Review: One by Sarah Crossan

Title: One
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release date: September 15th 2015
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 4.5/5

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Tippi and Grace share everything—clothes, friends . . . even their body. Writing in free verse, Sarah Crossan tells the sensitive and moving story of conjoined twin sisters, which will find fans in readers of Gayle Forman, Jodi Picoult, and Jandy Nelson.

Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it’s normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. The two sixteen-year-old girls have two heads, two hearts, and each has two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery.

But the girls’ body is beginning to fight against them. And soon they will have to face the impossible choice they have avoided for their entire lives.

One is a novel written in free verse, emotionally charged, sad and touching about two conjoined twin sisters. This is the first novel I've read that is written in verse, so that part was new for me and I really really enjoyed it tremendously.

Tippi and Grace are two 16 year old girls that all their lives have been home schooled, attended regularly to the doctor for check ups about their health, and visit often the psychologist, all of these have affected the economy of her family and for the first time in their life they´re going to public school, where they will make friends but also be mocked and misunderstood by their peers. Besides that one of the girls begins to have romantic feelings for one of her classmates, something she never saw as a possibility, due to the isolation in which they grew up, aside from their family, doctors and people they crossed paths on the street, they had no friends of their own age.

An also for the first time Tippi and Grace are forced to really contemplate the idea of ​​separation surgery because if they didn´t undertake such surgery it would have a great impact on their health.

The story is told in verse, from the viewpoint of Grace, which is the most friendly twin, which accepts the decisions of their parents and sister, without causing problems and is carried away by his Tippi, the twin with more character dominant.

One is beautifully written, it's a sad, touching, poignant, bittersweet novel, is one of those books that once you finish reading it you can not get it out of your head by the roller coaster of emotions that provoke on you. I highly recommended this contemporary novel.

Review: Resist by Sarah Crossan

Title: Resist (Breathe #2)
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release date: October 8th 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Breathe - here

The sequel - and conclusion - to Sarah Crossan's Breathe. Three teen outlaws must survive on their own in a world without air, exiled outside the glass dome that protects what's left of human civilization. Gripping action, provocative ideas, and shocking revelations in a dystopian novel that fans of Patrick Ness and Veronica Roth will devour.

Bea, Alina, and Quinn are on the run. They started a rebellion and were thrown out of the pod, the only place where there's enough oxygen to breathe. Bea has lost her family. Alina has lost her home. And Quinn has lost his privileged life. Can they survive in the perilous Outlands? Can they finish the revolution they began? Especially when a young operative from the pod's Special Forces is sent after them. Their only chance is to stand together, even when terrible circumstances force them apart. When the future of human society is in danger, these four teens must decide where their allegiances lie. Sarah Crossan has created a dangerous, and shattered society in this wrenching, thought-provoking, and unforgettable post-apocalyptic novel.

I'll start by saying that I did not expect that Resist was the conclusion of Breathe, I had the idea that it was a trilogy and is the standard in the dystopias (and other sub-genres), so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that it was a duology. Another thing I did not expect was the added a point of view, now the story is told from the point of view of Bea, Quinn, Alina and Ronan. When I realized that there was another POV my first reaction was ... who is Ronan! then I remembered seeing him in the first book, but it was a minor appearance that´s why I didn´t remember him.

And because I read Resist and Breathe almost one after the other, it was like just resume where I left it, Bea and Quinn were expelled from the dome and are view as terrorists so they have to find the resistance to join them, and meanwhile Alina and co. must seek a new haven and they head towards Sequoia, a place where they hope to find another resistance group. And when they found Sequoia, it is not at all like any of them expected, I'll just say that it has rules and a way of life that´s rather strict and extreme.

The fact that they are now four points of view in this book worked for me, but there were times that I was in despair because now Bea, Quinn and Alina are separated from each other and my desperation was because at the end of each chapter there was a mini-cliffhanger and I was tempted to skip some chapters just to know what happened to a certain character.

About the main characters in this book, Bea and Quinn grow more as a person, they´re stronger and they are seeing their world with new eyes, they´re tired of what´s happening to the people that lives in the dome, they want to make a difference and although Bea does not see herself as someone strong, in this book I saw her a little more sure of herself and making decisions and I felt like she was the center of change and the plot because a lot of people are depending on her. Alina continues to be strong, independent and wanting to change her world. Meanwhile the new point of view is that of Ronan, he´s the son of the former minister of the dome, but in this book we see that he is also a member of the special forces and that he´s  been fighting against the resistance, but because of what happened in the previous book, he isn´t happy with his job anymore and wants to quit, but there isn´t desertion in the army, but Quinn´s father offers him a way out, he must go to the Outlands and look for Quinn and bring him back, if he does this, Quinn's father will help him leave the army.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, the story has a good pace, the parts where some character can not breathe still give me goosebumps, Resist has more action than the previous book and I must say that I was a little surprised for the ending, because as a good dystopian book many characters die, but there was one that I didn´t saw coming, but otherwise it was a good ending. I recommended this duology for fans of dystopian novels.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review.

Review: Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Title: Breathe (Breathe #1)
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow
Release date: October 2nd 2012

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

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?

Dystopian/post -apocalyptic is one of my favorites sub-genres and I have read some of them about water scarcity, floods, post-war that contaminate the world, falling in love is prohibited, societies with high rates of teen suicide, etc. . , but I had not read one about what would happen if humans destroyed all the trees on earth and across several generations there was a "switch"  in the world where oxygen levels fall dramatically and it made the air unbreathable. Well this is the world were Alina, Quinn and Bea live.

It had been three generations since the "switch" and some lucky humans live in a dome/pod, where the company BREATHE is the supplier of breathable air. People living within the dome live under a regime of three social classes where Premiums are those with good jobs within the company BREATHE and have enough money to pay extra oxygen tanks which are necessary for practicing any physical activity. Then there are the second class where the stewards and other employees and the last class are the auxiliary (or working class), who spend all day working and do not have enough money to pay for extra oxygen.

Breathe is told from the points of view of Alina, Quinn and Bea. Alina is an auxiliary, she´s strong, smart and purposeful but she´s also a member of the resistance, whose goal is to steal trees from the biospheres within the dome and replant them in the outlands. Which is not in the best interest of the pod minister. Bea is also a auxiliary, she ´s good hearted girl that always try to do right thing and is in love with her best friend Quinn. Quinn is a Premium, he has always had an easy life, but even though he´s rich he isn´t a despot like the rest of the Premiums, he´s a boy who is guided by a pretty face and in that moment he has his eyes set on Alina. So when he and Bea are planning a camping trip outside the dome, they have the oxygen needed for their two days trip, but what they did not expect is to meet with Alina, and Quinn can not resist a pretty face and so he decides to help Alina. So these three teens end up making a trip together and that at least Quinn and Bea did not expect and they end up discovering a world outside the dome different from the one they had been told all their life.

I really really liked this book, the idea is very interesting and original (at least I have not read another book on this subject), it has well-developed main characters and it´s easy to grow fond of them. And there are times on the book that give me goosebumps, especially when some characters can not breathe, that moments were really intense (at least for me) and the outlands are really creepy, with all the drifters (with solar respirators), the before world in ruins...just creepy. Breathe is a book that fans of dystopian novels will enjoy.

Favorite quote

"Breathing is a right, not a privilege, so I'm stealing it back." 

UK Book trailer