Pure

You would think the world doesn't need another dystopian, post-nuclear tale, but Julianna Baggot's Pure, the first of a trilogy, is a ripping good yarn that creates an intricate world--two of them, really--and is as good an adventure as I've read recently.

Set in presumably the near future, the world has been leveled by nuclear bombs. Known as the "detonations," this marks the before and after of everything. Most people, known as "wretches," scratch and claw out a life for themselves, and most of them have been marked in some ways by the blasts, either by bits of metal or glass in their bodies, or even worse: "A man in a green OSR uniform jumps out. His foot is gone. One of his pant legs is cuffed. And instead of a knee, there's the neck bone of a dog, its furred cranium, its bulged eyes, jaw teeth. Is the man's leg part of the dog's vertebrae?" You see, victims of the blasts have been fused to anything they were in contact with at the time of the flash.

The heroine of the story, Pressia, has scars on her face and instead of a hand there is the plastic head of a doll, which she was clutching as a young child. She has now turned sixteen, cared for by her grandfather, who reminds her of the old days: "'Mickey Mouse,' her grandfather says. 'Don't you remember him?' This is what gets him the most, it seems, that she doesn't remember Mickey Mouse, the trip to Disney World that they were just returning from. 'He had big ears and wore white gloves?'"

Pressia is alert, as it is the law that all sixteen-year-olds must turn themselves into the OSR, once known as Operation Search and Rescue, but now called Operation Sacred Revolution. She would then be trained as a recruit, although she isn't sure what that means. All she knows is that every foray out of her home, an old barber shop, is to take one's life into one's hands.

The other world that Baggott creates is The Dome, a building where a select group have lived, free of the destruction. Built before the detonations, it has served as a sort of Noah's Ark, where the privileged live a life of luxury. But a teenage boy, Partridge, resists the good life. He is sure his mother is still alive, and does what no one would think imaginable--he escapes the Dome.

Partridge, on the outside, is known as a "pure," and is easily recognizable by his lack of scars. Of course Pressia and Partridge will meet up, and along with a rabble-rouser, Bradwell (he has a few living birds fused to his back) try to find Partridge's mother, and will learn uncomfortable things along the way, such as who really caused the detonations and why it was so easy for Partridge to leave the Dome.

There are other great things about the book, such as the character called El Capitan, the OSR training officer who has his brother fused to his back in a life-long piggyback ride. There are the "groupies"--several people fused together, operating as one entity, and the man-hating "mothers," who have a child fused to their bodies and demand a gruesome sacrifice from Partridge in exchange for their help.

Though the characters are young people, and there is no profanity or sex, this isn't necessarily a book for teens. It tells a cautionary tale about fascism and the treatment of the environment. There are also some great moments of light-heartedness and a real sense of loyalty and courage. I'm on board for reading the next book, titled Fuse.


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