Review: Burn by Julianna Baggott

Title: Burn (Pure #3)
Author: Julianna Baggott
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release date: February 4th 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Pure - here & Fuse - here

Inside the Dome, Patridge has taken his father's place as leader of the Pures. His struggle has led him here, intent upon bringing down the Dome from the inside, with the help of a secret resistance force. But things are not as simple from his new position of power and he finds himself tempted by his father's words: perhaps if the world is to survive it needs the Dome - and Partridge - to rule it...

As Partridge's resolve weakens, Pressia and Bradwell continue piecing together the clues left to them from the time before the Detonations. It is their hope that they will be able to heal the Wretches, and free them from their monstrous fusings and the Dome's oppression once and for all. But everything depends, too, on Partridge. Separated by distance and history, can they still trust their friend and ally? Or is the world doomed to an eternity of war and hardship?

Burn is a book that I  was impatiently waiting to read, so my expectations were sky-high, so although the book didn´t met all my expectations at the end, I really enjoy it, even though I have problems with the ending.

This book begins about a month from where the previous book was left, so Patridge is the ruling power inside the dome or at least that´s what it seems, but despite having been in power for a month he hasn´t achieved nothing of what he expected to help the wretches. Meanwhile Pressia, Bradwell, Captain and Helmud are still in Ireland trying to recover from what happened to them, take back the formula and go home to do their part and with Partridge help to heal and remove the fusing from the wretches.

I'm always a bit apprehensive when I´m reading the final book in a trilogy or series, because I always have an idea of ​​what I want or expect to happen with the story, but it rarely happens what I want and I'm a little afraid that I may not like the end, due to remaining unanswered questions, etc, etc.; but I had great expectations but I also didn´t want it to end that´s why I tried to prolong it the more I could because I wanted to enjoy it. In Burn there is less action than on the previous books because the plot is more focused on trying to balance or show both sides of the coin, since the Pures want and think they are the chosen ones, that they are right and are the wretches should be permanently eliminated. Meanwhile the wretches, think and want to make them pay (the Pures) for what they did to them and the world.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, but I felt that the pace of the book was a little slow in the first part of the book and adding to that the jumping between four different point of views there were times when I desperate because I wanted to know what was going to happen to the dome, the Pures and the wretches. Regarding the main characters there were times when I was frustrated with Lyda, Partridge and Bradwell mainly because of the decisions they were making (no! why?!), but I loved Pressia, el Captain and Helmud. And the ending ..... I'm still processing it, is not the end I would have liked or expected, but that end is maybe what must happen for the characters have a different future, it was realistic, but I felt it a little rushed and left me with some unanswered questions.
I really enjoyed this trilogy and I definitely recommend the Pure trilogy, to those that like a little dark and raw post-apocalyptic/dystopic novels.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Favorite quote

But she´s chosen this truth - grotesquely beautiful and beautifully grotesque - this world.

Fuse by Julianna Baggott

Title: Fuse (Pure #2)
Author: Julianna Baggott 
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release date: February 19th 2013
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Pure - here.

When the world ended, those who dwelled within the Dome were safe. Inside their glass world the Pures live on unscarred, while those outside—the Wretches—struggle to survive amidst the smoke and ash.

Believing his mother was living among the Wretches, Partridge escaped from the Dome to find her. Determined to regain control over his son, Willux, the leader of the Pures, unleashes a violent new attack on the Wretches. It’s up to Pressia Belze, a young woman with her own mysterious past, to decode a set of cryptic clues from the past to set the Wretches free.

An epic quest that sweeps readers into a world of beautiful brutality, Fuse continues the story of two people fighting to save their futures—and change the fate of the world.

If you have read Pure the first book in the trilogy, you'll know that this book is not a light read, in this post-apocalyptic world, where the story unfolds, it is not pretty .... is dark, creepy, bizarre, unpredictable and disturbing, but it´s very interesting, intense and has a great world-building.

Fuse begins a few weeks after the events of Pure, each of the protagonists are following with their life, until Ellery Willux decides that he wants his son back, he must return to the dome, so he launches an attack against the wretches and he will not cease until his son is returned, because he has "big" plans for him. This triggers several subplots in the story, but I will not go into detail so as not to spoiler this book, I can only say that the plot is really good and unexpected.

This book is viewed from four different perspectives or POVs of Pressia, Captain, Partridge and Lyda ... and I still think it would have been good idea at least one time include Bradwell.´s POV as well.  All these characters are easy to love and understand, but this time I liked least Lyda's character because while she is learning to be independent, "deprogramming" of her believes from the dome and making her own decisions, but sometimes I felt her very indecisive and doubting her decisions.

And something I would recommend to do before reading Fuse is to re-read Pure, because although there is a reminder of the events of the first book, there were times when I could not remember who they were referring.

Fuse is a very good second book in a trilogy and I feel that in this book we learned a little more about the characters and especially the villain - Ellery Willux, this man is really insane, he has a bizarre vision of the world and of himself. ... he has no respect for anyone's life and has a god complex. Now I cannot wait to read Burn, the last book of the trilogy and with those endings I need to know what will happen next!, I almost had a mini heart attack when I read the words "The End of Book Two".... I want (need) to know what´s going to happen to Bradwell, Pressia, Captain, Partridge and Lyda.

I do recommended this book!, but I do not think this book is appropriate for younger teens or impressionable people, because the world in which the story unfolds is cruel, scary and disturbing.

I want to thank Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for this review copy.

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Title: Pure (Pure #1)
Author: Julianna Baggott
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release date: February 8, 2012.
Source: Netgalley
Rating : 4/5


Buy it at: Book Depository , Amazon
Read first chapter HERE.

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .


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.

"We know you are here, our brothers and sisters.

We will, one day, emerge from the Dome to join you in peace.

For now, we watch from afar, benevolently"

Pure is a dystopian novel about the dark days post-apocalyptic and the struggling to survive of the people that are left behind.

When I start reading Pure it was a bit of a shock to me, trying to imagine such world, is not sugar coated, the earth after “the end” is raw, grotesque at times. The story is situated nine years after the “detonations”, so most people remember the before, remember how was the world before the cataclysm. And there are two groups of survivors: the ones that live inside the dome that are called Pures and the ones that live outside the dome called wretches. The people that survive outside the dome are scarred, burned or fused with objects.

Pressia is 15 years old at the beginning of the story, she lives outside the dome with her grandfather and in her world the “military” recruit  all the people at sixteen and you have two choices be a soldier or be a target. Is a crude world and all the people doing what they can to survive and surprisingly Pressia has a good heart. She tries to stay alive but she helps people whenever she can.

Inside the dome lives Partridge, he´s 18 years old, a privileged boy in a sort of boarding school where he goes to classes,  to parties, lives in a safe environment, he has the “perfect” life, unmarked,  scarless.

What are the odds of this two different people meet each other?

I like Pure because is the first dystopian novel that I read that is situated shortly after the cataclysm. The people still remember the before, that must be difficult...to remember.

This novel got me hooked, has action, mystery, conspiracy theory.

Booktrailer

Thanks to Latin Books Tour  for the tour of this book.