Unbreathable

by Hafsah Laziaf

• ISBN10: 0990013812
• ISBN13: 9780990013815
• Publish Date: 23 October 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Hafsah Laziaf
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 370
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Space is like the next frontier of YA or something, which is where Unbreathable takes place. Jutaire is a Mars-like planet where humans now reside along side, but separate from, the native Jute. It is said that Earth was destroyed, so when Lissa and her father catch a glimpse of the planet, they need to be silenced. Her father is put to death, but Lissa is special. Humans and Jute alike need her for something. Something involving Earth. Both sides want to use her, so Lissa needs to decide who's worth saving in this war.

Unbreathable moves incredibly fast. This is in part due to the quick moving plot, but also to short chapters. I finished the book pretty quickly because of this. However, the situation for Lissa is constantly changing and I couldn't always keep up. At times, things moved way too fast and I'd have to go back and reread a page or two because I missed something. Characters go from perfectly healthy to being at death's end of a poising, from totally evil to somewhat good, from one location to another without much transition. Yes, Unbreathable always held my attention as there's never a dull moment, but there's no breathing room. Pardon the pun.

I loved the setting of Unbreathable. Space is awesome, but I couldn't help but wonder why humans are there in the first place. Obviously Earth wasn't really destroyed since Lissa sees it and the Jute are trying to get to it. But why did humans leave it in the first place to come to a planet where they can't even breath the air and the rain is deadly? Also it seems like the Jute don't have any regard for human life, so why share a planet with them? I also had questions about the Jute motives for wanting to move to Earth. They can't really breath oxygen, so why go to a planet with it? There is a solution to this, but they didn't have it when this plan was developed. I was just really confused.

The romance in Unbreathable really did not work for me. Lissa, of course, has to fall in love with the only other person who is like her: Julian. He's a nice guy, but bland. Then somehow she falls for his brother, Rowan, who is not a nice guy at all, and I don't mean in the bad boy way. This is a love triangle that I could not get behind. Lissa claims she's faking affection for Rowan in order to get information about his evil plan, but in the same breath she has actual feelings for him. But then she's feeling guilty because she has Julian, but when she's with Julian she can't stop thinking about kissing Rowan. If Lissa had either just been using him, or just had feelings for him, I wouldn't have minded. That flip-flopping was annoying. However, at one point I wanted her to choose Rowan, because Julian gives her the creepiest gift ever. I can honestly say I had never read about that gesture of love before, and I never want to again. If a guy gave me that, I'd get a restraining order, not kiss him!

I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy Unbreathable as much as I had hoped. It sounded fun and exciting, but mostly it was confusing. I really liked it in the beginning, but things slowly went downhill as my questions built up and the strange romances developed. While it is nice to get a standalone for once, I do think the story could have benefited from being spread over two or three books. Several things could have been developed more this way, making for a more enjoyable read. As it is though, I was left with the biggest question of all: how do you take blood from someone for 17 years without them knowing?

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[ellieroth]

3.5

Publicado originalmente en: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Un género que no sabía existía hasta hace un par de años era las distopías, ahora es casi imposible no conocer un libro de ese género, no necesariamente haber leído alguno, pero al menos haber escuchado la palabra. Ahora, encontrar algo nuevo entre tanto mundo post-apocaliptico (poniéndome un poco dramática) es difícil. Hafsah Laziaf es una conocida bloguera quién dio el salto de ser resañadora a reseñada, muy valiente por parte de ella, los que estamos en este mundillo sabemos que aceptar críticas no es algo fácil, sobre todo si fuiste tú primero quién empezó criticando (me refiero a críticas en significado completo).

En mi vida leí algo que sea situado fuera de nuestro planeta, nuestra querida y maltratada tierra, en Unbreathable nos encontramos en el planeta Jutaire. El libro al completo es bastante interesante de leer, otra vez la raza humana, tan egoísta y ciega como puede ser (soy un gato, así que conmigo no aplica), hizo a la tierra un lugar inhabitable, donde solo unos lograron huir con los Jute. El libro me recordó un poco a Wall-E, aunque no hay robots dulces y ni Eva, pero en algo me recordó.

Si bien el libro es muy interesante de leer, muy original, tiene algunos detalles que no puedo pasar por alto, el hecho que tiene un gran potencial para ser explotado, pero no logra tener el despegue que esperaba, no es un libro plano, hay mucha acción pero sentí que faltaba algo. Y hay un triángulo amoroso bastante extraño, o quizá es solo que no congenié mucho con la forma como se desarrolla, y es un poco predecible.

En los puntos positivos es que los personajes son complejos, ni buenos buenos ni malos malos, tienen una humanidad que llega a confundir tus emociones. El vínculo familiar, la protección a sus hijos es algo muy marcado en el libro, me gustó eso, porque no es de una manera pesada o sobreprotectora.

Me gustó, es algo nuevo que leer.

Reseña Completa (quejas y comentarios):El Extraño Gato del Cuento

[pagingserenity]

*Note I received an eARC for free in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion.*

UNBREATHABLE by Hafsah Laziaf was so good, I almost stopped breathing. :) I’m not kidding. Okay, maybe a little, but in all seriousness, UNBREATHABLE was a really good read. It tells the story of a girl who is set on exposing hidden secrets and the reasons why her life is suddenly changing. The story takes place on a whole new world. This time I’m not joking - the story takes place on a planet named Jutaire, where some humans now live. After realizing Earth still exists, they want/need to beat the Jute (aka the aliens) there. The race for Earth has begun. (I never thought I’d ever write that).

I only had one tiny problem with this book. I just felt that the world could have been developed a bit more. By the end, I still had a few of questions left unanswered. But maybe Hafsah is holding them hostage for the sequel (I hope there’s one!), which is fine. I just felt like if the world was better developed, it would have been a smidge easier to understand some parts of the story. But having the answers wasn’t exactly necessary. For example, I’m a bit iffy about why the humans moved to Jutaire in the first place, but the answer doesn’t really play a part in the story.

Other than that, I sincerely loved, loved reading UNBREATHABLE. One of the best aspects of the book is the story it tells. The story is one that I had never, ever, ever, read before. And let me tell you, that almost never happens. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, or if it’s just because I’m always stuck in my own bubble, but I found UNBREATHABLE incredibly unique. I mean, have you ever read a book about trying to beat the aliens on a race to get to Earth? I haven’t. And really, the more unique a book is, the better it is. With every twist and turn, the story became more and more interesting and intriguing. So, intriguing that I was almost late for my next class after I had started it during Study Hall. I swear, I didn’t even hear the bell ring - I was too busy reading! Whoops..

The romance in this book was pretty awesome. Somehow UNBREATHABLE managed to contain just the right amount of romance. Enough not to interfere a lot with the story, but enough to make me go “Awwwww!”. However, romance did play a role in the book, a minor, yet important part. There may also be a tiny love triangle. But that’s all I can say without spoiling anything. Oh and there are some hot guys… enough said.

That being said, Lissa is pretty awesome herself. She deals with everything pretty well considering the circumstances. And although her actions are sometimes rash, they are understandable and sometimes expected. I mean if your father was killed for mysterious reasons, wouldn’t you want to discover the truth? It was nice to know that even humans don’t all live on Earth anymore, they still act like the humans we are, that the move didn’t change them that much (personality wise). With every twist that happens and every obstacle that occurs, Lissa proves to be a girl determined to do what she feels is right, no matter what it will cost her. She definitely is a character worth admiring.

Overall, UNBREATHABLE is not a book I would mind reading again (I already have read it twice). It was also good enough to make me want to buy a physical copy. Right now, I’m kind of stalking Hafsah on Twitter for sequel news. And if you know me at all, even just a tiny bit, you probably know I’m not the stalker type (at least I think I’m not…). So yeah, UNBREATHABLE was an epic book! You all better should read it!

*Originally posted at Icy Cold Reads. You can view the original post at Review - UNBREATHABLE.