**Vault Reviews were posted previously on the main MonsterLibrarian website and are transferred here in an effort to preserve our history. Efforts have been made to ensure the books are still available, but formats, covers, and other details may have changed.** 
Grand Central Publishing, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1455503063
Available: New and kindle
Less than a generation ago, radioactive detonations destroyed civilization. Instead of the survivors dying of radiation sickness, though, they were “fused” to whatever they were holding or touching at the time. The only ones to escape mutation and deformity were saved by enclosure in a protective environment, the Dome, and are known as Pures, alternately worshiped and hated by those left out in a chaotic, deadly world.
Pressia is a sixteen year old girl with a doll’s head fused to her hand who lives outside the Dome, who is soon to be forcibly recruited by a violent militia, and longs for a romanticized past. Bradwell is an underground radical with birds fused to his back, who remembers the ugliness of the time before the Detonations. Partridge is the son of the leader of the Pures, has just learned his mother is alive outside, and escapes so he can find her. The three teens join forces to discover his mother’s whereabouts, but this is an uncharted, broken, and stitched-together journey, rather than a tradtional “hero’s quest”.
The strength of Pure comes from Baggot’s creation of a fantastical post-apocalyptic world, and, in particular, of the way that apocalypse and its aftermath have shaped its inhabitants. The tragedy of mothers and children fused together; the fluttering of birds’ wings fused to Bradwell’s back, permanently scarring him but suggesting that he could almost take flight; the doll’s head fused to Pressia’s hand, with lashes gummed shut by the ash in the air; the violent and carnivorous Dusts, creatures fused with the earth that make every step treacherous. The world-building and character development are intertwined in a way that brings vividness and three-dimensionality to the story. Once you’re inside it, Pure is truly an immersive experience.
What’s most frustrating about the book is the way it’s plotted. For instance, Partridge’s mother leaves such obscure clues to her whereabouts that it is amazing that he, even with Bradwell’s and Pressia’s help, is able to discover and interpret them. Unlikely coincidences that turn out to “happen” to have been planned are frequent, as well. Most importantly, though, is that Pure is clearly the first book in a trilogy, and it ends very abruptly. I don’t mind endings that leave me wondering (The Hunger Games is an excellent example of a book that is part of a series but can stand alone) but I do mind when the story just ends, leaving me hanging practically in the middle of a sentence.
Even so, Baggott has created a vivid world worth visiting, and a journey worth taking for readers of postapocalyptic science fiction, or teens looking for something along the lines of The Hunger Games. Highly recommended.
Contains: murder, suicide, mutilation, torture.
Reviewed by: Kirsten Kowalewski