Breathe Review

TITLE Breathe (Breathe #1)
AUTHOR Sarah Crossan
PUBLICATION October 2nd 2012 by Greenwillow
READ September 26 - 27, 2012
SOURCE  HarperCollins Canada for review

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?

I hadn't gotten lost in a good dystopian world in quite some time, so when I picked up Breathe I was very excited and ready to get lost. Did I? Kind of. I did enjoy the story and the adventure that Sarah Crossan has weaved together but I will say that the world building definitely left something to be desired. I have a lot of questions about how the world came to be what it was and how people live.

The characters were great, the story is told from three different perspectives. Bea (an auxiliary which is a citizen of the pod who lived in the lower zones), Quinn (a premium which is a citizen of the pod who is rich and lives in zone 1 and can have all the air he pleases) and Alina who is an auxiliary as well but is working with the resistance. I really enjoyed Bea and Quinn, their relationship was rocky and while Bea always had feelings for Quinn, he was such a guy and was totally blind to it. I liked the desperation of Bea's character that was created through her mother pushing her into marrying Quinn simply because of the life that would provide her. I thought I would be a big fan of Alina but in the end she annoyed me. I liked that she had a kick butt and take names personality but there was a level of kindness that was supposed to be achieved in her at the end of the novel and I just didn't feel it. I didn't believe her even though she was having kinder thoughts than in the beginning, her actions were saying differently.

I wish there was a little more back story on how the world became the way it was. I know this follows a concept that we probably went over in middle school science class but I would have liked a clearer picture of how the pod came to be and how the social divides came to be within as well. Sarah does provide great glimpses at the desperation of the citizens at the time, and through the stories Maude Blue tells, I definitely felt for them, I just would have liked a little more of the science of it to be explained, rather than hinted at.

The ending is one that makes you sure you will come back for the sequel and I can't wait to see what happens for everyone after that ending. Overall this is a good read that kept me engaged throughout. This is a series that I will continue on with and I hope to get a clearer picture of the world Crossan has created in the sequel.