Review: Breathe by: Sarah Crossan

Title: Breathe
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Series: Breathe

Description:

The world has no air. If you want to survive, you pay to breathe. But what if you can't? And what if you think everything could be different? Three teens will leave everything they know behind in Sarah Crossan's gripping and original dystopian teen novel of danger, longing, and glimmering hope that will appeal to fans of Patrick Ness and Veronica Roth.

Ever since the Switch, when the oxygen levels plummeted and most of humanity died, the survivors have been protected in glass domes full of manufactured air. Protected . . . or trapped? Or controlled? Alina's a revolutionary who believes we can save the environment. Quinn's a Premium who's never had to worry about having enough air. His best friend, Bea, is an Auxiliary who's never worried about anything but having enough air. When the three cross paths, they will change everything. Sarah Crossan's thrilling and provocative novel is about passion, about yearning for something better, and about breaking free for the very first time.

My thoughts: 

I had no idea this book existed until I received a review copy from its Turkish publishers. Honestly, if I just saw it at a book store and read the description, I think I would just ignore it. Why, you ask?

You know how people have those "irrational" fears? Well, mine comes to life in Sarah Crossan's Breathe: oxygen is very scarce on earth, and you have to pay for it, for you to breathe. I honestly believe a fear is considered "irrational" until it becomes true, and considering the state our planet is in today, this could so easily happen. Also considering inflation rates and how even though everything gets more expensive our salaries stay the same, I would be among the first to die. Sarah Crossan has taken my fear and laid it out on paper. And she did it really well, too, which means I'm even more scared now and will be under this book's spell for a while.

The story is told from three different points of view: Alina, Bea and Quinn's. "Alina's a revolutionary who believes we can save the environment. Quinn's a Premium who's never had to worry about having enough air. His best friend, Bea, is an Auxiliary who's never worried about anything but having enough air." When their paths cross, it leaves you breathless from the beginning to the end! Just like in most books and in real life, the government creates their own agenda, making people believe it without sharing the truth. This starts to unravel eventually, but without oxygen, in a world where running and laughing out loud is forbidden, how do you riot? How do you fight back if you can fight at all?

As I have said before, the dystopian world Crossan has created is very scary because it's very real. You will find yourself saying, "Nah! That would never happen!" But then you'll think about it some and realize it so could. We might all have to pay monthly bills for oxygen some day. 

The only thing I was curious about is how it kept raining in this world that doesn't have oxygen. I'm no scientist, but it feels like something's not right with that. 

P.S. It hasn't been printed in Turkish yet, but the second book in the series is called Resist and it's already out in English.