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Pure by Julianna Baggott(Headline)
Pressia Belze has lived outside of the Dome ever since the detonations. Struggling for survival she dreams of life inside the safety of the Dome with the ‘Pure’.
Partridge, himself a Pure, knows that life inside the Dome, under the strict control of the leaders’ regime, isn’t as perfect as others think.
Bound by a history that neither can clearly remember, Pressia and Partridge are destined to forge a new world.
When I first started hearing about Pure by Julianna Baggott online, I wasn’t exactly dying to read it. I suppose that as much as I love dystopian fiction, there is a little too much of it, certainly in the YA market today, and half of them never live up to the hype.
But when a few fellow booksellers started telling me about just how good Pure really is, I decided to give in and give it a go for myself, and I have to say I certainly have no regrets!
Pure tells the story of Pressia and Partridge. Pressia is a ‘wretch’ who now lives outside the Dome since the Detonations which virtually destroyed Earth as we know it. The wretches are horribly disfigured after fusing with any items they may have been near or holding at the time of the Detonations. Pressie has a doll’s head for a fist.
Partridge, however, is one of the Pure. He was lucky enough to be inside the Dome at the time of the Detonations, thanks to his father who is running the place. Although Partridge may be whole on the outside, he is very much disfigured on the inside due to the deaths of his mother and brother and a rather strained relationship with his father.
Partridge becomes convinced that his mother is still alive somewhere outside the Dome, and a plan soon starts to take shape that will lead him outside into a world he’s only ever heard very little about. Needless to say, Pressia and Partridge’s lives come together and lead them both on a journey they never thought possible.
What I love most about Pure is undoubtedly the world that Baggott has created. It’s unique, original and above all exciting. It may take you a while to get your head around the fact that these people have odd disfigurements, certainly when I learned of Pressia’s doll head for a fist, I found it quite hard to imagine and not very believable.
However, I think it was once I got to Pressia’s new-found friend Bradwell, the boy with live birds in his back, that I started to open up to these disfigurements and go with it. I started to imagine what a great film it would make, visually, if done right, and that’s something I don’t often say about books I enjoy!
There’s a lot of talk of nano-technology as the reason for these fusions and disfigurements, and I’m not going to pretend like I really understand why it happened, but I will say that it in the end I thought it was a very fresh, original idea that Baggott has brought to life.
The second thing I loved about Pure has to be the characters. The first thing I realised was that this wasn’t just a typical YA story where you have two main characters who go on some kind of journey together and obviously fall in love. Pure immediately felt different, and I was extremely grateful for it. Pressia and Partridge both have their own love interests which gives the story a chance to have more well-developed, brilliant characters.
I particularly loved Bradwell, the boy with birds in his back, and I really enjoyed watching the relationship between him and Pressia grow. The other character who I perhaps enjoyed the most, was El Capitan, a soldier who thought he was working against the Dome, but soon discovers otherwise. He is also fused with his brother, whose head sits upon his shoulder.
It’s a little disturbing at first, and although El Capitan is often quite horrible to his brother, you do get a sense that he is almost thankful to have his brother with him, and that the two do share quite a close bond.
Baggott is a gifted writer, and one that has managed to create a world I haven’t been this excited about in a long time. There is no doubt she has a wonderful imagination and a talent for creating intriguing, heartfelt characters.
If you like dystopian fiction or you fancy something a little more original, then you should definitely pick up a copy of Pure. I’m extremely excited to see what is going to happen next in this series, and I can only apologise to Baggott for having doubted her in the first place, for she has certainly proved me wrong.
Emma is a bookseller for Waterstones. You can read more of her book reviews on her blog
Keen on reading this book? Buy your copy now.
Read this book yet? Tell us what you thought of the book in the comment box below.
Sign up for women24's book club newsletter and stand a chance to win our top ten books from kalahari.com.
Pressia Belze has lived outside of the Dome ever since the detonations. Struggling for survival she dreams of life inside the safety of the Dome with the ‘Pure’.
Partridge, himself a Pure, knows that life inside the Dome, under the strict control of the leaders’ regime, isn’t as perfect as others think.
Bound by a history that neither can clearly remember, Pressia and Partridge are destined to forge a new world.
When I first started hearing about Pure by Julianna Baggott online, I wasn’t exactly dying to read it. I suppose that as much as I love dystopian fiction, there is a little too much of it, certainly in the YA market today, and half of them never live up to the hype.
But when a few fellow booksellers started telling me about just how good Pure really is, I decided to give in and give it a go for myself, and I have to say I certainly have no regrets!
Pure tells the story of Pressia and Partridge. Pressia is a ‘wretch’ who now lives outside the Dome since the Detonations which virtually destroyed Earth as we know it. The wretches are horribly disfigured after fusing with any items they may have been near or holding at the time of the Detonations. Pressie has a doll’s head for a fist.
Partridge, however, is one of the Pure. He was lucky enough to be inside the Dome at the time of the Detonations, thanks to his father who is running the place. Although Partridge may be whole on the outside, he is very much disfigured on the inside due to the deaths of his mother and brother and a rather strained relationship with his father.
Partridge becomes convinced that his mother is still alive somewhere outside the Dome, and a plan soon starts to take shape that will lead him outside into a world he’s only ever heard very little about. Needless to say, Pressia and Partridge’s lives come together and lead them both on a journey they never thought possible.
What I love most about Pure is undoubtedly the world that Baggott has created. It’s unique, original and above all exciting. It may take you a while to get your head around the fact that these people have odd disfigurements, certainly when I learned of Pressia’s doll head for a fist, I found it quite hard to imagine and not very believable.
However, I think it was once I got to Pressia’s new-found friend Bradwell, the boy with live birds in his back, that I started to open up to these disfigurements and go with it. I started to imagine what a great film it would make, visually, if done right, and that’s something I don’t often say about books I enjoy!
There’s a lot of talk of nano-technology as the reason for these fusions and disfigurements, and I’m not going to pretend like I really understand why it happened, but I will say that it in the end I thought it was a very fresh, original idea that Baggott has brought to life.
The second thing I loved about Pure has to be the characters. The first thing I realised was that this wasn’t just a typical YA story where you have two main characters who go on some kind of journey together and obviously fall in love. Pure immediately felt different, and I was extremely grateful for it. Pressia and Partridge both have their own love interests which gives the story a chance to have more well-developed, brilliant characters.
I particularly loved Bradwell, the boy with birds in his back, and I really enjoyed watching the relationship between him and Pressia grow. The other character who I perhaps enjoyed the most, was El Capitan, a soldier who thought he was working against the Dome, but soon discovers otherwise. He is also fused with his brother, whose head sits upon his shoulder.
It’s a little disturbing at first, and although El Capitan is often quite horrible to his brother, you do get a sense that he is almost thankful to have his brother with him, and that the two do share quite a close bond.
Baggott is a gifted writer, and one that has managed to create a world I haven’t been this excited about in a long time. There is no doubt she has a wonderful imagination and a talent for creating intriguing, heartfelt characters.
If you like dystopian fiction or you fancy something a little more original, then you should definitely pick up a copy of Pure. I’m extremely excited to see what is going to happen next in this series, and I can only apologise to Baggott for having doubted her in the first place, for she has certainly proved me wrong.
Emma is a bookseller for Waterstones. You can read more of her book reviews on her blog
Keen on reading this book? Buy your copy now.
Read this book yet? Tell us what you thought of the book in the comment box below.
Sign up for women24's book club newsletter and stand a chance to win our top ten books from kalahari.com.
