Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Synopsis: 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.

Book Details:

Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)

Pub. Date: Jan. 11, 2011

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 416

My Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis blew me away to space. This is one epic debut novel I suggest everyone read. With all the hype about Across the Universe I was expecting to be enthralled through out the novel. While this is partially true I sometimes found myself thinking that Across the Universe was an okay book. Nothing too awesome about it. It was not until the ending of the book where I found myself thinking this is one freaking awesome book and I totally love it!

First I want to mention the cover. I have complete cover over Across the Universe’s cover. I love all the colors in the cover. Purple is the most awesome color to ever exist so when its placed with pink and multiple shades you get one pretty cover. I love looking at astronomy pictures so the stars on the cover are beautiful. Plus I can’t forget the couple who I suppose are meant to be the two main characters. They are just lovely.

Beth Revis creates a new vocabulary for Across the Universe. I don’t know about anyone else but I love love love when authors get creative and have fun with their novels by creating a special and unique vocabulary. Although most of the unique words Beth created are mostly space curse words I appreciate that Beth did not use actual well known curse words of today. This does not mean that I dislike when authors do use curse words in books, because the truth is almost everyone has cussed at some point in their life. I just like how Beth got creative.

It was really easy to sympathize with everyone on Godspeed. Even if Eldest was a liar ,and evil in his own way, it was understandable why he did what he did. Even though he could of went about the situation a different way. I really like Amy, Elder, and Harley. They were the most real and their own person. Most of the people of Godspeed practically all shared the same mind.

If there was one thing I really didn’t like about the book it has to be The Season. It was really disgusting. The Season is where almost everyone on the ship mate. May I add they mate anywhere they can and that they don’t care if its in front of other people. I do understand why Beth added this situation to the novel. Everything written in Across the Universe is important to what Beth is trying to get across to people. Beth seems right about the 3 causes of discord too. Not too many people think about the reasons why there are hate and wars in this world but Beth did.

The mystery as to who is unfreezing and murdering the frozens will put readers on the edge on of their seats. It was a shock as to who it was although I did have my suspicions on the culprit. I must admit that right after finishing I went back to read the first 10 chapters (or something like that) again. Which has never happened to me before so kudos Beth!

Across the Universe is about seeking the truth when everyone is telling lies. Its also so much more than. I recommend you read Across the Universe to find out for yourself why Across the Universe has gotten all the hype it deserves. Plus its a great addition to the sci-fi and Young Adult shelf.

5 Stars!