Pure by Julianna Baggott Review

Pure by Julianna Baggott

My rating: 2 of 5 stars





The Plot:

A series of detonations have wiped out most of the population. The survivors (called Wretches) are all horribly disfigured since the detonations caused them to fuse to whatever was around them (dolls, animals, other people, etc). Pressia is a teenage girl trying to survive in this new world. Some of the population was inside a protective dome when the detonations hit and remained untouched by the devastation (called pures). Partridge was raised in the restrictive world of the dome, but when his father accidentally hints that Partridge's mother might still be alive outside the dome he decides to escape and try to find his mother.

The Review:

This will probably be the nicest two star review that I'll ever write. As someone who worked as a disaster coordinator I tend to get really into books that are about what happens after a disaster strikes (whether it be man made or natural) and I tend to adore books about dystopian futures, so this book seemed right up my alley. I had heard great things about this book. I expected to love this book. So imagine my surprise when I just couldn't seem to care about it. I found the book extremely easy to put down and was always a bit reluctant to pick it back up. I just didn't care. I didn't care about any of the characters or what happened plot wise. I forced myself to finish the book but my boredom with it never really faded. The funny thing is that I shouldn't have been bored. Julianna Baggott's world building is extremely original(and considering how oversaturated the YA dystopian future market is right now it is remarkable to find anything original) and she held nothing back in creating a really brutal and horrific world. Additionally, she is a good writer. The language was really good... even beautiful at times. And yet I still just couldn't get into it. Ultimately, I think it is a good book but just not a good book for me. I would still encourage others to read it since I think there is a lot to like, but I would encourage reading a few pages before buying to see if you find the book gripping enough to get into.

The Good:

Julianna Baggott is a great descriptive author. She describes the new world with such detail that you can really see it in your mind. Her plot is pretty unique. I certainly didn't feel like I had read anything similar in the past. Finally, some of the characters are pretty cool (a doll's head for a hand, bird fused into a back, etc).

The Bad:

Baggott spends so much time describing stuff that there really isn't much of a plot. I feel like she had a really tough job since she had to teach the reader about pre-detonation society (which was different than our world is now), and post-detonation society, as well as make the reader understand the fusings and the deformities that resulted from the detonations. Unfortunately, to do all of these well it felt like plot was sacrificed. It takes at least half of the book for things to start happening, and that is really too late to start advancing the plot. Additionally, some of the plot points just really did not make sense to me. I got the feeling that Baggott had spend a lot of time planning the world but not enough time figuring out the plot.

In spots her descriptive powers also work against the reading experience. A few people had fusings that were so weird that I found myself jerked out of the story to try to figure out how that would even work. One man has a dog fused to him where his lower leg would be. I probably spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how this man would walk instead of being sucked into the story. I find that the books I enjoy most are the ones where I get lost in the narrative and these moments really prevented me from ever getting sucked into the story.

Note: This is the first of three books and so it is possible that this books job was just to set the scene so the next two books can tell the story.



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