Pure

By: Julianna Baggott

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam, Joshua Swanson, Kevin T. Collins, Casey Holloway

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Julianna Baggott presents her beautifully written, riveting, breakout novel, Pure, the first volume in her new post-apocalypse thriller trilogy.

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.

©2012 Julianna Baggott (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Baggott's highly anticipated postapocalyptic horror novel...is a fascinating mix of stark, oppressive authoritarianism and grotesque anarchy...Baggott mixes brutality, occasional wry humor, and strong dialogue into an exemplar of the subgenre." ( Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review)

"A great gorgeous whirlwind of a novel, boundless in its imagination. You will be swept away." (Justin Cronin, New York Times bestselling author of The Passage)

" Pure is a dark adventure that is both startling and addictive at once. Pressia Belze is one part manga heroine and one part post-apocalyptic Alice, stranded in a surreal Wonderland where everyone and everything resonates with what has been lost. Breathtaking and frightening. I couldn't stop reading Pure." (Danielle Trussoni, bestselling author of Angelology)

Haunting

This is both a post-apocalyptic and coming of age novel, which by itself isn't unique. But there's a unique and painful twist. As the story goes along, we learn that the destruction of both the planet and the population have intentionally been engineered, cruelly and twisted, leaving people, animals and plants deformed and evolving in a sinister way.
Those safe in the dome are known as Pure, by those outside. And the dome dwellers were the engineers of the apocalypse. We meet a motley string of characters, each with their own gruesome disability, which at times seem to have a bleak silver lining. Even the Pure, who leaves the dome in search of his mother, is captured and the price of his freedom is a small deformity.
The story is filled with imagery, mostly bleak and terrifying, but there is much that haunts afterwards. Is the young man with the birds melded to his back an angel in disguise? Is the man with the burden of his brother really only one person with his exterior only mirroring his internal conflicts?
There is much to this novel and I'm looking forward to the next installment. I may have to hear it again though, because I think there will be more the second time around.

Too much science fiction

I didn't love this book. I love Fantasy, Dystopia and Supernatural, but this was a bit too much science fiction for me. The concept is a typical dystopian story (there's an evil "head" of the world who treats the rest of the world like crap). However, the characters and their background are far different from other stories, which leads to an interesting story. The concept of "fusing", presented early on, is unique and conjures up interesting images in my head.

I'm not yet 100% sure I'll read part 2 due to the strong science fiction aspect, but give it a read and decide for yourself.

Narration: This is the first book I've listened to that has four narrators. I love this style. It's so much easier for characters to develop their unique personalities. Plus, I really love Khristine Hvam ("Iron Fey" Series) and Kevin T. Collins ("Beautiful Creatures" series). All audio books should follow this example.

4 narrators, 1 overly melodramatic

Very gruesome depictions of post apocalyptic characters combined woth less than vivid and boring landscapes. Decent story, but characters sometimes lack depth and nuance. author clearly cared more for some of her main players than others. Squandered potential for the villain. Will read second book because there's enough promise, but not entirely riveted.

loved it!

Excellent. Very well done. Actors kept me listening and enjoying every moment. Looking forward to book 2!

interesting concept

I wasn't sure about this book at the start, but I ended up quite liking it. Set in a dystopian future, the author had quite an interesting plot and lots of neat twists. I enjoyed the complexity of the world that the author created, and how various aspects are slowly described throughout the whole book, rather than just loading down the first few chapters with tons of back story. Unlike lots of young adult novels, this book wasn't just a romance with some plot thrown lightly over it. My biggest issue with the book is how it's written in the present tense, which I just find distracting and odd. Every time I started listening it would take a few minutes before I stopped being distracted by it.

There were some points in the book where the characters made decisions that didn't really make sense to me other than to further the plot. Presia in particular often does/thinks things more useful to the plot than sensible. For example, she spends a lot of time worrying when OSR might be coming for her what will happen to the pet mechanical bug and doesn't seem overly concerned that if/when they get her, they'll make her kill other kids, or be killed herself. That was my biggest criticism.

As for narration, this was my first audio-book with multiple narrators. All the narrators did a good job, I thought. I'll probably get the sequel.

Gruesome

This is not one for the faint of heart, especially if you have a good imagination. The imagery is gruesome and disturbing, the circumstances horrid. Personally, I can't really say I enjoyed this book, but that doesn't mean it's not worth a read. It's a little different than the usual YA distopian novels since the catastrophe preceding the events in the book was manufactured and the ensuing events had little to do with saving society at large. There were one or two places where the author went a little too far in my opinion and risked credibility, but the story didn't dwell on these things and the fact that it kept moving keeps the reader engaged.

Refreshingly for a YA novel, Baggott did not dwell on romance. Yes, there is some, but it's not the focus of the story. You get the feeling that Baggott wanted to spend more time focusing on what could happen if the wrong people have too much power and much too much knowledge. She does this without becoming preachy which is a huge plus. She's simply telling a story about what might be.

Someone else's review mentioned that it was a little heavy on the sci fi side and that's fairly accurate. It's just that other side of the line between fantasy and science fiction since there's a lot of science and medically based plot motivators.

All in all, I won't personally be listening to the sequels because the plot didn't grab me enough to override my aversion to the imagery, but that's not to say that it was a bad book, simply that it wasn't really my thing. If you like dystopian YA and have the stomach for it, you might love this book.

Narration: All of the characters were well narrated and well matched to the book.

Started out great , then lost steam

Any additional comments?

It just started to get weird when they were discribing all the different objects that ws attacted to their bodies...ie: bird,dolls,metal...for me it was too much.

A very different kind of story

This is the first book of a series, so beware. It ends with a new phase yet to start, so you can always go to the next installment (when it comes out), or leave after reading this one. I enjoyed listening to this book, and will most likely listen to the next.
It takes place after the organized destruction of the world as we know it. One group destroys the world, to rebuild it, the way they want it to be. The other group is the survivors, that live outside the protected dome, just trying to survive, until they find hope of attaining a new world, as the story unfolds. All and all, this will lead up to a battle, somewhere in the future, for one group to survive.
The most interesting part of this book, is looking into the thoughts of all the participants, and the relationships that form. Several narrators, bring this story to life, and do a very good job.

Pure Enjoyment

Where does Pure rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 15%

What other book might you compare Pure to and why?

The closest one that I can even think of would be Swan's Song. Both are free of zombies in a end-of-world story line. Also, both lead players are the heroines.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

Helmut

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no.

Any additional comments?

I have read that book 2 is just a stop-over for book 3. I think I will wait for book 3 to come out before I buy book 2. Overall, the story was not what I expected. It offered a lot of different ideas and story lines. At first I was a bit apprehensive, but it grew on me.

Review for the entire series

First, i was extremely excited that a book with multiple POV's finally had multiple readers! then i was disappointed when some of the readers were considerably lacking in performance.

Overall it was a good story. A bit slow at times with intermittent characters i couldn't get attached to. I would recommend this book but wouldn't put it near the top of the list.