Pure takes dystopian fiction and turns it on its ear with this highly original, provocative, intense, and very, very well written story.

Ms Baggott has created a post apocalyptic world of the most powerful contrasts. In the dome, the blessed few are perfect; leading ideal lives waiting for the outside world to stabilise enough for them to re-inhabit the earth. In the outside, those wretches not blessed with a ticket to the dome when the detonations went off, are walking horror stories. When the explosions occurred people were fused; fused to each other, to the buildings, to the intangible objects they were holding; and not just physically fused, their DNA was somehow altered, so their children are bizarre mutants also.

In many dystopian novels the basic theme is one of the ‘protected’ discovering that there is a world that’s been hidden from them, and usually someone from the ‘outside’ teaches them the reality of the way things are. But in Pure we’re giving so many twists, so much misinformation no one, inside or out, really knows what the truth is, not even those who think they’re controlling the truth.

This is what makes pure just an incredible page turner, despite the true horror; the constant twists cause addiction, creating a strong desire to know what’s going to happen next. When combined with great characters it’s a winning combination.

Although the characters themselves are all a little predictable, they’re well developed, and the interaction is cleverly written, allowing for discovery and further development in a natural pace.

The story is non-stop, from horror to love, from action to creation and discovery, it’s well paced to keep the pages turning, and is guaranteed to cause sleep deprivation.

Some of the elements are quite horrifying, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for those with delicate sensibilities, but the ending is well worth it.

This is the first part in a series, but is a complete story within itself, so no need to worry about suffering through horror to be left hanging. Pure has received a lot of hype, and it’s justified, this is going to be a great series.