Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Breathe by Sarah Crossan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads: 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: In the not so distant future, there was a Switch. Apparently, the people of the world saw no good reason to preserve resources and killed the trees. Now there is not enough oxygen. The lucky ones moved into pods which are differentiated between classes. The lucky ones like Quinn get preferential treatment and extra oxygen. But there is a price he discovers later in the book.

Bea is an optimist who believes her life can improve with the proper test scores behind her name. This dream is shot to crap as there is more governmental control than originally believed. Still, Bea believes in Quinn who sees Bea as a lovely friend. That's all.

Now the mysterious girl who appears and needs to desperately get out of the pod and into a secret haven. Quinn totally digs her. He follows. Bea follows, and all that they knew of the reality they'd grown to accept is completely destroyed.

Although all about keeping the earth green and not giving away too much power to the government, the book is a solid story with well fleshed out characters. They are flawed but growing and it feels a little suffocating reading the books while they are struggling for air or stifled under oxygen tanks. There is much more to their world than they ever knew and the government is happily taking control.

I'll be reading book 2.