressia and Partridge: Lyda and El Capitan specifically. Both seemed rather sadly and hastily sketched out compared to the real, three-dimensional personalities of Pressia and her Pure. I found myself wondering why they were essential as Pressia, Partridge and Ingersoll clearly dominated the narrative: they two would've done much better as tertiary characters without POV chapters. I wanted more detail and time spent on the religion aspect of the novel: the idea of some "wretches" worshiping the Dome as a type of Heaven is a very interesting and compelling idea - I'd love to read more about that and its impact of the lives of the people in/outside the Dome. I also think that more time in the narrative used to see the differences and the turmoil between the two social strata would've provided a more complete and real background: outside the obvious, superficial differences between the pures and the wretches not much is explained. There's a lot of basic groundwork laid here in Pure for the two future sequels to build from and fill in, and I can't complain that it's full of obvious or calculated plotting: Pure is a smooth read from start to finish with details from Before enmeshed skilfully within the kid's POVs.This is a dark, engrossing, dystopic and post-apocalyptic young-adult read. It's hard to put down with great characters, unforeseen twists and good-to-solid writing. Pressia is one of the better female protagonists I've come across with a unique and compelling storyline, along with a functioning brain and an adaptive attitude, and I was very impressed by my reading experience. I will be buying my own copy when this goes on sale and will also be keeping an eagle eye out for the sequel, Fuse.

With all the post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels out, it's hard to find one that's unique in any way. Pure, by Julianna Baggott definitely fills the bill. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read it!One of the strongest features of this book - description - turns out to also be one of its weakest. The author writes in vivid detail, so it's easy to picture everything in your mind. This was great when she was describing the combinations of people and inanimate objects and/or animals. It takes a great imagination to come up with a heroine with a doll head for a hand. But sometimes the detail was just too much; the long paragraphs depicting the new world tended to drag on the storyline to me.Pure is a solid, entertaining post-apocalyptic tale that easily holds the reader's attention. It's suitable for teenagers and adults alike.

Do you ever forget how to tell the difference between a dystopian and apocalyptic novel? Well, PURE combines the two in an illustrative way. Most of the world is post-apocalyptic, an endless wasteland populated by mutants where survival is only for the fittest. Rising from this ashy gloom is the Dome, inside of which a technologically advanced, tyrannical government has established a joyless dystopia.

There are two main POV characters. Pressia is a young woman who barely remembers life before the Detonations destroyed everything. She's scarred, with a doll's head fused to her hand, but she's a survivor. Partridge is a spoiled, naive "Pure" from the Dome. I'd say the book starts when Partridge decides he's going to escape, but that doesn't happen until about 30% of the way through. Baggot spends a lot of time (too long, in my opinion) setting up the story and conflict.

PURE is good but not entertaining. Everything about it is done well. The characters, the worldbuilding, the conflict. It's also dark, grim, and joyless. After jumping from Pressia's strained relationship with her grandfather to Partridge's strained relationship with his father, from descriptions of desperate people running from death squads to miserable schoolroom scenes of propaganda presented as education I just...stopped wanting to turn the pages.

I hoped that once Pressia and Partridge joined up, the pace would pick up and their rapport might carry me along - but I should have known better. Pressia and Partridge aren't fast friends. They're uneasy allies. They use one another, and their conversations are as painful to read as every other human interaction in the book.

PURE is a lot more like 1984 or Brave New World than, say, The Hunger Games or Uglies. Which is close to being a compliment, except that I'm not sure it has anything new to say.

PURE wasn't to my taste but I have a long history of disliking books that are depressing from beginning to end. If it sounds good to you, by all means give it a try.

First of all, I want to point out that, although the main characters are all teenagers, this is not a novel aimed at young adults. While some teens may enjoy it perhaps, the tone and the writing style definitely market towards adults. This change is visible, too, in the romance, which is much darker and less perfect than in most YA dystopias.

Let me discuss that a bit more. Whereas, even in the harshest of dystopias, like The Hunger Games or Battle Royale, people look and act like people, maybe not good ones, but people nonetheless. The violence may be gratuitous and the acts depraved, but, ultimately, the people are, wounds aside, attractive and normal. This is not the case in Pure.

In fact, this is what I liked best about the novel, and this is the part that will stick with me long after I've forgotten most of the plot. The people, the wretches, who were outside when the bombs went off fused to whatever happened to be near them at the time. Obviously, most people did not survive this, but a lot did, but they came out of it looking like something out of a horror movie.

Pressia got off pretty lightly all things considered: scarring on one side of her face and a doll's head fused to one of her hands. El Capitan, one of the heads of the guards that rule the world outside the dome, fused with his brother, Helmud. Mothers who grabbed their children have their kids fused to their legs or breasts. Other people, Dusts, seem to have fused with the ground, the dust, the rocks. (Is it bad that this also makes me think of Sid's toys in Toy Story?)

Now, this does seem somewhat far-fetched to me, but one of the remarkable things about nature is its ability to bounce back. So why not? These fused people (and animals--humans are not the only ones affected by the radiation) are completely terrifying and will haunt me.

What bothered me, though, was the plan that the folks in the Dome had. It doesn't seem like they planned to stay in there for all that long. I thought radiation took a really long time to dissipate...how will they be okay until that time? This wouldn't be Blast from the Past.

All in all, I'm really not entirely sure how I feel about this one. It was a bit of a struggle for me to read. Something about it just didn't mesh with me. Having looked through some reviews on GoodReads, I know I'm not the only one who felt this way. Still, there were some cool things here, and I may read the next book in the series despite my reservations.

I really enjoyed this book, I can't tell you how long it's been since I read a good apocalypse story. My only complaint is that I wanted to learn lots more about El Capitan. Other than petty little detail the book was wonderful and I wait with bated breath for the second installment.

In Pure, the world has become an intensely disturbing place. During an explosion of unknown origins, people became fused to whatever they were holding onto or were near at the time. Some people are fused to other people ("Groupies"), some to animals, some to miscellaneous objects, and some to the actual ground ("Dusts").The action in Pure was pretty intense, and the romance was ok. For me, it was more about Pressia just finding out who she was. I think a lot of the details were well thought out, but I also thought that some things that the characters "discover" were just a little too much of a stretch. I found myself slightly depressed while reading this extra-grim dystopian, but I'm willing to see where it goes from here.

Pure is a unique post-apocalyptic novel packed full of action and drama. The Wretches, the unluckly people who were outside of the Dome during the "Detonations" are fused with objects, dirt, and even each other. But the lucky ones, the ones untouched by the bombs, live in comfort inside the dome, pure.I found Pure very intriguing and so much darker and graphic than the typical dystopian/post-apocalyptic (not sure if it's catergorized as young adult) novel. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

I have a good blogger friend who highly recommended this book to me, and thus, it's been on my to read list for quite some time. Pure by Julianna Baggott follows several characters, but the main trio is composed of Pressia, Bradwell, and Partridge in their journey in a post-apocalyptic YA tale. The setup is pretty horrific-- we have humans that have been fused to other humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects. In fact, Pressia has a fused doll's head instead of a hand. Each of these protagonists come from different backgrounds, but band together to figure out the truth behind their world and themselves.I can see why my friend liked it. The author has great creativity. I cringed at a lot of the descriptions. The characters overall were likeable and compelling, my favorite being the very complex and twisted character of El Capitan. There are moments of beauty in the prose and each chapter feels very complete.That said, there are a few reasons I decided to give it three stars. First, is my issue with the science. If this was a grotesque fantasy world with no real world reason to back it up, fine. But I can't wrap around an atomic bomb causing everyone to fuse to something else, to the point of losing most of their humanity, but still the individuals were still alive (for example, a mother fused to the baby, both were alive, separate entities like Siamese twins). I tried to suspend my belief, but I struggled through most of the book because of this. Second, the book dragged a lot. Even though this is a horrific world, and our characters get attacked pretty frequently, the actual plot can be honed down to a few paragraphs. And the plot-- it's unfortunate, but this story is Star Wars in a dystopian YA. I could match up all the characters and plot lines and could sometimes hear the Darth Vader tune in the background. Overall, because of some great characters and creative world building, I can see how this book appealed to some readers, but unfortunately for me, because of the aforementioned issues, it never completely won me over.

My Opinion: Wow! That's my impression in a nutshell! This novel was so much more than I expected it to be! The world was a very dark and scary place to even imagine - easily the scariest dystopian world I've read of to date. I think it was mostly because of the people who were left after the detonations that scarred the world in Pure. People weren't just scarred from the heat or the radiation following the detonation of the bombs. They were actually fused to whatever had been near them at that moment in time - a dolls head fused to a girl's fist, a boy who had live birds fused to his back, which still lived for years after that and fluttered under his shirt, or a man who was near a fan and fused to it, causing him to breathe in and out through the fan that fused into his neck. The author went to some very ugly places to write this, but there were also moments of beauty and compassion to bring you back from the brink when you felt that you couldn't read any more about this desolate place. Now compare that world to the world in the Dome - the people who live in the Dome were safe when the bombs went off, but that doesn't mean their lives are perfect now. The kids are being genetically modified to be faster and stronger than normal teens, and only the strongest and fittest are allowed to survive. Into these two worlds Pressia and Partridge are born - Pressia to the darkness of the real world, and Partridge to the Dome. You may wonder how they could possibly meet since no one is ever allowed to enter or leave the Dome, but when Partridge finds out that his mother may not have died like he's always thought, and may in fact be alive in the world outside of the Dome, he finds a way to do just that, and during his travels he crosses paths with Pressia. I thought this book was very well written - the plot was strong and the characters were amazing, but the best thing about the book was the world building. I can't even begin to imagine how Julianna Baggott thought this up, but my hat is off to her! I highly recommend this book to all lovers of dark dystopians, and I can't wait to read the next installment!!!

Just excellent. After "the detonation"), the 'pures" live in a dome where they are safe from disease and patrols who kill the poor damaged people who were left behind. The son of the leader of the "pures" escapes to see if his mother was left behind. Easy to read and incredibly engaging, I highly recommend this novel for any fan of dystopian fiction.

What prevents this book from receiving a full five stars is my inability to connect emotionally with any of the characters. I'm not quite sure why, since the characters were pretty rich and with rather vivid stories. Yet there was something there that prevented me from fully engaging and it troubles me.

Everything else, however, was spot on. The author created a world that was believable, almost more real than reality, and it was vibrant. The writing itself propelled the reader through, so they wanted to know more and find out what was going to happen next.

There is another element that could have been fleshed out, though I expect that'll happen in Fuse. It seems society was dystopian before the Detonation and yet, the descriptions of the "Before" are very vague. I'd like to know what precipitated the Detonations in greater detail, how Ellery Willux ascended to a position of power where he'd be able to manipulate things to create the Detonation, and more detail about the other scientists in their group.

Overall, the book is a bit drab and depressing, so it'll be good to move onto something less so. Though I expect, after reading such a shockingly realistic portrayal of post apocalyptic society, it'll be strange to return to a world like ours.

Julianna Baggot has created a dark dystopia where powerful people have made decisions 'for the good of all' that leave others on the outside - literally.

There are some bits that are weak - the hints at romance, and some characters that seem to be there mainly to carry along exposition and bring our main characters together. Some 'speeches' come across as something that the author wrote as description and then tried to clumsily translate into something a character would say out loud, but it just doesn't flow. Also, at least two characters seem to be involved mainly for cheap plays on the reader's emotions, though that may simply be because they aren't given as much time in the plot as I would have liked.

But the world is fascinating, and the two main characters, Pressia and Partridge, held my interest and my emotions. The world painted is one that's not so hard to imagine, and the landscape is very vividly described. I'll be giving the second one a try when it comes out.

4.5 stars for this one. My usual criteria for rating a book five stars is that it captured me so deeply that I'd read it again. I don't come across those reads very often but Pure is almost one of those.The writing was evocative & atmospheric and made it one of the most well done dystopian novels I've read. It also was one of the best modern YA novels I've ever read. Everywhere there are hallmarks of taking flight to freedom. A boy named nicknamed Partridge. Pressia's mechanical pet Freedle. Lyda's wire bird. The birds forever fused to Bradwell's back. Partridge's mother's swan pendant & card with their messages. The theme isn't heavy handed & just flows quietly along in the story as the characters from inside & outside the Dome struggle with the idea.

Also this is not a world populated by perfect pretty main characters or those who'll be fixed by some wave of the hand to become aesthetically palatable. Radiation & being forever fused to organic & non-organic things sort of negates that whole thing & I really liked that. When I came across this book, I read that Pressia (the female main character) had a doll head fused to her hand & knew that I needed to read this. It doesn't take long into the story to realize that as fusings go, Pressia & her grandfather are pretty lucky. I have to admit that I was impressed by the description of the Dusts, Beasts & Groupies, the Mothers & Special Forces. And as those in control inside the Dome, their worldview is nastily warped with the Return to Civility. The road taken to achieve it is flat out barbaric & it's not any more able to be overlooked than the physical damage those outside the Dome have. As I read, I could see the beauty of the survivors on the outside. I'm still looking for the same in those in control of the Dome dwellers. This is a place that I was fascinated to read about but I don't know that I'd want to see this as a movie. This is a world that's difficult to look at. The beauty of a scar as a symbol of survival is a powerful thing but watching people fused with window frames, glass shards, cell phones, earbuds, other people, appliances, trees and all manner of other things, just works better for me on a page.

Anyway, the general thrust of the story is Pressia & her need to escape OSR as she's turned sixteen & Partridge (Ripkard?) bailing the Dome to go on a search for the mother he believes is alive outside. They meet up, things go not entirely as expected & the quest to go up against the establishments will ensue & play out over the course of a few books so no tied off story here. There are explanations given about what led up to all this (a merging of politics, religion & social beliefs) & I was impressed that so much detail was given. In the end, it left me wanting to know so much more about Partridge's parents & everything else leading up to the Detonations. Willux is of course, flawed but I couldn't also help but hold annoyance with Aribelle for practically writing off Sedge & just focusing on Partridge for code disruption. I didn't find the reason she did it wholly satisfying but I know it's supposed to absolve her of a bit of culpability. I wasn't expecting any huge resolution & very much tempered my expectation that I would find out what the hell happened that led to the day of the Detonations. What happened to the existing government? The rest of the globe? Hopefully those will be covered a bit in the rest of the series.

I very much liked the interaction of Bradwell & Partridge. They had good banter & bicker moments. At times, I was more interested in their part of the journey than I was in Pressia's (El Capitan did make for an engaging addition to the story though). Lyda turned out not to be a one off character but her part of the story, while interesting, was very slow going. To be fair, she has fewer entries than the others. Sedge's fate was so underscored in the beginning that I figured he had taken a different path. It was only a matter of time until that was revealed. I worked out the twist about Pressia as well, but I didn't feel it was a flaw in the narrative.

All in all, I'm glad that I read this book. It wasn't a very quick read for me as the images tended to stick in my mind & I wanted breaks along the way. I need to get the next installment from the library soon because I need to know what's next.

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, 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.