A large bomb has hit Earth, and everyone except those in the Dome have been affected by the Detonations. Millions have died, and the people who are left on the outside have been left to die in the fallout. Those in the Dome are known as "Pures" by those on the outside. They were untouched by the Detonations, and many have no idea what it's like on the outside because propaganda has hidden the truth. The main character, Pressia Belze is 15 and lives in the back of a deteriorated barber shop with her grandfather. Her hand is fused with a doll's head, and her grandfather's neck is fused with a fan, both were holding these items when the bomb dropped, and everyone who is living on the outside of the dome is either fused with an object (like Pressia), with nature (there are people fused with rock or trees), or with other people (there are things called Groupies, so named because a group of people are now fused together). If that's not bad enough, when children turn 16-years-old, they are taken from their families by the OSR, a revolutionary group who wants to overthrow the Dome and the destroy the perfect people inside who have left them for dead. This group uses the adolescents as new soldiers... or as target practice.

Alternatively, we have the Dome, where the other major character, Partridge, lives. His father is the leader of the Dome, and his brother was a "super-recruit" for the academy, so his last name has a lot of weight. But, although he lives a pretty good life away from "the wretches" (what they call people on the outside), he's unhappy. He hates his father. His brother is gone, and his mother is dead. On top of that, his genetic coding is not working properly. In this place, all young boys goes through a genetic coding process to enhance their skills - they are quicker, more intelligent, etc. His brother was the perfect specimen for these enhancements, but he is not, and his father hates it. One day, his father makes a statement that may mean his mother is alive, so he takes that information and decides to leave the Dome and find the one person who he knows cares for him.

The story is full of twists and turns, and there are many questions that this book puts forth: How malleable is history? Can beauty exist without ugliness? Is it better to live in a cage of ignorance or live in the freedom of a harsh reality?

What I like most about this story was the "beautiful barbarism" of it all. The world that Pressia and Partridge inhabit is dark. I thought The Hunger Games was dark, but it has nothing on this story. There is pain, loss, and sadness throughout the story, and there were times when I had to step away because I was in my feelings a little bit (the mothers' scene was heart-wrenching and triumphant simultaneously). But, the story was beautifully written; the messages about society and power were clear, but not didactic; and the intensity of emotion was electric. I never thought that there could be beauty in a man who has a scarred face and live birds (flapping and all) fused to his back. Baggott showed me that you can find beauty in the unlikeliest of places.

Diversity Elements:

The main character, Pressia, is Japanese and Scotch-Irish;
The race of many other characters is ambiguous, which I liked because I was able to imagine them in my own way