Pure by Julianna Baggott
There are many books out there drawing varied versions of what the world will look like during and after the “end” comes. The most popular version right now being The Hunger Games and the new North America it draws. There’s a totally different picture being drawn in Pure. A darker picture than many other dystopian books I’ve read, but beautiful in the oddest ways.
The end of the world as we know it in this series (and this is the first in that series) comes with a nuclear event. Those not killed outright by the blast become fused. Objects (or people) they were holding become fused to them. Glass, metal and plastic that was nearby was blown into them and fused as well. Pressia, one of the main characters, was in an airport baggage area holding her favorite doll. She now has burn scars, glass shards imbedded in her arms and a dolls head fused with her hand so there is no distinction of where the doll ends and her fingers begin. Another main character, Partridge, is a pure. He was evacuated to the dome before the detonations. He is unblemished and living a seemingly perfect life. Seemingly… When Partridge discovers that his mother may be alive in the world outside the dome he sets off to find her and learns more about life outside and inside the dome.
This is a quick read but a read to be savored. There is a lot of description of the landscape, and the fused beings that really make you think and wonder what life might be like if you were them. (Like the boy with birds whose wings still flap fused to his back, or the Dusts, creatures that fused with the earth and are not of earth or flesh exclusively any longer.) If you like dystopian fiction you’ll really enjoy this.
