{"id":2170,"date":"2021-03-10T16:20:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T21:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2021-01-03T16:29:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T21:29:33","slug":"vault-review-pure-by-julianna-baggott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2170","title":{"rendered":"Vault Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott"},"content":{"rendered":"

**Vault Reviews were posted previously on the main MonsterLibrarian website and are transferred here in an effort to preserve our history. Efforts have been made to ensure the books are still available, but formats, covers, and other details may have changed.**\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Grand Central Publishing, 2012
\nISBN-13: 978-1455503063<\/span><\/p>\n

Available: New and kindle<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n


\nLess than a generation ago, radioactive detonations destroyed civilization. Instead of the survivors dying of radiation sickness, though, they were \u201cfused\u201d to whatever they were holding or touching at the time. The only ones to escape mutation and deformity were saved by enclosure in a protective environment, the Dome, and are known as Pures, alternately worshiped and hated by those left out in a chaotic, deadly world.<\/p>\n

Pressia is a sixteen year old girl with a doll\u2019s head fused to her hand who lives outside the Dome, who is soon to be forcibly recruited by a violent militia, and longs for a romanticized past. Bradwell is an underground radical with birds fused to his back, who remembers the ugliness of the time before the Detonations. Partridge is the son of the leader of the Pures, has just learned his mother is alive outside, and escapes so he can find her. The three teens join forces to discover his mother\u2019s whereabouts, but this is an uncharted, broken, and stitched-together journey, rather than a tradtional \u201chero\u2019s quest\u201d.<\/p>\n

The strength of Pure comes from Baggot\u2019s creation of a fantastical post-apocalyptic world, and, in particular, of the way that apocalypse and its aftermath have shaped its inhabitants. The tragedy of mothers and children fused together; the fluttering of birds\u2019 wings fused to Bradwell\u2019s back, permanently scarring him but suggesting that he could almost take flight; the doll\u2019s head fused to Pressia\u2019s hand, with lashes gummed shut by the ash in the air; the violent and carnivorous Dusts, creatures fused with the earth that make every step treacherous. The world-building and character development are intertwined in a way that brings vividness and three-dimensionality to the story. Once you\u2019re inside it, Pure is truly an immersive experience.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most frustrating about the book is the way it\u2019s plotted. For instance, Partridge\u2019s mother leaves such obscure clues to her whereabouts that it is amazing that he, even with Bradwell\u2019s and Pressia\u2019s help, is able to discover and interpret them. Unlikely coincidences that turn out to \u201chappen\u201d to have been planned are frequent, as well. Most importantly, though, is that Pure is clearly the first book in a trilogy, and it ends very abruptly. I don\u2019t mind endings that leave me wondering (The Hunger Games is an excellent example of a book that is part of a series but can stand alone) but I do mind when the story just ends, leaving me hanging practically in the middle of a sentence.<\/p>\n

Even so, Baggott has created a vivid world worth visiting, and a journey worth taking for readers of postapocalyptic science fiction, or teens looking for something along the lines of The Hunger Games. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

Contains: murder, suicide, mutilation, torture.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by: Kirsten Kowalewski<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

**Vault Reviews were posted previously on the main MonsterLibrarian website and are transferred here in an effort to preserve our history. Efforts have been made to ensure the books are still available, but formats, covers, and other details may have changed.**\u00a0 Grand Central Publishing, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1455503063 Available: New and kindle Less than a generation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,205,121,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-dytopia","category-post-apocalyptic","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-z0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2172,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions\/2172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}