Review: Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Breathe

Author: Sarah Crossan

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2012

Genre: YA Dystopia

Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

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.

Alina has 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.

Quinn should 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.

Bea wants 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?

          Breathe didn’t cover or surpass my many expectations, but it certainly left me with many thoughts. What made it so great was the world-building and plot. Crossan really put some thought into how a world without Oxygen would work and how would the people would survive. The obvious solution is to live in pods and pump high levels of oxygen, yes, but she also thought about the other end of the spectrum. Well, what of people taught themselves to survive on lower levels of oxygen? That right there blew my mind.

          Unfortunately the incredible world and situations happening were populated by not so amazing characters. It wasn’t that they were two-dimensional, but I just couldn’t find anything to connect with them. That each chapter was only a couple of pages short, only served to further alienate me from the three. I couldn’t get to know anyone really well before, oops, new chapter, new character in new situation.

          Each character was very different from the other, yet their voices sounded the same and I found them all very typical.

          Alina is the typical strong heroine, the one who doesn’t care about her looks (much) and has an ultimate purpose—in this case serving the Resistance. Thanks to Bea, Maude and Quinn, Alina realizes she doesn’t need to be so hard and that friends of all classes are a good thing. This is where it gets interesting, since choosing friends over her current life means defying the Resistance. But then she still chooses the Resistance.

          Bea is the typical weak heroine, the one who’s insecure and has this huge secret crush on her best friend, the hot boy who’s in love with another girl. As the story progresses I could see she grew braver and, if not confident, then not afraid to speak her mind to save others. But she’s still the weak link.

Quinn is the typical cute and fun hero, the one who’s rich yet no idea how lucky he is, and then he falls in love with the rebel girl. I found him to be extremely childish and annoying, but this is because of his upbringing. He’s one of the Premiums and has led a life of comfort since he was born. Because of this, I loved it when his life crashed around him and he opens his eyes to reality. It’s also when he realizes his mistake about whom he should really love. But he’s still very impulsive and doesn’t think things through.

         

If there was one character that was memorable in the entire book, it was Maude Blue, and she’s the crazy old woman.

Overall, I enjoyed the world of Breathe but couldn’t get along with the citizens. The impact I was expecting from the end never came, as it was sort of predictable. But at least were left with an interesting situations, now that things have crashed and burned, and a war has started.

Favorite Quotes:

~Alina~

Was it worth it? How can working for the Resistance be more important than our lives? So we’ll manage to steal a few tree cuttings, smuggle them out, and replant them somewhere—it hardly constitutes saving the planet. When the trees make a comeback, Abel will still be dead. We’ll all be dead.

~Bea~

They don’t want the world to get better because then we’d be free.

~Quinn~

          He watches me the whole time, making sure I understand my obedience protects our whole family. And I do intend to be obedient. I plan to tell my fellow citizens everything I know. I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to tell the truth.