We're gonna be starting this week's Friday Reads with the review of an ARC of a new science fiction YA book, that hopefully will be the start of a series!
Unbreathable by Hafsah Laziaf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was lucky enough to win a copy of Unbreathable in a Twitter contest done by the author but that didn't influence my opinion on this book.
As soon as I read the blurb for Unbreathable I knew I wanted to read it! I've always been a huge science fiction fan and there's not enough Sci-fi in YA for my taste (though that seems to be changing!) and when I saw that cover... goodness, instant cover lust!
Since I want to make sure I don't spoil your enjoyment of the book, I'll try to keep myself away from spoilers as much as humanly possible.
Unbreathable is the story of Lissa, a human girl living in Jutaire, a planet where the humans fled to when Earth was destroyed. Jutaire is not exactly perfect for humans since the atmosphere is different and oxygen has to be manufactured and they owe the Jute, the native inhabitants of the planet for the technology they have to survive. The rules are that Jute and humans have to be apart, and both races have a xenophobic distaste of each other.
Lissa's father discovers that Earth wasn't destroyed and he is killed for that. After than double shock Lissa discovers she can breathe the toxic air of Jutaire, and that's only the beginning of Lissa's ground-shaking revelations and surprises. After a lifetime of it being just she and her dad and her books about Earth, now she's thrown into the frey of a conflict bigger than she could have imagine and she will discover that almost everything she thought she knew is a lie!
Lissa is a quite girl that has been a recluse for most of her life, with a father that was big on lectures and lessons and not so much on emotional support and get he dies, she finds herself attempting something risky trying to spread the truth he discovered, but she's captured and then she's pushed from the back to the limelight and gets her world shaken in all possible ways! There's a lot of growing up for her to do, she needs to learn to fight, she needs to learn to navigate politics and she has to deal with probably the biggest maze of all for her, the emotional mess that is dumped on her and how she has to discover for herself how love really feels.
The plot has a few twists here and there, not entirely unexpected but it managed to surprise me with the characters more than the plot. There are a lot of questions unexplained about Earth, the Jute, Jutaire itself, but I'm hoping all be covered in a sequel (and a prequel).
Fair warning, there is a love triangle in this book, and despite my dislike of them, I wasn't irritated by it. Lissa is an emotional mess that isn't even sure how to negotiate all the revelations that have been thrown at her and now she has to deal with the interest of Rowan and Julian, who look similar enough to be twins and are a bit like the Yin and Yang of the spectrum. At certain points I would have liked to tell Lissa to get a grip and not to get herself into even deeper crap, but most of the time she manages to deal with the very tough cards she's been dealt in a good way.
This was a great first book from the author and a good addition to the YA sci-fi genre, well deserved 4 stars. Really looking forward to read more about the story!
View all my reviews
Unbreathable by Hafsah LaziafMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was lucky enough to win a copy of Unbreathable in a Twitter contest done by the author but that didn't influence my opinion on this book.
As soon as I read the blurb for Unbreathable I knew I wanted to read it! I've always been a huge science fiction fan and there's not enough Sci-fi in YA for my taste (though that seems to be changing!) and when I saw that cover... goodness, instant cover lust!
Since I want to make sure I don't spoil your enjoyment of the book, I'll try to keep myself away from spoilers as much as humanly possible.
Unbreathable is the story of Lissa, a human girl living in Jutaire, a planet where the humans fled to when Earth was destroyed. Jutaire is not exactly perfect for humans since the atmosphere is different and oxygen has to be manufactured and they owe the Jute, the native inhabitants of the planet for the technology they have to survive. The rules are that Jute and humans have to be apart, and both races have a xenophobic distaste of each other.
Lissa's father discovers that Earth wasn't destroyed and he is killed for that. After than double shock Lissa discovers she can breathe the toxic air of Jutaire, and that's only the beginning of Lissa's ground-shaking revelations and surprises. After a lifetime of it being just she and her dad and her books about Earth, now she's thrown into the frey of a conflict bigger than she could have imagine and she will discover that almost everything she thought she knew is a lie!
Lissa is a quite girl that has been a recluse for most of her life, with a father that was big on lectures and lessons and not so much on emotional support and get he dies, she finds herself attempting something risky trying to spread the truth he discovered, but she's captured and then she's pushed from the back to the limelight and gets her world shaken in all possible ways! There's a lot of growing up for her to do, she needs to learn to fight, she needs to learn to navigate politics and she has to deal with probably the biggest maze of all for her, the emotional mess that is dumped on her and how she has to discover for herself how love really feels.
The plot has a few twists here and there, not entirely unexpected but it managed to surprise me with the characters more than the plot. There are a lot of questions unexplained about Earth, the Jute, Jutaire itself, but I'm hoping all be covered in a sequel (and a prequel).
Fair warning, there is a love triangle in this book, and despite my dislike of them, I wasn't irritated by it. Lissa is an emotional mess that isn't even sure how to negotiate all the revelations that have been thrown at her and now she has to deal with the interest of Rowan and Julian, who look similar enough to be twins and are a bit like the Yin and Yang of the spectrum. At certain points I would have liked to tell Lissa to get a grip and not to get herself into even deeper crap, but most of the time she manages to deal with the very tough cards she's been dealt in a good way.
This was a great first book from the author and a good addition to the YA sci-fi genre, well deserved 4 stars. Really looking forward to read more about the story!
View all my reviews
Awesome review :D Sounds like a great book. <3 I do like the cover :) So pretty. But sigh, another love triangle? DO NOT WANT. Still. Glad you managed to enjoy the book :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Carina! It was surprisingly not a bad love triangle! I hope you'll check it out!
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