Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Book Description via Goodreads:

Paperback, 398 pages

January 11, 2011, Razorbill

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. 

Source: Borrowed from Kai (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

Revis’s dystopian world was distinct. It stood out in the expanding field of dystopian works. It gave me the same claustrophobic feeling that Inside Out gave me. But the enclosed and limited space was not the only reason why I felt unease and discomfort, it was also because of the society itself. The people were too detached, too obedient and too silent for me. It was weird and off-putting. I immediately wanted to know what was up with them. I wasn’t disappointed with the revelation. The harsh, cruel edge of Across the Universe clashed with the sensitive and pro-human views of a human girl from Sol-Earth, Amy.

I felt connected with Amy. Her character was well-developed. I felt her sadness, her pain and her loss. Her part of the novel was what intrigued me the most. The beginning of the story was a fabulous and chilling kick-off scene. Amy and her parents went to the place where they were about to be cryogenically frozen, preserved for hundreds of years. Her parents had important roles to play in the New Earth but Amy didn’t have any. She just wanted to be with her family. She was also leaving something behind – her school, her friends, Jason and her life. It was a painful but necessary sacrifice for her. But everything that people told her could never prepare her for the actual freezing and sleeping for 301 years.

Elder, the next leader of Godspeed, was a curious, somewhat disobedient and somewhat reckless teen. He had lots of questions about everything happening around him but at the same time, he was also a part of it. He was part of Godspeed and didn’t really see the wrongness, the weirdness that was surrounding him. Having been born on the ship, he has become accustomed to these changes. One of the recent changes that he had to deal with was living with Eldest, the oldest and wisest man onboard and the Captain. His relationship with Eldest was quite strained. Though he respected Eldest, there was a part of him that wanted to rebel, wanted to question and wanted to demand answers. When he met Amy, he thought she was the most beautiful girl he had laid his eyes on.

Amy woke up in a different time, a different place with totally different people. She was a stranger – a sort of outcast because of her difference. Her white skin and her red hair were like neon signs pointing to her, saying ‘Freak, over here!’ But the reaction of the people to her was something she could deal with. What she couldn’t deal with were the wrong things that she witnessed onboard Godspeed. Trying to define and explain what was normal in a place where everyone was controlled and led to believe lies for years and years, was a big challenge for Amy, especially since she was moving against Eldest. Together with Elder, she tried to find out who was responsible for unplugging her and the other frozens.

One of the most shocking books I’ve read this year, Across the Universe is a thrilling, alarming and ambitious exploration of humanity, love and truth. I highly recommend this!

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