This weekend I went camping and managed to devour this book, hanging from a hammock by a lake in West Virginia. The good life of summer.
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.
Paying for air seemed like a very interesting premise, and I was ready to take it on.
Originality: 7- The bubble, the air, and the segregation of class access to air was intriguing. What happens when society losses an essential resource (cough cough or the government controls one? cue ominous music). An extra like for the role of the trees.
Absurdity: 7- Bubble vs. Non-Bubble life. We don't really get a chance to build this world enough, just launch into our teenage action, which makes some of the characters absurd (i.e., everyone of the Drifters and Resistance). Also, Pod Minister, you need to lay off the booze- you are the most absurd of all the characters here.
Level of Harry-Potterness: 5. We crash through the plot of this book, and while the characters are likable, somehow they seem flat, something subtle is missing to make them more real. Besides a few preposterous plot twists and some plot gaps, this is an easy read and a new take on a very well told story of distopian high schoolers and revolution.
This sounds like such a great premise, chalk full of potential! It kind of reminds me of the movie In Time, which also explores class divisions and people pay for things with time off their lives. The movie worked out well and I'm always up for a good dystopian, so here's to hoping this book pays off too!
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I usually love all the high school drama, but lately I've just been.... blah. I love your review of this. It made me laugh. :)
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