Friday, January 21, 2011

Review: Across the Universe

Across the Universe by Beth Revis


Synopsis (From Goodreads): 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.


After making one of the most challenging decisions of her life, Amy says goodbye to her friends and everything she has known on earth to be frozen for 300 years and travel across the universe to another planet. Elder, a boy from another generation, is destined to be the ruler of the ship, Godspeed.  When Amy is accidentally unfrozen, she doesn't know who to trust. Everything about the society on the ship is different and she feels alone. When Elder and Amy realise that someone is unplugging the frozen civilisation, and killing them, on purpose, they have to distinguish between the truths and the lies that have been created on the ship, and work out who the murderer is before more victims are defrosted.

In an amazing debut, Beth Revis has created an intriguing murder-mystery that has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. Even though everyone is trapped aboard the ship, there's still plenty of deceit and lies to uncover to set up an intricate mystery.

I loved Amy. Amy is shown to be a very active and healthy teenage girl who cannot sit still and loves to be in open spaces. By giving her the hobby of long distance running was a great way to show how really trapped she is in the floating artificial world. Her journey is very realistic as she comes to realise that, when in space, there is nowhere to run.

By showing both the perspectives of Amy and Elder, it was easy to see the ship through the eyes of an insider as well as a foreigner. This made the plot more interesting since Elder was the one uncovering the lies, while Amy was left with a feeling that something wasn't right on the ship.



I don't usually read sci-fi, but the characters created were all realistic and honest, and it was easy to picture the world aboard Godspeed. Once I started I didn't want to stop.

Cover: I loved this cover. It doesn't lie, it shows the reader that they are in for a sci-fi set amongst the stars, and that honesty is what makes it great. It's also beautiful, and the two characters in shadow shows an eerily romantic scene.

Plot: 5/5 stars
Ending: 5/5 stars
Cover: 5/5 stars
Overall: 5/5 stars
Recommend: Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund
2011 Debut Author Challenge: #3 of 20
2011 YA Reading Challenge: #6 of 50

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, I can't wait to read this one!! Nice review! :D

Sherrie Petersen said...

Oh how I love this book, and the author behind it!! Yesterday on Twitter Penguin announced that it had already hit #7 on the NYT bestseller list!! So excited for Beth :)

Alleged Author said...

I've been wondering about this one because EVERYONE and their mother wanted this book. Glad to hear it's so good!

Kristin said...

Great review! Looking forward to this one! New follower! Stop by and say hi if you get a chance!
Kristin
MyBookishWays

SimplyMe said...

Nice review! Can't wait to read this book. Yesterday I was in the book store and came across it and the cover is completely stunning. I wanted to buy it and take it home with me because of that dang cover, but I'm in no-book-buying band until I get through the huge pile I already have to read. But hopefully soon!

Bryan Russell said...

Yeah, I've heard great things about this book, and the first chapter was great.

Rachael Harrie said...

Hey Cheree, thanks for the review. I've been hearing so many great things about this book. Can't wait until I get my copy. I love the cover as well, it's pretty awesome ;)

Rach

Madigan Mirza said...

I love sci-fi, but I don't read as much as I used to. I've been hearing great things about this book for some time now. I can't believe the book is finally out. Exciting stuff!

I just finished reading Inside-Out by Maria V. Snyder which I really enjoyed - I wonder how similar it will be to that.

Anonymous said...

Great review! Passing the link onto friends.

fakesteph said...

I'm glad you liked it. It's been sitting on my counter for a week. I'll have to move it up the pile.

Tamara Hart Heiner said...

fascinating. I've never heard of this book, but it sounds very good!

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