Breathe (1) by Sarah Crossan
Another system. Another love. Breathe by Sarah Crossan (in German Breathe, Gefangen unter Glas, French La loi du dôme). I read the book in German, there it has 430 pages. Age: 12 (boys & girls)
The world has been reduced to a single city enceased in glass. The only place were breathing is possible. The only place were living is possible. Air the most valueable resource, and not everyone gets an equal amount of it. Quinn, a premium, is at the top of the society, but his friend Bea is only a second – and has to see her hard working parents suffer. When they go out for an adventure tour outside of the dome, a third person joins them: Alina, a rebel, sworn to destroy the system. As the three begin to discover the world outside of the dome, they realise that they have been lied to – but why?
The book was nice enough. The plot is okay, and there are interesting ideas. The style is nothing special, neither too good, nor too bad.
The problem lies with the characters.
Quinn, the premium, is contradictory. He doesn't seem to care for his family, meaning his mother, his siblings and his unborn brother. That doesn't make any sense. Okay, he dislikes his father intensively. Sure, I get that. But to make his unborn brother suffer for something? And what did his mother or his siblings do to him that they deserve to be treated like this? No matter how rotten your family is, you at least think about giving in to a threat that goes against them! They are the people you've spent your entire life with, after all!
Additionally, he risked everything for a girl he met once. Of whom he thinks he fell for. Only to realise he doesn't and completely forget her. Plus, he doesn't care if he endangers Bea for nothing – his best friend and the person he actually loved. Huh? Sense? Especially because Bea describes how thoughtful he is. How he goes out of this way to help her without her ever having to ask him to. So… someone who gladly risks everything for a person, who has a habit of going out of his way to help his best friend, doesn't care that he endangers that girl, forgets the one he thinks he's in love with and sells out his mother, siblings and unborn brother without even thinking twice. Yeah. Sounds entirely plausible.
Well. His best friend, Bea, makes perfectly sense. She's quiet, responsible, less sponateous. But I dislike that she never stands up against Quinn.
Alina is not very likeable, but she is nice enough as well. She's a rebel to the core.
You don't really get to know the other characters well, which is sad. The protagonists are the only ones with a defined personality.
But let's go back to the content again. There is one scene that doesn't make any sense.
A sixteen-year-old, who's nowhere near famous for his intelligence, manages to convince an audience in the matter of two minutes that their entire life is based on a lie. In a matter of two minutes, he manages to make them rebel – the whole city. Without even having evidence. And there weren't even rumours before.
Yeeaah. Sure. Makes sense.
In brief:
I give this book a star for the ideas, minus two for the mistakes in characters and content.