pure

pure
the pure trilogy #1
julianna baggott
ya/dystopia
grand central publishing
published 2012

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters....

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before.  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 wear, 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.  Partridge, a Pure, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely.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.  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.

I can barely explain how much I loved this book. These are big bold words, but I think I loved this more than I did The Hunger Games or Divergent.  At times I put the book down to collect myself for a minute because something disturbed me so much.

Dusts, Groupies, The Meltlands, The Good Mother.  These things will haunt me.  Pressia, Partridge, Lyda, El Capitan, Bradwell.  These characters will stay with me always.

There were just so many holy shit moments, things I never saw coming.  I don't know if it was because I was so into the story that I didn't have time to look ahead or put the pieces together.  I didn't stop long enough to think about it.  I just read.

The story skips around to different points of view.  Usually this frustrates me because it feels sometimes difficult to follow, but I didn't seem to have a problem.  There were times when the story is being told from Partridges point of view, but would jump over to Bradwell for a minute and while that seemed weird I wasn't confused.

I don't know.  This was different.  My library actually has this in the adult fiction section instead of the YA section and while I don't think it's too mature for teens it was definitely disturbing.  For me, even more so when they got to the Meltlands.  When I finally got a grasp on what had happened, what the Detonations caused I thought it was terrifying.

We're left with the perfect continuing series book.  There is some bit of an ending, but you know the story goes on.  You know there's more, but you're not left with this awful cliffhanger.  Nonetheless, I finished this book at 1:20am and ran to the library this morning to get the next book.

It was just that good.