Book review: 'Breathe'

Book:  BreatheAuthor: Sarah CrossanPublisher: Bloomsbury IndiaPages: 400Price: Rs399There's a mild terror in reading about a very plausible future. A future controlled by a single entity, a civilisation cowed into following it, a situation in which oxygen is at a premium, and a population that's been divided into classes based on the amount of oxygen they can afford.Sarah Crossan's Breathe takes you into such a world. The Pod is divided into the Premiums, the well-off people who can afford enough oxygen and are marked with a tattooed circle on their earlobes, and the Auxiliaries, who are fed controlled amounts of oxygen and taxed if they use more. The living areas are equally divided — Zones Two and Three are derelict, depressing places while Zone One is on the edge of the Pod and has light, clean boulevards and glass-facade buildings.Breathe is the company that has created this alternative world by manufacturing and storing oxygen when oxygen levels on earth started plummeting. That's when the Big Switch happened and a few 'lucky' people were taken into the Pod. "Across the whole planet, the bulk of humanity was annihilated within a few years... We're told it was China's fault — all those factories. It was India's fault — all those babies. It was America's fault — all those shoppers"Breathe follows the lives of three students of the Scholastic Institute. Bea’s only hope to get Premium status is getting selected for the Breathe Leadership Programme. Her second option, one that her mother prefers, is to marry her best friend, Quinn, a Premium whose father is friends with the Pod Minister.Alina is a rebel and member of the Rebel Army Terrorist Sect (RATS). The Revolution, as they prefer to call themselves, are a group of people determined to take down the Pod leaders and prove that it is possible to exist, happily, outside of it. Their biggest resource, besides their ability to breathe less oxygen thanks to yoga, is a hidden bunch of trees. This is a classic good versus evil story. The three teenagers are the good guys who are on the run from the Pod and Breathe's story unravels around them, one at a time. You will empathise with the Auxiliaries, cheer the rebels and detest the Premiums (except Quinn, of course). Most of the characters have their shades of grey and tilt towards the good and bad side based on the situation. There are a few side characters who make fleeting appearances, notably Alina's cousin and fellow rebel Silas, and a drifter they pick up called Maude Blue. The rebels want a better world but will not speak about the past that was perfect. As Bea thinks, "If that world was anything but perfect, it would make Alina's struggle less important somehow".Breathe could be a mirror of a situation found in many countries today: absolute control by one powerful entity and suffering by the vast majority. There's even an all-powerful Army in cahoots with the Pod leadership.What will happen in a world with no trees; a world that has no animals or insect life and where people survive on chemically-altered food? The trees are necessary for oxygen and as the Auxiliaries know, it isn't possible to live a good life without it — dancing, running, even having sex uses up oxygen.Beyond the extremely detailed threat of a disturbing future, the beauty of this book lies in the small stuff. There's a small incident when the runaways chance upon a collection of books, and take their time choosing one to take with them. We learn that they aren't taught anything besides Shakespeare, because all literature is Shakespearean. The drifters (those who live outside the Pod) also use solar-powered oxygen tanks.On the downside, Crossan hasn't paid much attention to sketch character details; she has focused more on the current situation instead. The problem with this is the different chapters, told through the viewpoint of the main characters, have the same voice. The first few chapters are fast-paced but once the story moves into the revolution and their struggles, the excitement fades a bit. The story has its fair bit of (unnecessary) teenage life — crushes, unrequited love, a gay relationship, and even a makeover.Ultimately, Breathe succeeds because of its view of a very-plausible and dystopian future. It's a gripping enough, if terrifying, tale.