Guest Review: Pure

Pure (Pure #1)
By Julianna Baggott
Guest Reviewer: Meg Adams
****

“We each have a story. They did this to us. There was no outside aggressor. They wanted an Apocalypse. They wanted the end. And they made it happen. It was orchestrated - who got in, who didn't. There was a master list. We weren't on it. We were left here to die. They want to erase us, the past, but we can't let them.” 

Meg's Review:

I LOVED this book! I know dystopian is very popular right now, and it's a bit overdone. But if you liked the Hunger Games, and you want a great story about a strong female, survival, a great twist and a thriller....please take a stab at this book.  

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 soldiers 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. 
Take his guts and make a sash. 
Twist his hair and make a rope. 
And use his bones to make Pure soup. 

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 make 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.