Pure

Pure is full of love, betrayal, and friendship. The story follows a small group of girls who, at the age of 12, individually made vows to keep themselves pure until marriage. Now that a few years have gone by, the girls are 15 and the world is different. Where boys were once just an annoyance and it was easy to say that they would be pure for their wedding night, the girls find things a bit more complicated. Tabitha, Morgan, Priah, and Naeomi are going strong in their pledge to stay pure, but another friend falls off the wagon. When Cara discloses that she and her boyfriend have gone "all the way" everyone has an opinion. From freaking-out parents, to friends dropping Cara like she's a hot potato, life has suddenly become very interesting. As the story is told from Tabitha's point-of-view, we gain her insight on the situation. Her friends' choices, along with her own, create the chaos and fallout that ensues. Friendships are fragmented, new bonds are formed, and everyone emerges changed. A magnetic read that you can't help but get sucked in to, Terra McVoy has taken a very serious and popular current topic and turned it in to an applicable and relatable story for today's teens. The writing is witty, amusing and accessible to all who enjoy a true-to-life story.

In an effort to familiarize myself with books that my soon-to-be preteen daughter will want to read in the future, I picked up a copy of Pure at my local bookstore. I expected to read it with just a parent's eye, and not really care one way or another about what happens to the characters - just to decide if it would be appropriate for my kids in a few years. I was very pleasantly surprised! I read this book in just two evenings, wanting to read just one more chapter, which turned into two, then three more. I never had much experience in the world of church youth groups, and these characters offered a window into this unfamiliar world. As the characters developed and the story progressed, I wanted to tell them to be gentle with themselves, more forgiving of their own mistakes and those of their friends. But that's not how we tend to operate in young adulthood! As a 15 year old, I remember being very black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. There was very little gray area in life and friendships, and the Terra McVoy did a fantastic job of capturing the mindsets, conversations, and behaviors of young teenagers in high school. Pre-marital sex is a central issue of the story, but there is so much more to discuss with your daughter or friends who read this book. At least as important is how the promises we make to each other, and to ourselves, change over time. What is a fair promise to ask a friend to make? Why do we make certain promises at different points in life? As we grow and change, is it fair to hold one another to the same promises we made years earlier? How are trust and communication involved? How can you be true to yourself and keep promises you've made? Pure is absolutely worth a read. Pick up a copy and read it yourself first, then maybe with girlfriends who have daughters, or your own daughter.

Sometimes you read a book that when you're finished you feel lonely. Lonely because your journey of getting to know those characters is over. This is how I felt when finishing Pure. I loved getting to know Tabitha. I loved seeing her relationship with Cara, Morgan, and Jake develop and grow and find new plains of friendship. I wish I could know what happens to everyone. Like, keeps tabs on their lives, haha! I love how controversial this novel is. Controversial nowadays almost means rebellious and unconventional. But I think Pure is controversial because it is so conventional. Purity rings, church, and perfect families. Sometimes people are afraid of morals and what the effect of other peoples' morals will have on them. This novel was brilliant. It was educational but not preachy. The relationship Tabitha had with Morgan was so real and I'm very glad it ended the way it did. This novel shows us that not all things are cut and dry. The one other thing I enjoyed was something the author didn't do. I'm glad Cara didn't get pregnant in this novel. So many novels about pre-marital sex focus on the consequences of the body but not many focus on what happens to the people around and Pure did just that.

I don't know how McVoy, not being in high school herself, can capture the challenges of those four years so well. But her voice, her characters, and even more, the struggles they encounter are so real it's frightening. A joy to read, and a brilliant description of the challenges of too-easy ethics, Pure is bound to be a hit among young adults, their parents, and youth pastors everywhere.

Tabitha and her four best friends wear purity rings, a visible reminder of their promise to remain virgins until they marry. At fifteen, it is mainly these purity rings and what they stand for that have kept them together. But now things are changing--and boys come into the picture. And when Cara breaks her promise, it turns their friendship upside down. Morgan and Naeomi and Priah drop Cara, refusing to be friends with her, leaving Tabitha split between staying loyal to Cara and disliking the fact that she broke her promise...will they five of them ever be able to make up their differences? Pure is a fresh, funny, and wise new novel that addresses everything from family differences and friendships to boys and religion. Tera Elan McVoy's writing is, plainly speaking, wonderful. She effortless captures the emotions associated with the apprehension and joy of first love, the anxiety and anguish of friendship troubles, and the uncertainty of beliefs in a large and diverse world. Tabitha is an extremely grounded and likable character who readers will easily be able to relate to and empathize with as she tries to find a balance between being loyal to herself and her beliefs, being loyal to her friends, and most importantly, being loyal to God. McVoy's personal, down-to-earth writing style and sense of how teens operate--in speech, attitude, and thoughts--is very obvious, making it seem as though Tabitha's world is your own. Pure is a wonderfully positive, realistically complicated, and sweetly romantic read that will challenge and strengthen your beliefs in friendship and God. Cover Comment: This isn't the most outstanding cover I've seen, but I do like how simple it is. Given the approach that it takes on sex though, I was surprised to see the cherry (and all that it implies) on the cover, but it is presented nicely (something along the lines The Second Virginity of Suzy Green would have been horrid). This is a superb book stuck in a ho-hum cover--I hope it doesn't deter too many people from picking it up!