ThTitle
Title: Pure
(Amazon, Goodreads, Website)
Author: Julianna Baggott
(Amazon, Goodreads, Website)
Series: Pure
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher at BEA 2011
Synopsis:
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.
Review:
This sat on my shelf since last year’s BEA. The cover always intrigued me, but I never picked it up until shortly before I left for BEA 2012. I recently finished it, taking longer than I expected it to take me. I attribute that to the lack of story. The world is amazingly detailed in some instances, yet lacking in others. How big is the Dome? How much of the world is surround by the Meltlands? What happened to the rest of the world? How is it possible to be fused with sentient and non-sentient things and have them or you still function? So many questions and too few answers.
I wanted to love this book. The idea behind it was a great starting point, but unfortunately, it didn’t pan out. While Pressia and Partridge are the central characters, I found myself more interested in minor characters like Lyda and El Capitan who seemed to have more depth to their characters than Pressia and Partridge combined. Bradwell provided a few benefits to the story, but most of the time I felt he was only there to fill in the gaps and offer a possible love interest for Pressia.
Despite the shortcomings, I know I will pick up the second book due out in 2013 as I do want to know where Baggott is going to take this story. Perhaps now that she has laid the groundwork, the second part will pick up the pace and get on with the story.