For the first time in a long time, Darius learns to love himself no matter what external forces attempt to squash his confidence. Sohrab teaches Darius what friendship is really about: loyalty, honesty, and someone who has your back in a football (soccer) match. But all that changes when Darius meets Sohrab, a Bahá’í boy, in Yazd. When he arrives in Iran, learning to play the Persian card game Rook, socializing, and celebrating Nowruz with a family he had never properly met before is all overwhelming and leaves Darius wondering if he’ll ever truly belong anywhere. He’s mocked for his name and nerdy interests at Chapel Hill High School in Portland, Oregon, and doesn’t speak enough Farsi to communicate with his Iranian relatives either. Iranian on his mother’s side and white American on his father’s side, Darius never quite fits in. When Darius’ grandfather becomes terminally ill, Darius, along with his parents and younger sister, travels to Iran for the first time in his life. Though the villains sometimes tend toward melodrama, this feeds into the extremity of the setting.Īn above-average dystopia intelligent and absorbing.ĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him.

Her gritty, lifeless world, the result of the destruction of all of the world’s trees, is populated by desperate drifters who survive with portable solar respirators. By embedding one dystopia into another, Crossan keeps readers on their feet. However, when the groups arrive, they learn that Sequoia might be an even worse tyranny than the one they escaped earlier worse, the Sequoia group intends to kill thousands in the pod city. Separated, Bea and Quinn try to find Sequoia, the only remaining sanctuary, while Alina heads in the same direction with her small group of survivors. Also on hand are Alina, one of the first rebels, and Quinn, disaffected son of the pod’s army general.

Now, he joins the rebels when he meets Bea on a trip outside the pod.

Ronan, son of the dictatorial pod minister, became disillusioned when he helped to destroy the rebels’ sanctuary in the last book. Readers are plunged directly into the adventure with little recap. This conclusion to the dystopian romance begun in Breathe (2012) follows a group of teens trying to survive in the airless, derelict wilderness outside of their domed, tyrannical pod.

Breathe book sarah crossan