Across the Universe Review

 

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill
Hardcover: 368 Pages

Cost: $17.99

Source: Library

Date Started: 1/3/12

Date Finished: 1/3/12

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.

I haven't read such a big book for my own enjoyment in a while, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was able to zip through Across the Universe in one day! Of course, I did read almost nonstop - that's what happens when I get hooked in a novel. I put this on hold to pick up at my local library, but even though the book is actually stored IN THE SAME LIBRARY, the librarians were behind schedule and didn't put it away from me. I freaked out and ran to the library in the morning to pick it up and ended up having to make four trips back and forth because I didn't have enough money to pay my fee (I told you, I'm busy enough to not return books on time...but not enough to read them in one day). Since this is my first official review for anything, I'm pretty darn excited. Onwards, my friends!

Cover: ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. I haven't seen such a beautiful cover in a long time! This one definitely attracted me from the very beginning. The colors are stunning and seem to glitter invitingly like stars, even if the cover isn't holographic. I love the longing on the boy's face when he gazes at the protagonist, and the focus of the yellow (sun?) in between their lips. The deeper purple and hot pink, as well as the bright star on the I in the title, make for a very attractive contrast between the upper and lower levels of the cover. I think that the way the title is laid out, with UNIVERSE being the biggest, captures the eye very well - especially with that glowing star on the I like I said earlier. Rating: 5/5

The Good: It's SO creative! Like I've said, the only books I've seen in the stores now are too girly, too dark, or about vampires and werewolves. It's really rare to see a book about space! And the author sounds like she knows what she's talking about when she explains the scientific aspects. The characters are very well-developed because we get to see the POVs of both main characters, Amy and Elder. This also allows the story to be explained and developed more in-depth. I could clearly imagine the setting of the story and - my goodness! - the emotions the characters felt being trapped on the ship for *spoiler* longer than they knew. I felt frustrated, sad, happy, and angry each time a character felt the same way because Revis's diction and explanation of the character's mindset was amazing. The protagonist Amy, although frozen like the other passengers, had a conscious mind while she was in the cryo chambers for all those years, which was absolutely terrifying and would have driven me crazy if I were her. She was  easy to relate to, thoughtful, and realistic despite the clearly fictional story. Elder was also a great character - he liked her the first moment he saw her, and was a wonderful companion for her the entire time although *spoiler* they aren't officially together in the end. I also liked when he got jealous - how cruel of me! - because, rather than showing a possessive attitude, he was portrayed to be more of a caring and lonely person who wanted the company of the girl he liked. 

The Bad: The story was a bit tedious and long at times, with me anxiously scanning through the unromantic parts of the book at some points, but they weren't unnecessary. The romance took quite a while to develop - I felt that she had more of a connection with Harley than with Elder!  The reason why I said "companion" above was because they didn't really have much of a romantic relationship, *spoiler* save for one kiss. Since this is a trilogy, I'm hoping that as the story goes on there will be a little less fictional fact and more love! In fact, they were key for the main plot to continue and expand. I'm just more of a romance person than a science person (:


Overall: I really liked it! I finished it in a day despite having other homework to do. A real page turner. Again, some parts were tedious, and I would LOVE for the romance between Amy and Elder to flesh out a bit more, but it was great. I'm really curious as to what will happen in the next book! 


Rating: 4/5


Now that this is done, I'm excited to be able to read other books while I get the next volume of this trilogy. Out of all my holds, the only one that came was The Outsider by Melinda Metz - SWEET! SO DARN EXCITED! 


To start varying (from the very beginning!) I'll be posting some sort of haul post next once I get my hands on a camera. I'll also try to keep a list of books I'm planning to read on the side of my blog entries to keep track (sorry for the clutter!). Finally, I will try to play around with Photoshop to create a more me type of look for this blog, but it will take a while...not really a graphics type of person.


See ya later!