So, I finally had the chance to read Fuse, the second novel in Julianna Baggott’s Pure trilogy. I had the novel ready to go on my Kindle app, I just didn’t have a chance to read it until recently.
Let me tell you, a part of me regrets the choice to let it wait. I loved Fuse, and I’m having a hard time waiting for the final novel in the trilogy to be released. I’ll definitely be buying it once it’s available come February.
But, the wait for the third novel isn’t the purpose of this recommendation. This recommendation is about Fuse, and why I liked it so much.
Fuse continues on with much of what I loved about Pure (I recommended Pure back in September). First, the character development and relationship development in Fuse was fantastic. I truly felt for what the characters were going through, despite not being able to fully relate to them because they’re experiencing something so different from my own reality. But Baggott did a wonderful job of bringing the characters’ feelings to light without straight-out telling the reader what’s happening.
I also liked how much more we get to learn about the world in the books. The characters travel outside of their comfort zones in Fuse – both emotionally and physically. This is great in and of itself, but what’s even better is that Baggott did it without spending valuable time reteaching us things about her world that we had already been taught in Pure. And that, my friends, is part of why I regretted waiting to read Fuse – I couldn’t quite remember some of the details from Pure that turned out to be fairly important in Fuse.
Admittedly, that left me feeling a bit behind throughout the first part of the novel. But once I caught up, I had a hard time putting the book down. I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to stop reading had I read Pure and Fuse more closely together.
All in all, Fuse is a gripping adult dystopia novel (with young adult crossover potential, of course) that has me wishing the third book were already out.
**The summary below does contain slight spoilers for anyone who hasn’t yet read Pure.
Goodreads summary
We want our son returned. This girl is proof that we can save you all. If you ignore our plea, we will kill our hostages one at a time.
To be a Pure is to be perfect, untouched by Detonations that scarred the earth and sheltered inside the paradise that is the Dome. But Partridge escaped to the outside world, where Wretches struggle to survive amid smoke and ash. Now, at the command of Partridge’s father, the Dome is unleashing nightmare after nightmare upon the Wretches in an effort to get him back.
At Partridge’s side is a small band of those united against the Dome: Lyda, the warrior; Bradwell, the revolutionary; El Capitan, the guard; and Pressia, the young woman whose mysterious past ties her to Partridge in way she never could have imagined. Long ago a plan was hatched that could mean the earth’s ultimate doom. Now only Partridge and Pressia can set things right.
To save millions of innocent lives, Partridge must risk his own by returning to the Dome and facing his most terrifying challenge. And Pressia, armed only with a mysterious Black Box, containing a set of cryptic clues, must travel to the very ends of the earth, to a place where no map can guide her. If they succeed, the world will be saved. But should they fail, humankind will pay a terrible price…
Miranda Burski 
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