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burghblakebooks's review against another edition
3.0
If you can get past the impossibility and gorey imagination Baggot injects into this post-apocalyptic tale, it sucks you in and keeps you on your toes until the very last page. At times I became frustrated and distracted with the details which I found to be disturbing and difficult to fathom, but remained all the while intrigued by what Pressia and Partridge were going to do next. Not giving up on it just yet. Looking forward to book 2.
aunt13soc1al's review against another edition
3.0
This sat on my shelf since last year's BEA. The cover always intrigued me, but I never picked it up until shortly before I left for BEA 2012. I recently finished it, taking longer than I expected it to take me. I attribute that to the lack of story. The world is amazingly detailed in some instances, yet lacking in others. How big is the Dome? How much of the world is surround by the Meltlands? What happened to the rest of the world? How is it possible to be fused with sentient and non-sentient things and have them or you still function? So many questions and too few answers.
I wanted to love this book. The idea behind it was a great starting point, but unfortunately, it didn't pan out. While Pressia and Partridge are the central characters, I found myself more interested in minor characters like Lyda and El Capitan who seemed to have more depth to their characters than Pressia and Partridge combined. Bradwell provided a few benefits to the story, but most of the time I felt he was only there to fill in the gaps and offer a possible love interest for Pressia.
Despite the shortcomings, I know I will pick up the second book due out in 2013 as I do want to know where Baggott is going to take this story. Perhaps now that she has laid the groundwork, the second part will pick up the pace and get on with the story.
I wanted to love this book. The idea behind it was a great starting point, but unfortunately, it didn't pan out. While Pressia and Partridge are the central characters, I found myself more interested in minor characters like Lyda and El Capitan who seemed to have more depth to their characters than Pressia and Partridge combined. Bradwell provided a few benefits to the story, but most of the time I felt he was only there to fill in the gaps and offer a possible love interest for Pressia.
Despite the shortcomings, I know I will pick up the second book due out in 2013 as I do want to know where Baggott is going to take this story. Perhaps now that she has laid the groundwork, the second part will pick up the pace and get on with the story.
margotreadsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
If you like all of the YA dystopic trilogies and aren't actually a young adult- this one's for you. The world build is spectacular and that characters are complex and dark. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
sigfig's review against another edition
4.0
very haunting. as with most dystopia books it makes you think, disturbs you and reveals things to you about the world you do live.
kawarwick's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book. Of course, I hated the ending where I realized there will be a sequel.
kimcheel's review against another edition
3.0
I quite enjoyed this read. It was grittier than other dystopian books; things aren't great after "the end of the world", and I appreciated that realism (if that's the right descriptor). I also appreciate that there wasn't a triangle - that the relationship status of any of the characters was not a focal point, but discovery was. It was an interesting concept, and the author committed to it. I look forward to the follow-up books.
m_e_trevi's review against another edition
4.0
2018 Update: I started to think about the books I read and enjoyed in high school and if I would enjoy them now. In my expedition to find out, I've started with the Pure Trilogy. I stand by my rating the first time around (4 out of 5) but I'm not as starstruck as I first was. A lot of the book is set up and though the plot is compelling it can seem a bit convoluted, you'd have to be Light Yagami to see that far ahead of your enemy. Having said that though I still love the characters and the setting and I can't wait to continue with Fuse.
***
Pressia has just turned sixteen and in her world, that means you join the corrupt army or die. Pressia has chosen to hide. While in hiding she meets the brilliant Bradwell and learns that life isn't have hopeless as it may seem. Inside the Dome, Partridge is beginning to notice that everything isn’t as perfect as the leaders would have them believe. So he devises a plan…to escape.
This is not a world I would want to live in but I love the characters that do. Baggott has created a complex world and a diverse cast of characters. I never felt like I was juggling too many characters that I lost track of who was who. It is a complex book but I loved that. I liked how much effort you could see Baggott poured into this novel. Major warnings for those of who cannot handle horrific settings and gore.
***
Pressia has just turned sixteen and in her world, that means you join the corrupt army or die. Pressia has chosen to hide. While in hiding she meets the brilliant Bradwell and learns that life isn't have hopeless as it may seem. Inside the Dome, Partridge is beginning to notice that everything isn’t as perfect as the leaders would have them believe. So he devises a plan…to escape.
This is not a world I would want to live in but I love the characters that do. Baggott has created a complex world and a diverse cast of characters. I never felt like I was juggling too many characters that I lost track of who was who. It is a complex book but I loved that. I liked how much effort you could see Baggott poured into this novel. Major warnings for those of who cannot handle horrific settings and gore.
_camk_'s review against another edition
4.0
Find review also at Book Filled Blog.
When I first began reading my ARC of Pure, I will be honest, I wasn't really feeling it. I found it difficult to connect with anything that was going on. I was also a little bit confused because I felt as if I was just thrown into this devastated world in the Prologue but once I was a few chapters in, everything fell into place for me.
Pressia is in her own right the heroine of the book. She has just turned sixteen, something that I failed to remember because she speaks so maturely. She has seen more than enough of sadness for only being sixteen years. That said, Pressia is courageous and she is a fighter. She does not let anyone take advantage of her yet, she is also kind and helpful and willing to give up her life for the ones she loves. She stands up Bradwell, the third main character who begrudgingly helps to Partridge's mother for as he puts it "his own selfish reasons". So, to me, Pressia is a heroine.
Partridge, however, has only seen what happens in the Dome. He has read about the Outside and although he has not lived through what Pressia has, he has had his own battles to fight. With his mother presumably dead, a brother who has committed suicide and an absentee father, Partridge is lonely. I liked Partridge. Even if he was a little naive, he was smart enough to know that he would not survive on the Outside by himself. I enjoyed reading Pressia's and Partridge's interactions, as if they understood each other on another level.
The book is told in an omnipresent manner but from different characters points of view. This is included El Capitan, a soldier whose brother is fused to his back and who seems to be fighting his inner demons. There is also Lydia, a potential ally/love interest who is in the Dome. I liked reading about where Lydia was in the Dome. I thought she was a loyal and brave friend to Partridge.
Baggott is very good at one thing and that is tying up plots at the end. The book ended neatly, with many of the subplots intertwining with the main plot. If you read the book closely, they are clues to the surprises that emerge throughout the book. This, in my opinion, is a sign of truly good writing, to be able intermingle plots in a way that does not seem out of the blue for the reader.
The only negative aspect I had with Pure and it's not really that negative at all because I didn't really mind, is that sometimes it seems there was unnecessary filler pages. The book is quite long, it's 448 pages. There are some scenes that might be not be needed.
Although the concept of Domes in dystopian fiction isn't anything new, it is the world that she creates outside the Dome that is so engrossing. Baggott has created a sinister and cruel place even border-lining on creepy where everyone carries a scar from the detonations. People are fused with each other as well as solid objects. I think it is the descriptions that Baggott writes about these people is what up the creepy factor of the book. Sometimes I had trouble imagining the creatures which is new for me, so I would love to see Pure turned into a movie or a graphic novel to see how other people imagined the Outside world.
Pure is a book of survival and hope set in a haunting world which will have you captivated page after page.
When I first began reading my ARC of Pure, I will be honest, I wasn't really feeling it. I found it difficult to connect with anything that was going on. I was also a little bit confused because I felt as if I was just thrown into this devastated world in the Prologue but once I was a few chapters in, everything fell into place for me.
Pressia is in her own right the heroine of the book. She has just turned sixteen, something that I failed to remember because she speaks so maturely. She has seen more than enough of sadness for only being sixteen years. That said, Pressia is courageous and she is a fighter. She does not let anyone take advantage of her yet, she is also kind and helpful and willing to give up her life for the ones she loves. She stands up Bradwell, the third main character who begrudgingly helps to Partridge's mother for as he puts it "his own selfish reasons". So, to me, Pressia is a heroine.
Partridge, however, has only seen what happens in the Dome. He has read about the Outside and although he has not lived through what Pressia has, he has had his own battles to fight. With his mother presumably dead, a brother who has committed suicide and an absentee father, Partridge is lonely. I liked Partridge. Even if he was a little naive, he was smart enough to know that he would not survive on the Outside by himself. I enjoyed reading Pressia's and Partridge's interactions, as if they understood each other on another level.
The book is told in an omnipresent manner but from different characters points of view. This is included El Capitan, a soldier whose brother is fused to his back and who seems to be fighting his inner demons. There is also Lydia, a potential ally/love interest who is in the Dome. I liked reading about where Lydia was in the Dome. I thought she was a loyal and brave friend to Partridge.
Baggott is very good at one thing and that is tying up plots at the end. The book ended neatly, with many of the subplots intertwining with the main plot. If you read the book closely, they are clues to the surprises that emerge throughout the book. This, in my opinion, is a sign of truly good writing, to be able intermingle plots in a way that does not seem out of the blue for the reader.
The only negative aspect I had with Pure and it's not really that negative at all because I didn't really mind, is that sometimes it seems there was unnecessary filler pages. The book is quite long, it's 448 pages. There are some scenes that might be not be needed.
Although the concept of Domes in dystopian fiction isn't anything new, it is the world that she creates outside the Dome that is so engrossing. Baggott has created a sinister and cruel place even border-lining on creepy where everyone carries a scar from the detonations. People are fused with each other as well as solid objects. I think it is the descriptions that Baggott writes about these people is what up the creepy factor of the book. Sometimes I had trouble imagining the creatures which is new for me, so I would love to see Pure turned into a movie or a graphic novel to see how other people imagined the Outside world.
Pure is a book of survival and hope set in a haunting world which will have you captivated page after page.
bookgirl4ever's review against another edition
4.0
During a nuclear winter, Pressia is trying to help her grandfather and herself survive. But Pressia is almost sixteen, the ages that the local militia takes teens off the streets to train or use as a target for trainees. The militia hopes to rise against the Dome, where a select few were able to escape the nuclear war.
Baggott (aka N.E. Bode of the Nobodies series) creates an interesting post apocalyptic world where nanotechnology mixed with a nuclear bomb has melded people, the earth, and everyday objects into one.
JHS/HS
Baggott (aka N.E. Bode of the Nobodies series) creates an interesting post apocalyptic world where nanotechnology mixed with a nuclear bomb has melded people, the earth, and everyday objects into one.
JHS/HS
bookishvice's review against another edition
1.0
Pure is set a future where the Earth has been devastated by bombs. Some people managed to get inside the Dome, and are now living under strict rules and regulations. There are also survivors on the outside that have somehow mutated, fused together with things and other beings. It was confusing at first, but it’s a cool grotesque imagery presented when I finally understood what was happening.
Pressia, the flesh-tailor’s granddaughter, is a survivor on the outside and she is turning sixteen, an age when the people are taken off the streets and taken away to train in camps. Partridge lives in the Dome, and his father is someone important there. I liked Partridge when he spoke to his dad, he is quite a smartmouth. He wants to go outside the Dome to find his mother, whom he believes is still alive.
This sounds all kinds of awesome and interesting, and it is. That is, the idea of it all is pretty cool but then the execution wasn’t. Written in third person POV present tense, for me the narration not only felt awkward but also lifeless. Like the narrator was just spewing out facts, and stating things. There was no emotion, no feeling to it. My mind kept wandering away because I just didn’t give a damn about Pressia’s grandfather telling her all about the pony she got for her second birthday. There a lot of chatter of inconsequential things like this.
I gave up half-way through the book.
Pressia, the flesh-tailor’s granddaughter, is a survivor on the outside and she is turning sixteen, an age when the people are taken off the streets and taken away to train in camps. Partridge lives in the Dome, and his father is someone important there. I liked Partridge when he spoke to his dad, he is quite a smartmouth. He wants to go outside the Dome to find his mother, whom he believes is still alive.
This sounds all kinds of awesome and interesting, and it is. That is, the idea of it all is pretty cool but then the execution wasn’t. Written in third person POV present tense, for me the narration not only felt awkward but also lifeless. Like the narrator was just spewing out facts, and stating things. There was no emotion, no feeling to it. My mind kept wandering away because I just didn’t give a damn about Pressia’s grandfather telling her all about the pony she got for her second birthday. There a lot of chatter of inconsequential things like this.
I gave up half-way through the book.