Title: Breathe
Author: Sarah Crossan
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Genre: YA, Dystopian Fiction
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Published by: HarperCollins Canada
Source: ARC from Publisher for honest review
Rating: 4.5/5


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Synopsis
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?

My Thoughts
Debut author Sarah Crossan has created a very interesting and mysterious world in Breathe. We follow Bea, Quinn and Alina on their journey outside "the pod" which provides a vast population with oxygen. The outside world is not so lucky, the trees have been destroyed and there is a limited amount of oxygen. Yet Quinn and Bea decide to take a camping trip outside the pod to see what it is all about, but it is when they meet Alina that their world gets turned upside down.

Alina is part of the resistance and she believes that the government is holding people hostage in the pod and she will do anything to help set them free. But what she didn't expect was the friendships she would develop along the way.

This book was an adventure from beginning to end. The short chapters allowed for the story to flow very nicely and it became a very fast read for me. The dynamic between the characters was fantastic, I felt their emotions and heart aches and I did not feel like anything was forced upon me. It was a great reading flow that lasted the entire time.

The dystopian society that was created was very well done, and believable. The shock value was definitely there, and I found myself shocked at certain moments of the novel and I love that feeling. I loved that I never really knew what was going to happen and I really hope that this continues throughout the series.

Overall I would say that Breathe is an amazing debut and start of a series. It was well developed, in its world and its characters, and there is also a lot of room for growth and development within the story itself. This has easily become one of my favorite new series of the year.