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)

Favorite Series Ever!!

if you like Hunger Games, Twilight, Stephen King, you will love this series. I read it 5 times and couldn't put it down. A must-read post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction series.

Good premise but dull characters and depressing

I like the premise a lot but nobody is happy in this book--nobody. And nobody has a true crazy passion. A lot have curiosity or numbed resistance but even when people succeed in this novel, no joy is felt--and it all translates to the reader so I just did not enjoy this much. I know that sounds silly but it makes it very hard to care about the characters and their actions when even they do not seem to care too much and the book falls apart from there.

The characters could have been developed a lot better and in some cases seem like they were picked out of a stereotype vault.

The writing is OK and has moments of beauty but needs a lot of work. Pace is too slow at times it needs to be fast and then too fast when it needsto be slow and misses opportunities to develop plot and characters more.

With the whole post-nuclear thing, the author did do a great job of painting the world and its people but forgot to paint in any potential joy or hope so eventually you just want to get the hell out of there and leave those depressed mutants behind.

Blinking Doll First - No Thank You

I have no doubts this is a good book. I love it's concept. I call tell, even from the little bit I listened to it, it is very well written, and the narrators are fantastic. Therefor I say with great reluctance I can not listen to this book. Between my graphic and detailed imagination and the authors very talented ability for description this book will give me doll blinking nightmares. It's just too creepy for me.

This was NOT my cup of tea

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes, I didn't like the characters. They were not well developed and their relationships with each other had no base what so ever. The two romances in the book were identical with no obstetrical what so ever.

What could Julianna Baggott have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Develop your characters, make their relationships grow. Make your characters fight for love and friendship. By the way, you don't love your sister/brother because you know your related, you love your sister/brother because you grow up with them and have a bunch of memories together. Love for your family runs deeper than bloodlines.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrators were great, the only complaint have here are that they pronounced names differently. I found it slightly annoying, but it was durable.

Any additional comments?

The summery of the book was misleading.

Such a great mixture of readers!

Any additional comments?

Though the story is great and the performance is fabulously done by four different people I still found it very difficult to get into it overall. I will need to try to listen to this again and hopefully I will be able to give this book more than a 2 or 3 star rating or at least figure out why I do not care for the book.Slow paced and boring at times but I continue listening because I love the concept of their society.

West-Side Story After the Bomb Read by Barney Fife

What disappointed you about Pure?

Plot line had the real potential to depict a horrible atrocity, but was undermined by the sing-song naration and a love story obviously taken from Romeo & Juliet/West Side Story.

Has Pure turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. I love this genere. And I love this narator. And I love a lot of her work within this genere. But it just didn't work here.

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

I love this narrator. I really do, but only when her smokey, sexy voice is appropirate to the story. In this incredibly bleak plot line, the slow, choppy, suprised naration ("Welly Goly!") makes the horrific tradegy of nuclear war into farce reminicient of Mid-Summer Night's Dream.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Pure?

I would cut out scenes within the dome. I get it. She's from a world of horrific poverty; he lives a life so fortunate that he can't comprehend his comforts; when they meet, their love is fueled by a growing understanding of the other's world. Bla, bla, bla... = West Side Story. I bought this book because great inspiration for the horrors of nuclear war, and it turned out to be the same re-packaged young adult fiction books following a plot formula designed for budding teen girls.

Disturbing.....

Would you try another book from Julianna Baggott and/or the narrators?

Not if it is as disturbing as this one.

What could Julianna Baggott have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Perhaps try telling a story with a little less gruesomely affected characters. This is definitely nightmare material.

Would you be willing to try another one of the narrators’s performances?

Yes.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Only the fact that the narration was very good.

Any additional comments?

I love science fiction and fantasy - they are always my first choice; but I would be EXTREMELY cautious before trying another Julianna Baggott book.

Awful!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who is tough as nails and never vomits.

Would you ever listen to anything by Julianna Baggott again?

Never!

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

It was gross! The mutations of humans made me sick.

Any additional comments?

None

Boring....Slow

I tried to give this a chance, but I wanted to know more about the Dome, and less about the real world....slow moving and the story was based on a small situation instead of the bigger issues. Not another "Hunger Games".