First Page Friday #9

First Page Friday is a new weekly feature at Pen to Paper, where I will post the first page of a (probably) Young Adult book, that I am particularly excited about, or have already read and loved.

Breathe
by Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 384
Release date: 11th October 2012
Buy: Book Dep | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones
Find on Goodreads

Goodreads synopsis:

When oxygen levels plunge in a treeless world, a state lottery decides which lucky few will live inside the Pod. Everyone else will slowly suffocate. Years after the Switch, life inside the Pod has moved on. A poor Auxiliary class cannot afford the oxygen tax which supplies extra air for running, dancing and sports. The rich Premiums, by contrast, are healthy and strong. Anyone who opposes the regime is labelled a terrorist and ejected from the Pod to die. Sixteen-year-old Alina is part of the secret resistance, but when a mission goes wrong she is forced to escape from the Pod. With only two days of oxygen in her tank, she too faces the terrifying prospect of death by suffocation. Her only hope is to find the mythical Grove, a small enclave of trees protected by a hardcore band of rebels. Does it even exist, and if so, what or who are they protecting the trees from? A dystopian thriller about courage and freedom, with a love story at its heart.

The First Page

My Thoughts...

I finished reading this book a little while ago, and I absolutely adored it. I had been really excited to read it, when my review copy arrived a couple of months earlier - it sounded as though it was going to be a really unique and interesting dystopian. I'm so glad that I wasn't wrong.

I love this first page. When I was reading it for the first time, I was immediately wondering what the characters, Alina and Abel, were up to. It's obvious that they're on some kind of mission, and that it could be a potentially dangerous one (they're trying to be inconspicuous). I really wanted to know what was happening with them, but I also wanted to know what was going on with the Silver Birches, because the world is described as 'treeless' in the synopsis.

The other reason I love this opening, is because Alina is probably my favourite character in the whole book, and I think that, even on the first page, a large part of her character shows through. Although she's technically acting, in this first scene, we also get a glimpse of her caring side.
The way she remains calm in this situation though, also shows the other part of her. She's a very tough, strong character, which I think is the reason for me liking her so much throughout the book. She didn't once give up, despite the difficult situations she found herself in.
I loved this book, and I hope that, if you decide to read it, you will too!

What do you think of this first page? Does it make you want to read the book? 
As always, let us know what you think of it in the comments below!