(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss. Content warning for rape, drug addiction, depression, self-harm, suicide, and violence. Caution: this review contains minor spoilers.)

-- 4.5 stars --

Forty-six years ago, a scientist named Fencer created a deadly airborne pathogen in a lab - and then released it into the world. Though he just died in prison (at the ripe old age of 89, natch), the dystopian world he created endures. As does humanity: though the air is no longer breathable, people have adapted with the help of "breathers," or respiratory masks that allow them to go about life much as they once did. (Buildings and some vehicles are outfitted with complex ventilation systems.)

BREATHERS follows a cast of regular people as they go about their regular lives: dating, grieving, battling drug addition and depression, trying to keep their kids fed and housed during an economic depression. There's Juliana, a single mother, former drug dealer, and sometimes sex worker, who finds an already tight budget squeezed even thinner when her daughter Mara breaks her arm. Jacob is a traveling breather salesman who is haunted by the memory of his missing wife Emily. Corrupt cop Marsh is addicted to a drug called "Filter K," which causes dementia, violent behavior, and psychosis. October - Tobey for short - tries to juggle a budding relationship with Huck and his sister Easter's depression and suicidal ideation. Easter, meanwhile, suspects that she alone can breathe "fresh" air; this search for meaning brings her to the BARD Institute, and memories she had long buried.

And then there's Piper, Mara's stuffed dragon, into which she's apparently breathed life. Piper can talk, fly, and slay the baddies. If breathable air is the tradeoff for sentient stuffed animals, I just might choose this 'verse. (Plus there are no gas-guzzling cars, so double points.)

Though BREATHERS was conceived, written, and originally released well before the COVID-19 pandemic, reading it through this lens really lends additional dimension and meaning. One of the many subplots focuses on Professor Barnes and the "Breathe Free" movement, a cult-like group that peddles conspiracy theories - chief among them that the virus is a hoax; the air, perfectly breathable. Since Easter's special abilities seem to bolster this claim, I devoured BREATHERS with no small amount of trepidation. Though it felt like the narrative was going in an anti-masker, COVID-denial direction at times, luckily this doesn't prove to be the case. The way that Madson handles the "Breathe Free" storyline is just *chef's kiss* masterful. It's amazing to think that he wrote it pre-COVID, since it dovetails so seamlessly with *gesticulating wildly* everything that's going on in the world in the here and now.

Likewise, all of the disparate plot lines weave together like a beautiful tapestry, as the characters' lives intersect in various ways. I found Juliana's, Jacob's, and Easter's journeys particularly compelling. Easter's struggle with depression - and to find a sense of meaning - resonated something fierce.

But the pièce de résistance has got to be Piper. A talking dragon in a scifi dystopia? Need I say more? ( )