Review:
Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Series: Across the Universe #1
Publisher: Razor Bill
Format: Library Copy
Genre: YA, Sci-fy, Romance
Blurb:
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 Thoughts & Reflection:
Across the Universe is told in alternating POV’s between characters Amy and Elder, which you might not think from the way that the blurb is worded. In the beginning, how Amy is involved in the story is unclear, making Elder be the protagonist, in my opinion.
The world building and set up in this book are fascinating; first with Amy and the concept of the ship and as well as with Elder and explaining exactly how society is run. This part of the book is intriguing and such a great beginning.
As the story progresses, Amy is awoken, and the mystery develops about who is unplugging everyone. This appears to be the main plot of the book. Later, it becomes clear that Amy and Elder are discovering all of the lies that the ship is built on, and revelation upon revelation occur until it just stops.
*SPOILERS*
The second half of the book is very awkward. We know all these lies, and we also know that the ship isn’t going to leave. I found here that I couldn’t connect well with Elder and Amy, and the story was growing increasingly boring. The only character of substance was Harley, and he gets taken away to soon for his magic as a character to manifest.
Eldest is the clear intended antagonist, and while I hated him with a passion, it wasn’t because he was evil, it was that all of his actions and words were so cliche and perfectly wrong, that there was no depth to it. He was so meaningless, and nothing about his character was unique.
Orion was a character that had so much potential, and a lot of that really shined through, except that it just wasn’t executed perfectly. All of the foreshadowing was incredibly obvious. It wasn’t even shocking that he was the Elder that “died”.
The end of this book begins as if it will redeem its self. Amy becomes suddenly relatable and the rawness in her struggle with realizing that she will never get to live on the new planet, that she will never see her parents be awoken, is touching.
However, this small fantastic piece is easily pushed out of the spotlight by the strange information we receive about who unplugged Amy. Why Elder would do such a thing is completely out of character. This seems like a poor attempt at a wedge placed in Elder and Amy’s relationship. Of course, Amy is only angry for about two pages before the pair are pledging to stay together forever. Ugh, it was completely not realistic. If the author really wanted Elder to be the one to have unplugged Amy, she should have announced it somewhere else in the book, not at the very end when everything is pretty much wrapped up. Or at the very least she should have given Amy a little more credit and stretched the anger out a little longer.
Overall, this book didn’t sit very well with me. While the concept was intriguing, nothing about the body of the book was pleasing. The Elder/Amy relationship was unplanned, awkward, and childish, (along with all of the sex references and “Season”). There are two more books, as well as a prequel novella. While I’m not exactly excited about this trilogy, I can’t help but be curious about what the author could possibly put in the next two books. Basically, the characters are on this ship and they will die on this ship and never make it to the new planet. I’m not sure what the author did with the series, and that is the only reason I’ll probably pick up any of the other books.
It’s such a bummer that this didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I’d heard about this book and seen it a lot, and just never got around to reading it. I’d been really anticipating it. Oh well.
~Remy
I was also a little so-so on this book as well, I agree that the premise is great. I haven’t read the others but like you I am curious how the author continues the series.
I’m glad someone understands! And it was such a let down! All of the potential!