Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure hits the shelves, February 8, 2012.

I had high hopes for Pure --- How could I not? It is being toted as the next Hunger Games and after a heated two day auction the rights were finally won by GOP. The international language rights sold overnight to over 9 countries. Intriguing right? Sounds phenomenal ...right? Wrong! It just isn't attention grabbing or all that special.

It starts off strong but then takes a fast dive downwards. The concept of life in a dome isn't all that novel so --- I was looking forward to learning about life outside of the dome, instead I was left feeling cheated somehow. I wished Baggott has given more time to life in the dome and scrapped most of what she wrote about the outside because for the most part it is dull.

The premise and ideas behind this book are intriguing so, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong. I loved the idea that the bomb caused people to fuse to objects and other people. Baggott, could be descriptive a times but something just feel short. She created a rather original post apocalyptic world and great characters but the writing just didn't' measure up. It lacks cohesiveness and feels disjointed.

Pure, just doesn't measure up to the hype. I am unsure at this point if I will read the next two books in this trilogy. Rating this book is difficult because there are tons of great ideas and it had the potential to be something wonderful rather than just another book.

Grade: C-

Overview [B&N]

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.