Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

ISBN: 9781595143976
Publisher: Penguin Group [USA] Inc.
Release Date: January 11, 2011
Series: Across the Universe #1
Page Count: 417 pages

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

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:

WHAT I LIKED:

• I was drawn in by the story within the first few pages and I was hooked the whole way through.
• The writing, plot, characters - everything - just flowed so perfectly together.
• The futuristic words, e.g. "frex", "shite", "uni", "brilly", "vits", etc. At first I wasnt sure how I felt about them because they seemed a little silly, but I think they made the story unique and added to the world building.
• Many people complained that the cover of the book and even (somehow) the blurb made this seem like an epic romance. I went into this expecting the opposite because of reviews and the cover, and I didnt miss the lack of epic romance one bit. The story was perfect without it.
• Full of social and political issues. Some may think this is a flaw because not everyone wants politics in their for-fun reads, but in this day and age and the way the world is changing, its refreshing to see a young adult book that addresses some issues like race, religion, government, war, etc.
• Revis was extremely detailed, even in the sickest, most disturbing scenes. She is a master writer and though some of it made me sick to my stomach, I am still in awe.
• The world building by Revis is something to be rivaled. I am so fascinated and intrigued by life on Godspeed that instead of reading a new book from a different series, I've decided I'm powering right through this trilogy and starting book 2 tomorrow.
• This book delivered surprise after surprise after sur-freaking-prise. I can honestly say that this one was throwing me curveballs until the very end.
• Character development? What!? Loved Amy and Elder, even Eldest was a great antagonist. I love that Revis gave us some insight into minor characters as well. Oh... Harley. :/
• Last but not least, and I just wanted to throw this little one in - Revis' writing is so amazing. She even somehow made me feel sympathy for one of the antagonists! How?! How Beth Revis, do you do this to me!?

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: (at this point, is there even anything? I feel like I am grasping at straws)

• This is labeled as a young adult book, but the only reason I think it is is because it has teenagers as MCs. Some of the themes in this book are pretty adult, which is okay for some teenagers, but there were some scenes, vividly described, that even I had to put the book down for a few minutes. So parents, be careful before letting your teenager read this one.
• When Amy wakes up from being frozen (not a spoiler, she obviously cant be frozen the whole book), she describes the inhabitants of Godspeed as having a strange accent. In my head it is a mix between gibberish and an Irish lilt to their voice. Can anyone help me? The book does NOT describe this very well, so if anyone has any idea of what it actually sounds like - please enlighten me.
• There were a few times - and only a slight few - that Elder seemed weird to me. Maybe it was his dialogue that was a little off. Or his reactions to certain things. Maybe it was just me. It was only a few times, but the rest of the book was so well put together that it was enough make me wonder, but not enough to make me drop the rating by any means.

     DISCUSSION:

Normally this section is called "Summary" because I usually just take a few sentences or a paragraph to sum up my thoughts. I only changed the title for this review because I am afraid I may begin to ramble or go on for much too long. For this, my friends, I apologize. :)

When I picked up this book off my TBR shelf, I only grabbed it because I really couldnt pick anything else to read. By page 5 I was so pleasantly surprised and 4 days later, I was shocked to my core. I havent felt this way about a book in quite a while - I had been steadily losing steam and only reading out of duty. I wasnt truly enjoying reading so, thank you Beth Revis for nudging me back into my love of reading all over again.

I guess I never really realized how much I liked sci-fi. And I mean really extra sci-fi novels. Like The Giver, which is one of my favorite books. I love that book and I dont know how I didnt know this was a love of mine. So many people were upset about the lack of romance. It was somewhere around the last chapter of the book when I finally found myself wishing for some romance. The entire book wouldve been perfectly fine with me if Elder and Amy had no prospect of romance. That is how awesome I think this book was that I dont think it needed the cliche love story.

Also, this is a very political read, bringing up the likes of population control, birth control, promiscuity, "monoethicity" or a master race, etc etc and et.cet.er.a!!! Oh, am I gushing now? I must be, at this point. I am not one to gush, I dont think so anyway, but upon finishing this book I was laying in bed beside my fiance and I kept putting the book over my face and saying "wow" or "oh my God, is this happening?" It is not often that a book makes me even speak out loud or marvel at the occurrences in a novel.

This book was so much more than what I was expecting. Thank you Beth Revis - thank you, thank you!

     RATING: ★★★★★

I absolutely loved this book. Dont get me wrong, there were some (though few) things I disliked about this book, but they were inconsequential to the fact that I literally read this book during every free second I had, and I havent finished a book this fast or enjoyed one this much in months. Loved it! I cannot wait to start reading the next installment, A Million Suns tomorrow and then finally Shades of Earth within the next few days. I recommend this to sci-fi and dystopian lovers who dont need a romance to complete a story for them.

Have any of you read this book? I know many readers loved this, but also some did not mainly because of the political aspects and the lack of epic romance as portrayed on the original cover. Did you like it or dislike, agree with me or disagree? I would love to hear from you on this one!

A.