Review: Pure

Title: Pure
Author: Terra Elan McVoy
Publication date: April 7th, 2009

Summary:
Tabitha and her four best friends all wear purity rings, symbols of the virginity-until-marriage pledge they made back in middle school. Now Tab is fifteen, and her ring has come to mean so much more. It’s a symbol of who she is and what she believes—a reminder of her promises to herself, and her bond to her friends.
But when Tab meets a boy whose kisses make her knees go weak, everything suddenly seems a lot more complicated. Tab’s best friend, Morgan, is far from supportive, and for the first time, Tabitha is forced to keep secrets from the one person with whom she’s always shared everything. When one of those secrets breaks to the surface, Tabitha finds herself at the center of a betrayal that splits her friends apart. As her entire world starts to unravel, Tab’s forced to re-examine her friendships, her faith, and what exactly it means to be pure.

Review:
I was really excited to read this book, because the concept of purity rings was intriguing to me and I'd never read much about them before. While I did enjoy reading it, it felt to me like things never went very in depth. There were 5 girls in the circle of friends (Tabitha, Morgan, Cara, Naeomi, and Priah) but I only felt like I somewhat got to know 3 of them. They each had their own purpose in the story of course, but I felt like maybe they could have each been developed a bit more. The book as a whole was very enjoyable, however I had this slight feeling that something was missing the whole time. Pure was still a great book, I'm just saying that there was potential for more depth in the characters and perhaps the plot.

A lot of the story was based on religion/church and morals (obviously the idea of the purity ring being the main one), and this is not something I'm used to in YA books. I'm not a religious person, so it took a bit of getting used to on my part to have it told so much from that perspective. However, it wasn't completely like in your face or trying to push anything. While it was a big part of the book, it was executed in such a way that anyone, religious or not, could enjoy the book. I admire how that was done, so props to the author :)

I really liked Tabitha, the main character. I felt like I could really relate to her thoughts and how she dealt with a lot of the problems that she had. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, but it wasn't as in depth as I thought it would be, I suppose. It was a cute, light read, but if the author was going for something deeper than that, I think more could have been done with it.


Characters: 6/10
Plot: 7/10
Originality: 8/10
Writing: 8/10
Overall grade: C