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Book Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure would win an award for one of the most imaginative post-apocalyptic worlds I’ve come across. At first, the characters are seemingly in a usual end-of-the-world situation: a cataclysmic event has caused everything to be destroyed; people are left with nothing – no food, no comfortable shelter, just injured bodies and loved ones who have died. But there’s a twist. A horrifying, brilliant twist. I really wish I could mention it in this review – and I was originally going to – but I think it’d ruin the experience of discovering what is strange about this seemingly typical, desolate world.

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or life Before. Now, before her sixteenth birthday, she has to get away. In her totalitarian society, people have to hand themselves in to the militia at the age of sixteen, where they’re then trained to be soldiers or used as live targets if they’re too injured to perform. Unexpectedly, she meets a Pure called Partridge. Pures are healthy people who live inside the protected Dome, among those who rule society. Somehow Partridge has escaped the safety of the Dome and is searching for someone outside…

Pure is brilliantly written. The story is interesting enough that the slow pace of the novel doesn’t let it down but actually enhances the experience, giving the reader time to comprehend the significance of every truth revealed. It also has host of fascinating characters, including our two protagonists Pressia and Partridge. I loved coming across every new character and trying to work out whether they were good or bad. But Pure‘s characters, like real people, do not neatly fit into one neat category. As demonstrated by the post-Detonations ‘I Remember’ game that those outside of the Dome play, each has their own story to tell. Pressia and Partridge go on a roller coaster of a journey finding out where they both belong in a world where the past is ignored, forgotten, denied.

I only had one issue with the book which is that it’s part of a trilogy. I was disappointed when I began to realise that I wasn’t going to be given the full story. Pure had the potential to be a brilliant standalone novel, but the upside is that we’ll all get to read more of Julianna Baggot’s fantastic story.

Pure is an imaginative, stand out, and complex novel set in a believable post-apocalyptic world. I was thrilled to discover that the movie rights have already been acquired because it’s wonderfully cinematic. It’s definitely a highlight among the myriad of dystopia/post-apocalyptic novels out there right now.

Pure will be published in the UK on 2nd February and 8th February in the US.

Rating: ★★★★½

THEN, i shall add this to my list:)