Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure by Julianna Baggott

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Source: Audiobook

Synopsis 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.

This novel is set in a future where an atomic bomb has nearly wiped out the world. People have been fused to whatever they were holding or resting against- cars, weapons, objects, and even other people. Many people are severely burned and mutated. Nothing can grow, and the people struggle to pull together the means to live. This world is definitely creepy, harsh and dark. I liked this though, as it always threw up something shocking and unexpected, but was still creepily believable.

There is a stark contrast between the mutant people struggling to survive, and those protected by the dome and raised within it's confines- the "pures". The world building is so good, and the militaristic system is psychotic enough to feel like something from a nightmare.

Pressia (an orphan girl who has a doll face fused to her hand), Partridge, Bradwell and El Capitan are the main characters of the book, and they come together by chance all working towards their own agendas. I really liked how these different characters from all walks of life, all come together, and I liked the growing bonds between them all as they work together against a corrupt military force.

Intense and horrifying with always some new plot twist, Pure is a novel of lies, betrayal, revelations and love in a very dark vision of a dystopian future. This is a recommended read for fans of a good sci-fi or post apocalyptic drama.