Book Review-Across The Universe

By Beth Revis

Published by Razorbill

To Be Released on 1/11/11

Source- ARC from Penguin

4.5 stars- Fantastic Debut

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming (quoted from Goodreads).

Across The Universe is such a fantastic read, and one I became so fascinated with, I read it in one sitting. Beth Revis has done a suburb job at writing a story that has left me wondering, "What if." She weaves together an awesome murder-mystery, sci-fi, dystopian thriller with a bit of romance and all confined within the walls of Godspeed. This air ship has been traveling for over 300 years to take humans to a new world that Nasa found to start a new society. Though a society has made up the majority of Godspeed's population, the ones hand chosen to form this new society lay confined and frozen below the main levels of the ship.

When Amy first agreed to be one of the frozen ones, she was only following what her parents where selected to do. When Amy is awoken 50 years before she was suppose to be, it nearly costs her, her life. In a strange place and with no escape and, having no one around her she knows, Amy is a freak among a controlled environment. Everyone looks the same, talks the same and is treated like animals to some extent.

Elder is a teen and the next in line to lead the ship. He also holds answers Amy needs, and is someone she can trust if she allows herself to open up to him. He's not like the others or like Eldest, the leader of the Godspeed, who has warped sense of equality. Elder is destined for great things once he finds his voice. He's a seeker for answers, and knows there's more going on, on Godspeed than Eldest, his mentor is telling him. There's murders, and covers and a huge lapse in the ships history. If Amy and Elder can trust each other and work together, they'll be able to uncover the startling answers.

There are so many other great characters in this book. They are more than just one dimensional and it was so easy to get lost in their world and understand their motives. Across The Universe is told from two different points of views, and done in such a great way that I liked seeing the story from more than one side. That allowed me to understand and learn more about the ship's history, how genuine Elder is and also see how foreign life on the ship is through Amy's eyes. I really liked watching Elder and Amy's relationship grow, as it very realistic in the way Beth wrote it. Both of them have a such strong emotions that they bring out in each other, which is rare in a society that is so controlled. I think it was important to see how raw, and realistic these two fabulous main characters are, as it made them more relatable to me and allowed me to become more emotionally invested into their stories.

Across The Universe is full of twists and turns, which made for an unpredictable plot and a fantastic ending! I rarely find myself devouring sci-fi, dystopian books the way I did with Across The Universe. While the ending is one that was gratifying, I'm really hoping there's a sequel!! I highly recommend this book! It will be on book store shelves 2 months from today!

You can read more about Across The Universe on Beth's site here http://bethrevis.blogspot.com