So I want to talk about this book I picked up at the library. It was in the sci fi "new releases" section by an author I hadn't heard of. And you know what? It's great, it's just really, really good, and I'm surprised it's flown largely under the radar since it came out in February.
The book is called 'Pure' by Julianna Baggott.
Basically its set in a post-apocalyptic world where most people have become mutated in the wake of a nuclear attack, except for a lucky few who live in protected isolation in an enclosure called, well, "the Dome." These people are the unmutated, the genetically "pure" if you will. The outside folk, the "wretched" as slurred by the Pure, were pretty much fused to whatever they were next to when the bombs went off. Animals. Machines. Other people. Their own children. The main protagonist has a doll for a hand. They struggle to get by as best they can, but its difficult when the hills are full of man-eating 'Dusts' - monsters created from the fusion of humans and earth - and military-style death squads roam the town, seizing anyone who's come of age for either 1) recruitment or 2) if they're too weak to be a soldier - target practice. Pretty creepy stuff.
Anyway, the main story follows a teenage girl on the run from the recruitment squads and a 'Pure' boy who senses things are not quite as he's been taught and decides to escape from 'The Dome.' Needless to say they join forces and things proceed from there. Yes, there are shades of 'The Hunger Games' to be found here, along with elements of Scott Westerfeld's 'Uglies & Pretties' series, and even some (potential spoiler) Star Wars thrown in for good measure. But it still holds its own and to my mind is quite enjoyable and deserving of more attention than it's gotten.
(I don't know if its the first in a series. I haven't finished it yet. I'm just very enthusiastic about it so far!).
