Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure
Julianna Baggott
Series: Pure #1
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publish Date: February 8, 2012
Hardcover {p.448}
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult
Pressia
Challenge: Young Adult
Buy the Book: Amazon

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.

The novel was very descriptive in the detail of the world after detonation. (For that I give it two stars.) Even the characters were very descriptive. They were a bit odd in their body parts and objects they seemed to be fused with. This was the main thing I couldn't seem to get past to finish the novel.

Pure was a bit of a slow go getting into. Pressia seemed interesting enough, but Partridge I didn’t really understand his need to leave the dome. I know he thought there was a chance his mother may have been out there, but I never understood why he thought that. I guess I must have missed that part.

A character I did enjoy however was Bradwell. I liked him from the first meeting he held underground that Pressia attended. Although I did enjoy him, it wasn’t enough to keep me going forward with this novel. It was overall a tad too dark and a bit too strange of a read for me.

And the Winner is...

Pure by Julianna Baggott

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Theme Thursday {15}: Hear

This meme is being hosted by Kavyen @ Reading Between Pages. Each Thursday she will be posting a new "theme" Anyone can join in; here are the rules:

• A new "theme" will be posted each Thursday
• Select a conversion/snippet/sentence from your current read
• Post your selection, but don't forget to list the title and author of the book
• This event is open for one whole week
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This week's "theme" is: HEAR

Everything is quiet. She hears no trucks. Even the chanting from the Death Spree is gone. At one point, there's a baby crying, but then it quiets down.

page 122; Pure by Julianna Baggott

Author Interview & #Giveaway: Julianna Baggott, author of Pure

Please join me in welcoming critically acclaimed, bestselling author Julianna Baggott, author of Pure.

Julianna Baggott also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode. She has published seventeen books over the last ten years. Film rights for her forthcoming novel PURE have been acquired by Fox 2000.

To learn more about Julianna, please stop by her website to get the full story and other interesting fun stuff!


Facebook | Twitter | Website | Buy the Book
Describe Pure in three words.

How about two? What endures.

What is a day in the life of Julianna Baggott like when you’re not writing?

If I'm not writing, I'm not at home or I'm sick in bed. Even if I'm on the road, I'm jotting notes and sometimes writing essays. Even if I'm sick, I'm being dreaming and the worlds of my books often still exist in my fevered head.

How much of your actual life gets written into your fictional stories? Do you ever use real people as inspiration for your characters?

A lot of my life goes into my books. My life is all I have, in the end. What I see, smell, hear ... what arises in my brain is from my experience. Sometimes this is somewhat explicit -- something my husband says in the morning can work its way into a chapter in the afternoon -- but mostly it's not explicit at all, and not even obvious to me.

Do you ever find that it’s emotionally difficult to write some scenes or characters?

Yes. Certain scenes are really hard for me. It's emotional work. And sometimes it requires a lot of visualization of things that only exist in your mind, which is exhausting. But there are also scenes that pop up and you're just trying to write fast enough to keep up.

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

I really don't have a favorite. There's an author who's novel I love is out of print and wasn't given sufficient love when it was published. MOTHER OF PEARL by the Irish writer MARY MORRISSY. A brilliant book. Let's get it back in PRINT!

Is there any additional info you would like to share with your readers about what’s next for you and your books?

Well, book II, FUSE, is due out this time next year. I'm deep into the editorial process now. So ... yes ... it's coming!

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

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{February 13 - 27, 2012}

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