Review – Burn (Pure, Book 3) by Julianna Baggott (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopia
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: February 4, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1455502998
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Pure series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 2/5 stars

This is the third, and final, book in the Pure trilogy. It’s by far my least favorite book in the series. I seem to be reading a lot of post-apocalyptic series where the last book in the trilogy is just not all that great. This book is plagued by tons of POVs, a predictable and boring plot, and an absolutely blah ending.

Patridge has taken his father’s place as ruler of the Dome and is trying to change things for the better. Outside the Dome Pressia, Bradwell, and El Capitan/Helmud work on piecing together the mystery of what happened before the Detonations. They think they might have a cure for all the Wretches and Pressia has an idea that might help both the inhabitants of the Dome and the Wretches live in peace.

All I can say about this book is…ugh! I am so glad I finally finished this series, but so disappointed in the ending. Actually the whole book was fairly disappointing and I really struggled through it right from the beginning.

As with the last book, we hear from a number of POVs. This really fractures the story and doesn’t work all that well. I think the whole thing would have been better if we had heard just from Pressia and Partridge or maybe Pressia and Lyda. Switching between Pressia, Bradwell, Helmud/El Captain, Partridge, and Lyda is exhausting and really draws out the story.

Pressia is probably the most admirable character of the bunch, she really wants to try and fix things. She at times shows too much trust, which is really odd considering how untrusting she is through the rest of the series. At times I felt like her personality just wasn’t all that consistent.

Patridge is a huge disappoint. He is in a position of great power, yet he doesn’t really do anything except make everything worse. He doesn’t have any leadership experience and it definitely showed. He acted spoiled and entitled and in general was a mess. It was hugely disappointing to watch how he handled things in the Dome.

Lyda was another disappointment. She spends the majority of the book whining about Patridge not being around while she is pregnant….then she encourages him to marry another woman. Then she spends a ton of time destroying her room in an effort to weaponize it. She never tries to escape, she never tries to influence anything or anyone in a way that would help. I really had no idea why she was even in the story by the end of it all.

El Captain/Helmud has degenerated into a soggy mess. He loves Pressia and everything he does is driven by his desire to please her even though she has shown him that she doesn’t love him in return. He is pretty much all “Oh, if that’s what Pressia wants to do fine” throughout the whole book. It was sooooo sad to see and again so disappointing and so inconsistent with his character in previous books.

Bradwell remains difficult throughout the book as well. He is largely unsupportive and unhelpful to Pressia, he is stubborn and unwilling to see any good in the Dome residents. He berates and contradicts Pressia throughout the whole story, but when he re-confesses his love for Pressia she is completely forgiving…again this is very un-Pressia like.

The plot is a bit of a mess too. We get to watch Patridge do a whole lot of nothing. Then when he tells the people of the Dome what they pretty much already know, the events that follow are very contrived and completely unbelievable. A big deal is made about survivors’guilt…but seriously these people have been in the Dome for some time….you think they would have dealt with this issues already.

There are some interesting revelations about the cure and the existence of other Domes. There is also some interesting discussion about curing the Wretches and whether or not the Wretches need/want to be cured. There is also strange genetic engineering that is never even explained in a hand-waving type of way, people frozen in stasis, and a large war involving the Mothers. Despite all the craziness the book felt like a bit of a plodding mess to me….it was boring and rushed and confusing all at the same time.

I don’t really even want to talk about the ending. There really wasn’t one. A number of the character storylines have no resolution and I feel like the plot wasn’t really resolved…it just kind of fell into pieces.

I have been disappointed in a number of Dystopian series endings this year. Allegiant was awful and then Sunrise by Mike Mullen was okay but not great. It makes me scared to read the ending to Dan Wells Partials series this month…I am worried that will be just as disappointing all the others have been!

Overall a disappointing ending to what started out as an interesting and creative post-apocalyptic series. I thought there were too many POVs, the characters acted…well..either out of character or stupidly. The plot was a mess and felt contrived, rushed, boring, and confusing all at once. Then there really wasn’t any resolution to the plot. Honestly I would pass up this series, the first couple books were decent but this one was a disaster. I would recommend Veronica Roth’s Divergent (despite the bad ending) or Dan Wells Partials series over this one. There are many post-apocalyptic young adult books that are better than this series was.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Series Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge