Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

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Pure by Julianna Baggott
Release Date: February 8th 2012
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Edition: ARC, 448 pages

My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

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."

I borrowed an ARC of this book from a friend who wasn't sure if they were enjoying it. So she gave it to me to read to see if I enjoyed it. With this book that is a tough question to answer. It's safe to say that this book is very unique. Pure is not like anything I have ever read before. 

It was hard for me to decide what rating to give this book, it was either going to be 3 or 3.5 stars. I contemplated not finishing this book, the first half of the book was tough for me to get through, it was slow moving and mainly setting up the world the characters live in and giving background on what has happened. I know this was necessary since it's the first book in a new series but I just couldn't get into it. However the second half made up for this. The second half was action packed and twists were revealed that I wouldn't have even thought to expect. I was expecting there to be a love triangle, and here was me thinking 'not ANOTHER love triangle, I can't cope!" But no I was wrong, there was no love triangle... But I won't tell you why, for spoiler reasons! 

Pure follows the story of Pressia, Partridge and Bradwell. They live in a world that has changed drastically. A dome has fallen on their town and unless you were within the dome when it fell like Partridge was, you became literally attached to the closest object to you. For Pressia it was a baby doll, which she now has as a hand. For Bradwell it was birds, he now has birds on his back. This blew my mind. The birds didn't die, they still flap their wings and everything. Pressia and Bradwell were lucky, others not so much. Some people were only close to the ground or glass or something else solid that caused them to die a very unfortunate death.

For those inside the dome life seems perfect, they don't know what goes on outside and most of them see no reason to care. Partridge used to be one of them. Until he breaks out, something that has not been done before. He breaks out and sees what life is like outside and begins to hate is Father who is the equivalent of a mayor for inside the dome. 

Julianna Baggott has succeeded in creating such a unique story that the idea alone is enough to warrant you reading this book. I'm hoping that the second instalment of this book will be more action filled and fast paced. Obviously this first book has to set up the world that the characters live in and that takes a bit of time, now that this has been done, hopefully the second book will pick up the pace!

I did enjoy this book and if this sounds up your alley then you should give it a go!

Have you read Pure? I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it!

Happy reading!
- Amy