Young Adult Review & Giveaway: Unbreathable by Hafsah Laziaf

Unbreathable by Hafsah Laziaf

ebook, 379 pages

Expected Publication: October 28, 2013 by Hybrid Fiction

Source: Author

One hundred and fifty years ago, Earth was destroyed, and the remaining humans fled to the dusty red planet of Jutaire, where the only oxygen is manufactured, food is scarce, and death strikes often.

When Lissa's father discovers Earth still exists, she accidentally inhales the toxic air of Jutaire, and in one breath, discovers she isn't quite human.

Her father hangs for his discovery, and Lissa knows the Chancellors will come for her, for she saw the Earth that night too. With nothing to lose, she sets out to expose the truth. It isn't long before she meets Julian, a beautiful boy who can breathe the toxic air like she can - and shows her that the Jute, the original inhabitants of the planet, are more tangled in their lives than she knows.

But the Chancellors are only pawns in a greater game - one where the Jute control everything. Worse, the Jute plan to leave Jutaire for Earth, but to get there, they need her. And they'll stop at nothing until Lissa is in their clutches, even if they kill every human in the process.

The race for Earth has begun.

Unbreathable is a tale of love, redemption, and sacrifice, and one girl's struggle to find her place in a world where she doesn't belong.

Unbreathable flows at a fast and furious pace, things happening quite quickly so you don't get any time to really settle in and relax.  For the most part this is a positive thing, I cruised through the book in no time and never felt bored.  I could have easily read this one sitting as it was such a fast read.

Lissa, the MC, is a great character.  She felt rather young at the start, but as the book goes on and things are revealed to her, she starts to feel older. She has to find her bravery, but she handles things quite well as they are revealed to her bit by bit.  She is handed more and responsibility and she handles it with finesse.  She may not want it, but she also realizes when she doesn't have a choice and she's the one it needs to go to.

Julian, the love interest, was very sweet.  We see he's a bit broken, but it seems that Lissa helps him along a lot.  I wouldn't have minded a bit more character development on his end, but this wasn't a huge issue.  He was still fantastic and I like him quite a lot.  He's a mix of kick butt and a lost and broken boy.

The world is fantastic!  I really loved the history (of that which we got anyway) and love the way the world works.  I thought it was fascinating, these two different groups of 'people'. The original 'people' (we could call them aliens, but they aren't addressed as such in the book) and the humans who came to the planet from earth.  We see things from the human side and see the Jutes as bad, but I was really happy to see some other angles on this as the book continues.  I love a book where good and bad isn't always so black and white.  

This leads to a few things I liked less.  There's a character that's suppose to be treading that line of good and bad.  Someone that Lissa seems to care for.  Unfortunately I never saw the good in him like she did.  Some time spent on his character and developing this aspect of the book would have elevated it for me because I just never connected with this aspect.

I also felt like some of the scenes moved a bit too fast and I wasn't fully comprehending what was happening, or what had happened.  While it becomes clear as the book continues it was slightly jarring at times.  And one last thing is that I felt like the book was too predictable.  There were things that weren't so much so, but in regards to the romance I felt it was so obvious that it almost seemed silly for them to have the 'revelation'.  I felt like they had already known this and accepted it, so it was almost confusing for me.  There are a few other instances where I felt like things were obvious before the 'revelation' came about.

Regardless of some things I liked less, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The writing was very well done, the editing was nearly perfect (I read an ARC so I can assume the one or two errors are corrected in the final) and the plot and characters were very unique.  The story wraps up well, but it looks like it's going to be a series and I will be all over it!  I would definitely love to see what happens next!

If I were to give half ratings this would be 3.5, but since I don't I think I'll round it up to 4 stars.  {I've also been told a few things have changed since I read the book, so some of the issues I had might have been at least partially fixed.}

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

The author is giving away one ebook copy of Unbreathable. 

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