Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Release Date: January 11, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 398
Source: ARC from Publisher
Interest: Debut Author
Challenge: 2011 Debut Author Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon
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 didn't know what to expect when I started this novel. I was a little bit skeptical... science fiction.. really? Do I even like science fiction? I think had you asked me that before I started this novel, I probably would have said no. Across the Universe deserves so much more than the simple label "science fiction."
The first chapter(s) of this novel are when Amy is undergoing the "freezing" process. I was only able to read a few chapters when I started, and it happened to be right before bed... those chapters haunted me so much, I had nightmares about being frozen alive... not many books give me nightmares like that. Kudos to Beth Revis, for scaring the crap out of me!
Beth did an excellent job describing the ship. I often find myself confused when an author tries to describe something similar to that in such detail, but I think even without the handy map of the ship, I would have been able to have a nice visual of the ship my mind as it was described by Amy and Elder.
The beginning of the novel was a little slow, but it built up nicely to the rest of the novel... that last half just flew by, and I was as anxious as Amy and Elder to find out what was really going on within the walls of Godspeed.
I loved the dual narrative... discovering the ship and this world in two very different perspectives was the thing that I enjoyed the most. Amy and Elder were very well fleshed out characters... realistic and flawed. I don't think I could pick a favorite from the two.
This is definitely a world that I can't wait to revisit.
Add this one to your reading piles folks! A fantastic debut!