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A review by bookswithlukas
Pure by Julianna Baggott
4.0
An original and interesting dystopia.
My copy of 'Pure' has one of those crappy stickers slapped onto the front with the almost obligatory phrase 'If you loved the Hunger Games, you will love this'. I for one am kind of fed up of seeing this sticker attached to everything, and in this case, I wouldn't say it even makes sense. The only thing that connects these two books to me is the dystopian setting, apart from that I would say they couldn't be any more different.
I can honestly say that Pure was one of, if not the most original dystopian I've read in terms of world-building. I didn't find myself thinking of other dystopias while reading this, and I didn't really even see *our* world in the world the author has created. The book almost felt like science-fiction to me in a way, with all of it's grotesque mutations, and genetic coding. Speaking of mutations, this book is definitely high on the gross factor, to the point where part of me wondered whether it was even YA. In this world, a huge explosion fused people together with things they were touching, or close to, resulting in people with dolls heads attached to their hands, or mothers with newborn babies fused into a cradling position. Some of the imagery was actually quite unsettling, and the writing detailed this wonderfully.
The story is also told from multiple POV's, which I know quite a few people complain about, but I personally love, especially in a story like this where getting different view-points only furthers to strengthen the world-building and the characters. It's also nice to get little mini-story chapters that give a break from the main characters narrative, and I especially liked Lyda's chapters at the asylum. This book was also extremely low on romance, which I couldn't have been more ecstatic about.
If there was anything negative to say about this book, I will say that while I enjoyed the characters, I wouldn't say that they were the main focus, in that I didn't necessarily found myself connecting to them all that much. It seemed like this was a series that is much more based on mystery and the idea of wanting to unlock the mysteries of it's plot instead of a character based adventure. I'd describe it as kind of similar to the TV show LOST, in that the big mystery and wanting to know the end was what people were truly interested in. The characters are definitely serviceable though, and I wouldn't say this issue takes away from the novel in any real way, it just caused me to read it a little differently.
Overall, this was a really nice dystopia and one that I would recommend to people looking for a more 'adult' or gruesome read. It's not quite perfect, and may not be for everyone, but I personally really enjoyed it.
My copy of 'Pure' has one of those crappy stickers slapped onto the front with the almost obligatory phrase 'If you loved the Hunger Games, you will love this'. I for one am kind of fed up of seeing this sticker attached to everything, and in this case, I wouldn't say it even makes sense. The only thing that connects these two books to me is the dystopian setting, apart from that I would say they couldn't be any more different.
I can honestly say that Pure was one of, if not the most original dystopian I've read in terms of world-building. I didn't find myself thinking of other dystopias while reading this, and I didn't really even see *our* world in the world the author has created. The book almost felt like science-fiction to me in a way, with all of it's grotesque mutations, and genetic coding. Speaking of mutations, this book is definitely high on the gross factor, to the point where part of me wondered whether it was even YA. In this world, a huge explosion fused people together with things they were touching, or close to, resulting in people with dolls heads attached to their hands, or mothers with newborn babies fused into a cradling position. Some of the imagery was actually quite unsettling, and the writing detailed this wonderfully.
The story is also told from multiple POV's, which I know quite a few people complain about, but I personally love, especially in a story like this where getting different view-points only furthers to strengthen the world-building and the characters. It's also nice to get little mini-story chapters that give a break from the main characters narrative, and I especially liked Lyda's chapters at the asylum. This book was also extremely low on romance, which I couldn't have been more ecstatic about.
If there was anything negative to say about this book, I will say that while I enjoyed the characters, I wouldn't say that they were the main focus, in that I didn't necessarily found myself connecting to them all that much. It seemed like this was a series that is much more based on mystery and the idea of wanting to unlock the mysteries of it's plot instead of a character based adventure. I'd describe it as kind of similar to the TV show LOST, in that the big mystery and wanting to know the end was what people were truly interested in. The characters are definitely serviceable though, and I wouldn't say this issue takes away from the novel in any real way, it just caused me to read it a little differently.
Overall, this was a really nice dystopia and one that I would recommend to people looking for a more 'adult' or gruesome read. It's not quite perfect, and may not be for everyone, but I personally really enjoyed it.