Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

GoodReads Description:
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 Review:
Why I picked it up and where: I had heard good things about Across the Universe before I read it, but I had stayed away for a while, because aliens and space ships are SO not my normal thing. Sure I can appreciate the new Star Trek movie, but to be honest...a lot of my appreciation has to do with how great Chris Pine's behind looks in those sexy star-fleet pants...*drools for a second* um...anyways...it took me a while get my hands on, but once I found ATU in the library, the beautastic cover and rave reviews that I've seen all over the blogosphere kind of forced me into it. And wow, were they right!

Description/Setting/Imagery: OMG the very first part of the book was SO eerie! I have never been more shaken by the beginning of a book than the very first chapter. It's so raw and emotional, and then the description of being frozen and then in suspended animation was so so SO creepy. No, strike that, terrifying.  It made me feel so caustrophobic to listen to Amy be CONSCIOUS (sort of) while in the freezing container. I was all sketchy after I read it, and I literally had to go for a run outside to shake the feeling of being locked up. Beth Revis can really set a scene and make you feel like you're there. The only exception to this was in the very beginning of the introduction of Elder. I had no idea what was going on, who Elder was, and where he was. It took me a good few chapters to understand, but when I did, everything made sense and I was able to really get into the book. The dual narration was interesting. I enjoyed seeing both Amy's bewilderment at the world onboard the ship, juxtaposed against Elder's conceptions about life, but sometimes the switch was a little jarring and I would become distracted enough to put the book down.

The Plot/Characters: They.Were.Awesome! Though Elder and Amy were well defined, they could have used a tad more depth, but were still wonderful characters. Eldest was so creepy/evil/cold that it was fantastic. Me and the girl I work with, both love books that are eerie, dark, and kind of twisted...who knows what that says for the kind of people we are, but regardless, we LOVE books with evil or brainwashing or anything like that. I gave her the Hunger Games and she gave me Divergent...we love everything that potentially involves the collapse of human civilization, and Across the Universe did NOT dissapoint. There were people mating like animals, the fear of being AWAKE and unable to move for 300 years, being forced to live out you're entire life in a ship that is about 5 miles in diameter...yeah, there's a lot that can creep you out. The romantic interests were under-played and nice, which I liked. There was no instant love connection, but more of an innocent falling into place that I really enjoyed. The mystery permeates the entire story and the ending is unexpected, yet expected in a weird way that makes sense.

Rating: I REALLY enjoyed Across the Universe...I am just SO lucky lately with good reads! Usually I will love one book, then read 5 or so books that are just blah...not for the last month or so...it's just a rollercoaster of aweseomeness here at the blog :D I believe I will give this hauntingly beautiful book 9 cyrogenic freezing tubes out of 10 for an excellent story, cute, likable characters, and the hope for future books in the series!
Later Loveys,


~Andra~