A review by trudilibrarian
Fuse by Julianna Baggott

4.0

I'm really conflicted on this one. For a solid two-thirds of the book there was a lot about this sequel that just wasn't working for me. I was more than a bit lost in the beginning (after forgetting so many salient plot points from Pure). I just wanted to remember dammit, and feel all the feels I felt reading the first book. So I spent way too much time in the beginning wishing I had done a re-read of Pure before tackling Fuse (which I highly recommend you do).

It's my own fault. Baggott has written a pretty complex dystopian world, rich in detail and rules and creatures and complicated characters. To think I was going to pick up the sequel more than a year later and hit the ground running with it was pure (pun intended) assholery and hubris on my part. Baggott does her best to "refresh" where she can, but she doesn't waste a lot of time recapping and re-exploring territory she's already covered. She's got way more story to tell and it's obvious she can't be handholding the dumbbells like me.

Also, there was a lot more emotional/romantic angst in this one. These books aren't YA (though TONS of people have the series shelved as such), but there were times reading Fuse when it reminded me way too much of the high-octane melodrama that afflicts most YA novels these days. The tension between Bradwell and Pressia felt forced and unnecessarily complicated. With everything else going on around them, the stakes so apocalyptically high, I just wanted to shake the two of them and tell them to get over it already.

But I soldiered along because I LOVE this post-Detonations world Baggott has created. And then something began to happen once I passed the half-way mark -- I began to have a really good time. El Capitan and Helmud are fantastic characters who by the end just about stole the entire show for me. I just love them. I was starting to lose patience with the Lyda/Partridge storyline and then all of a sudden, my eyes could not tear themselves away from the page. I needed to know everything. I was desperate for their safety.

Spoiler

Lyda pregnant and now trapped in the Dome again? Partridge's confrontation with his father stopped my heart. Kissing him and blowing the deadly pill to the back of Willux's throat? I gasped aloud. No, seriously, I really did.

Bradwell and Pressia began to read like the heroes they are: kick-ass, smart, flawed and complicated. I began to love how they were talking to each other, their bond felt real and earned.

And Fignan?? What an adorable, outright fun contribution to the story. With his flashing lights and vast reserves of vital information, he would make R2D2 proud.

The last 100 pages of this novel is where it really begins to rip and roar, shimmy and jive.

Spoiler

I mean, there's even an airship adventure and creepy choking vines that seem prescient. And WHAT THE HELL has Pressia done to Bradwell by using the vial contents on him? Those wings sound HUGE. What is this going to do to him, emotionally and physically? And will he hate her for it?

So many questions, so much excitement, and now I have to wait another goddamn year for book 3!!!