Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: January 11, 2011
Date Read: June 28 -29, 2011
Rating: 4/5 stars
Summary
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.
Review
I won Across the Universe last month and read it as soon as it arrived. I was a bit nervous thinking I wouldn't enjoy it as much as other people have so far. That's the problem with hype, sometimes it's misleading and I end up reading a 2-star book. But not with this one!
What an amazing premise! A cryogenically-frozen teenager accidentally defrosted on a space ship 200 years away from Earth. Never would've thought of that one in a million years. Beth Revis currently holds the title of Most Creative Plot Premise for 2011. Unfortunately beyond the skeleton of dystopia Across the Universe read like a regular YA contemporary meets dystopia. I would have liked more character growth and development as they all seemed to just have the same opinions and conversations over and over again for a majority of the book. However I give more props to Beth for not falling into the trap of "dystopia must have romance" and managed to keep the romance a secondary piece rather than the main driving plot.
Categorizing Across the Universe is a bit of a challenge. Some have said it's a murder-mystery but I disagree, more like murder and death are major themes in the plot, not something that carries over for the entire series. Others say it's science fiction but I didn't find a lot of sci-fi references to fancy space guns, aliens, wormholes, etc. It just took place...in space? I vote for dystopia! Reluctant readers who might shy away from improbable or unrealistic dystopian novels should definitely give this a try.
On a side note I would suggest listening to Across the Universe, either the original Beatles or Across the Universe soundtrack versions while you read. Totally addictive and makes for an awesome backdrop. I even found a song for the sequel: The Planets Bend Between Us by Snow Patrol from their album, A Hundred Million Suns.
Quote: "Dreams are like that: they go in and out of memories and scenes, but they are never real. They're never real, and I hate them because they aren't."
Recommended: The Host (Stephenie Meyer), Uglies (Scott Westerfeld), The Giver (Lois Lowry),
Nice find with the music. :) Nice review. Loved this book, have yet to buy a finished copy after sending on my ARC. I WILL get around to it! :P I agree about the characters. A shame, but it was still an amazing book.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading this book, it's been sat on my TBR pile for a while now - I must get round to it!!!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed this! I need to get it from the library and read it already. :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the book!
ReplyDeleteGreat music choice, and I'm glad you loved it. And Laura, it's a trilogy!
ReplyDeleteI think I read this one so fast, that I wasn't able to really see any flaws with the story. Which isn't a bad thing at all, but I'm a little worried that when I do reread it, I won't like it as much. Still, I'm anxious for the next installment, whether it's sci-fi, dystopian, or a murder mystery. And I'm looking up that Snow Patrol song right now.
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