Review: Across the Universe

Title: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 398
Where I Got This Book: Own
Rating: 5 Stars

Goodreads Summary: 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.


My Thoughts: This was a really amazing story, and I immediately added it to my favorites shelf after finishing it. One author described this story the best by calling it science fiction, romance, dystopia, and a mystery all rolled into one. I would even add thriller into the mix. Seriously, this book is great.

The main story line began later than I expected (Amy doesn't wake up from her cryonic sleep until about fifty pages in) but I couldn't say that it started out slow. I thought the build-up in the beginning was really interesting. I loved how Revis included tiny bits of information, such as including made-up words and having the ship residents have different accents than Amy. Being a part of a completely different society from Earth for centuries would cause noticeable changes in the way a person thinks and speaks, and I loved how Revis handled these tiny, yet important, details.

And while I, myself, have not grown tired of the insta-love plot found in most YA lit, I know many others have, so you all will be happy to know that Amy and Elder's relationship grows in a gradual and realistic manner (aside: Did anyone else have a problem getting used to Elder's name? I kept picturing an old man everytime his name was said in the beginning). The book ended with Elder and Amy still just friends more so than boyfriend and girlfriend since the murder mystery took precedence over their hormones.

I would love to see this book turned into a movie, which is a rare thing for me to say. Usually, I can't imagine a book I enjoyed being changed and adapted for film, but this book had such amazing visuals all throughout it. I know it would make an incredible movie series.

*Major Ending Spoiler* 

Highlight to read: I know that the doctor said Amy can't be frozen again, and of course it isn't plausible for Elder to be frozen with her since he is the only living Elder/Eldest now, but I still hope that somehow things will work out that they can be frozen together at some point in the series. I really want to see Centauri Earth! It would be a shame if the whole series was stuck in the ship. I feel like the residents, getting all claustrophic and dreaming of a new planet and the open sky!