Reviewed By Toni Whitmont, Booktopia Buzz Editor
To read more reviews by Toni Whitmont,
click here to visit the Booktopia Newsletter Archive.
Dystopian fiction is fast overtaking paranormal romance as the hot area for young adults and there are plenty of older people who are also finding these books enormously satisfying.
Enter Julianna Baggott with her apocalyptic vision of a world of haves and have-nots, with Pure. There has been a lot of noise about this book in the months leading up to its publication and I am yet to read anything from a disappointed reviewer. It looks like it could be the breakout novel for the year AND it is getting endorsements from all the right people.
"A great gorgeous whirlwind of a novel, boundless in its imagination. You will be swept away."
-Justin Cronin, New York Times bestselling author of The Passage.
"PURE is not just the most extraordinary coming-of-age novel I've ever read, it is also a beautiful and savage metaphorical assessment of how all of us live in this present age. This is an important book by one of our finest writers."
-Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner
"...PURE is a dark adventure that is both startling and addictive at once. Pressia Belze is one part manga heroine and one part post-apocalyptic Alice, stranded in a surreal Wonderland where everyone and everything resonates with what has been lost. Breathtaking and frightening. I couldn't stop reading PURE."
-Danielle Trussoni, New York Times bestselling author of Angelology
"Baggott delves fearlessly into a grotesque and fascinating future populated by strangely endearing victims (and perpetrators) of a wholly unique apocalypse. And trust me, PURE packs one hell of an apocalypse."
-Daniel H. Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse
"Julianna Baggott's novel of a post-apocolyptic world is gritty, unadulterated and unapologetic in its treatment of characters. The author does a superb job creating realistic landscapes, and horrible mutations ... the quality of the writing will make the reader want to continue to the very end." - Netgalley
"Baggott's highly anticipated postapocalyptic horror novel ... is a fascinating mix of stark, oppressive authoritarianism and grotesque anarchy. Baggott mixes brutality, occasional wry humor, and strong dialogue into an exemplar of the subgenre. "
-Publisher's Weekly, starred review
Film Rights have sold to Fox 2000 Pictures and foreign language rights have already sold to ten countries overseas.
THE STORY
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.
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.
