Jackie Says This Novel Is, "pretty much a tilt-a-whirl version of the steepest roller coaster ride you can possibly imagine."

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies.

And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Heather says:
"Intrigued by the acclaim heaped on the advance readers edition by the likes of Justin Cronin, Robert Olen Butler, and Daniel Wilson, I picked-up Pure, even though Publisher's Weekly dubbed it a Horror novel (not my genre, generally speaking). Yes, the tale Julianna Baggott weaves for us is at times horrific and dark--based in a stark land,  populated by the mutated victims of an unfathomable apocalypse-- but it is also a beautiful exploration of courage and perseverance, and what truly constitutes a family. The story of Pressia ,whose hand was fused to the head of a doll in the moment of the Detonation (a comparatively minor fusing), and Partridge, who escaped the Detonation by moving into the Dome, only to live with another kind of darkness, Pure is a gripping adventure that twists and turns just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. It is the first in a proposed trilogy, and I can't wait for the second book!"

Jackie says:
"Wow, how do I describe this book?  It's certainly dystopian, there is violence, corruption, death, maiming....  But there is also love, and hope, and plenty of people still fighting the good fight.  It's pretty much a tilt-a-whirl version of the steepest roller coaster ride you can possibly imagine, with the action relentless and dominating.  It's also the most visual book I've read in a long time--Baggott paints word pictures so stark, vivid and real that reading this book is more like watching a movie, the kind that you watch through your fingers at times because it's just that horrifying--but you just can't stop watching.  I forgot to breathe at times.  My pulse raced.  I'm pretty sure I tasted ash in my mouth more than once.  And this is only the first book of a trilogy....."