ARC Review: Pure

Title: Pure
Author: Julianna Baggott
Genre: YA Dystopian
Release Date: Feb. 8th


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. --Goodreads



Pure was strange and imaginative.
I had a hard time getting into the characters, but the story itself was engaging and unusual--oddly descriptive and visual. There is a bit of a slow start in the beginning, and a struggle to understand the world at first, but once I got into it, I found myself breezing through the pages. Excellent world-building. Nicely developed and I felt it was believable, despite the odd details.


I would hate for this to occur to our world--and after reading, the idea does scare me. Of course, I don’t like getting all political. Haha.. But Ms. Baggott will really get you to thinking after reading this about the state of the world and crisis events that really can happen. It’s not a pretty picture, that’s for sure.


I really loved the poem, it was a bit creepy-- and the whole story in general was a bit Tim Burton-esque with the descriptions. You know how “Ring Around the Rosie” was originally made? I loved how Ms. Baggott created the poem for Pure out of a tragedy, a new creepy rhyme, that children grew up singing in this new world.


“Burn a Pure and breath the ash.
Take his guts and make a sash.
Twist his hair and make a rope.
Use his bones to make Pure soap.”


What I really liked most that it wasn’t heavy on romance for a YA. This one moreso focuses on the world-building and characters and I believe it’ll appeal to everyone, male and female, especially the older market.


4 stars!