Across the Universe Review by Beth Revis

Release Date: January 1st, 2011

Publisher: Razorbill, Penguin

Pages: 400pgs

The Story

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

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as a 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.

The Review

Interesting. Weird. And cool. This is how I would describe ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Truth be told, I'm not really a huge fan of the sci-fi genre and the whole "space setting", but this one was a pretty great addition to the young adult and sci-fi book market. In ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, we follow Amy and the choice she has made: to be frozen along with her mother and father, and to leave her current world behind to only plan waking up to a future hundreds of years in the making. Of course, when the future comes, she is "unplugged" from her frozen coffin and wakes up many years ahead of schedule. But then she meets a boy, a sixteen-year-old Elder, the future leader of the spaceship Godspeed.

I loved how the author, Beth Revis, weaved a world inside a spaceship and I also enjoyed the fact that it was told in two POVs - both Amy and Elder's perspectives. It was nice to take a break from both of the characters, as well as entering two entirely different minds. It sort of created a balance between the two of them: Amy represents OUR world of today, while Elder represents the world of the future...so it was very interesting to see how much has changed in the future society.

I admit, I wasn't a fan of Amy's character and there were some "awkward" moments in the book, like with the whole mating Season thing and having some scenes that made me go, "What the hell?" but other than that, I really ENJOYED this book. In saying that, all of the chapters - with each and every page turned - it only made me want to read it MORE and MORE. It was addictive - this world of the future. I hope there's a sequel cause I can't wait to see what Revis comes up with next! And did I mention how much I loved Elder? Geez, love that guy!

The Rating

4/5 stars