Nor Cal Book Blog: Book Review - Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Author: Beth Revis
Release Date: January 11, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
4.5 Stars - I really liked it!

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I was acutally given this ARC to me from my friend at Lyon Books awhile ago. I finally started reading it on a camping trip, and somehow it was lost in the camp trailer. I ended up finding it about a month ago, and finally had time to finish it!
I was so happy to finally have a well written YA novel that was Science Fiction based. I grew up watching Star Trek with my brother who was 20 years older then me and the biggest Trekkie I have ever met. Recently I learned that my child did not know who Mr. Spock was, and felt like I had failed as a parent! Anyways..back to the book! The cover itself is beautiful and amazing. It sets the tone of the book very well. Immediately I was drawn in by the first part of the book when she is put into a cryogenic sleep. The author does such a wonderful job of getting into her head as the process happens and bringing out her panic and thoughts through in her own words. Feeling every bit of the freeze through Amy's head was amazing. It honestly scared me to death and I couldn't rip my eyes away from each page. And when she woke up!

Wow...just wow...I still cringe.

I had a hard time with the Elder/Eldest correlation in the beginning, but it got easier. Eldest was like a great evil dictator, ruling over the ship. I liked the point of view changing between Elder and Amy, I think it gave so much more depth to the book instead of just being told from only one of them. I loved the mystery, the lies, the deceit that played out throughout the book. The twists, turns, heart breaks are amazing. Every page kept me wanting to know more and when you finally learn some of the secrets it leaves you gasping. It's hard not to give stuff away, but I was so blown away by ending! I am actually glad that I waited to read this because now I can just go buy A Million Suns and not have to wait for it to come out! And by the time I finish that, Shades of Earth should be out too! Here are the covers:

Hardcover