Review: Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Book: Breathe (Breathe #1)
By: Sarah Crossan
Published: October 2, 2012
Published by: Greenwillow

Description: Inhale. Exhale. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe . . .The world is dead. The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen-rich air.

Alinahas been stealing for a long time. She's a little jittery, but not terrified. All she knows is that she's never been caught before. If she's careful, it'll be easy. If she's careful.

Quinnshould be worried about Alina and a bit afraid for himself, too, but even though this is dangerous, it's also the most interesting thing to happen to him in ages. It isn't every day that the girl of your dreams asks you to rescue her.

Beawants to tell him that none of this is fair; they'd planned a trip together, the two of them, and she'd hoped he'd discover her out here, not another girl.

And as they walk into the Outlands with two days' worth of oxygen in their tanks, everything they believe will be shattered. Will they be able to make it back? Will they want to?

My Thoughts: Breathe was a good book with an interesting premise. In an effort to advance technology and society trees in the natural world have been cut down to build towers. As a result, much of the world's oxygen supply has been depleted causing many to suffocate or go crazy from lack of oxygen to the brain. Breathe, a company who had found ways of manufacturing oxygen, has created a pod and allowed some of the population (the rich people, the important people, and those who won lotteries) to live under their protection. Here, you much pay for the use of oxygen, much like we currently pay for electricity or air conditioning. Society is spilt into classes based upon their benefit to the Pod, but as most dystopians go, its this control over society that ultimately becomes Breathe's downfall.

We follow three characters. Bea, Alina, and Quinn. Bea is an auxiliary, pretty much the bottom of the totem pole in the Pod society. Her parents are struggling to pay for air for them to survive, for that reason, she can't run, or kiss or work out, or do anything that would use up more oxygen than necessary. She's determined to pass a test that would allow her to join the ranks of Breathe and become a Premium so that her family would no longer have to struggle.Quinn, on the other hand, is Bea's best friend and the man she's been pining for since forever. He's a premium, and life is pretty much easy for him since his father works for Breathe. He too, wants to work for breathe and has been practicing with Bea so that they both can make it. Finally, there's Alina, the one person who causes the whole story to go in a completely different direction than everyone else meant it to. She's part of the Resistance. She's practiced her ability to survive off of low oxygen levels so that she can eventually survive outside of the Pod. She practices running in areas where speed cameras aren't located (yep, speed cameras) and after something horrible happens, she must flee the Pod or die, an action that brings all our characters together.

I enjoyed seeing Breathe develop. It was an interesting story. The corruption that filled Breathe was absolutely believable and the events that took place outside of the Pod were as well. I can see us as humans ruining the world's oxygen supply due to the excessive way we cut down trees and I can see a corporation using it to their benefit. All of it was realistic and I loved reading about it.

Though there were some parts that weren't completely realistic in that they were a little too convenient, or I couldn't see the attraction between some of the characters, it didn't take away from the appeal of the story at all. There was a bit of a love triangle, but not in the sense that one guy loved two people and vice versa, but in the sense that there was tons of unrequited love/like between characters. I would give this story 3.5 stars. It was a good story, but didn't keep me on the edge of my seat like I'd hoped and besides an interesting premise, it didn't offer anything that I didn't already expect from normal dystopians.