Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Pure by Julianna Baggott

3 reviews

succmoipp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

2.75

I randomly remembered reading a dystopian book about deformed people and a girl with a doll for a hand when i was about 12. I never finished it, so i decided to give it another go.

The premise was great, but i think the execution didn't live up to it. While this obviously isn't a romance, i wish we could see the progress of their relationships progressing, instead of pressia disliking bradwell and then suddenly falling in love.

and the scene where bradwell tells her how beautiful her scar is and kisses it was so incredibly cliche and cringe. Gave me shivers of disgust.

Same goes for lyda and partridge. The plot progressed really slowly, the plot twists weren't that twisty and thing  somehow kept turning out the right way for pressia and partridge, to the point it seemed a bit lazy.

Julianna has a pretty simple and easy writing style, but with it she managed to paint vivid imagery of the world and fused wretches. It might be a bit too much for a YA book, but i did really like how dark and violent it was and detailed in the descriptions of gruesome fusions.

While i don't think it's a great book, i did find it interesting enough to want to read the other two in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide

thattheatrekid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Overall very rushed, and the author’s writing style was rather elementary. It felt like a YA plot at a sixth grader writing level.
A lot of violence was unnecessarily graphic and there was a lot of info dumping/exposition. The world building and imagery also weren’t too clear. I really wish the author hadn’t used present tense with third person though; it ticked me off and I don’t even know why.

But the plot was good and very interesting, and the drama kept me turning the pages. I just think the author rushed the writing too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape and Terminal illness

meg_elyse's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt