Teen Fiction Tuesday: Across the Universe

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis

Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Pages: 398 (hardcover)
Reading Level: 14 and up
Enjoyment Level: Highest


There was a movie a few years ago called Across the Universe, so when this one came out, I thought it hadn’t just come out – I thought it was a book of the movie. I couldn’t figure out why everyone was suddenly talking about it. Of course, I was set straight eventually, and put it in my to-read pile.

From GoodReads:

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.

So many, many amazing books have been released lately! I feel like it’s impossible to read all of the good ones and do justice to them in reviews and interviews. Plus, I’ve been slacking in reviewing what I’ve read recently. It’s hard to know exactly what to say with a book like this one, though. It was just fabulous!

The story is dystopian, but it’s mystery, as well, with a lot of science fiction thrown in. I loved the plot – it kept me hooked. The intricacies of life on the spaceship got more and more interesting as the book moved on and mysteries were revealed. I felt like the writing was solid, and just enough information was given at any one time. It kept me turning pages (and staying up late).

Amy is a good character. I felt so sorry for her but cheered when she did what she had to. Her interactions with others on the ship drove home all the differences between what we know as modern life and what the characters knew on the ship. I can’t say that Amy was a stand-out character if she was compared to some others I’ve read recently, but for the story and her chemistry with Elder, the development is spot on. I believed the relationship between the two of them.

I did guess who the bad guy was early on. I don’t know if the author meant to be more subtle, but I was clued in at the introduction of this particular character, and the subsequent development of that storyline had me sure long before the mystery was solved. On the other side of that, the other “bad guy” character development did surprise me a little, so I felt that it was all balanced out in the end.

This is definitely a favorite for me this year, and I can’t wait to read the sequel. I’m so excited to keep reading about Amy, Elder, and the unusual lives people live on the ship. I highly recommend this one. You won’t be sorry if you read it.

Until next time, go read something!


~ Vilate ~