Review: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1) By: Beth Revis

Title: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill, 398 Pages (January 11th 2011)
From: Purchased on Amazon

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: 4.5 Stars - Across the Universe by author Beth Revis was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It’s a story set in the future, aboard a spaceship with intriguing characters looking for the truth in a world of lies and a mystery that could change the course of their future. Revis writing, setting, characters and plot ebbed and flowed to make this one of those books that sticks with you, leaving you looking for more.

Right from the beginning we are thrust into an extremely vivid world and its characters. Amy, our main female lead is given a choice and it’s a doozy! Stay with her aunt and uncle on earth, or be frozen in a cryo chamber along with her parents in order to take the long journey to what’ll become their new home. Revis has a knack for writing a scene where you feel like you’re right there with the character, so when Amy makes up her mind, to be frozen along side her parents, after watching them go through the traumatic experience you feel the true emotion of the decision.

Being awakened early was more than a jarring experience for Amy. She’s now part of the living community on Godspeed. A community that doesn’t like change or anything that’s different. They are strict and have many rules that are so far removed from all that Amy knows, it’s a wonder she was able to cope as well as she did.

Elder is one of a very small group of people who go out of their way to befriend Amy. He’s in training to become the next ruler of the people on the ship. Amy gets under his skin. She teaches him about the real world and how things should be, compared to how they are. When he starts to question more and more about what he’s been taught, they start to uncover a mystery that’s much bigger than they expected. There’s feelings flowing between the two that are only lightly touched on, but I can see this blossoming into more in the future books yet to come.

With someone out to kill the people who are frozen, it’s a race against time to try to save her parents and everyone else and find and stop the person before it’s too late.

All in all, I was shocked on more than one occasion; however it perfectly fit in this dystopian story set in space. There’s a lot going on throughout the book, its mystery on top of mystery, built on a bed of lies. With all the twists and turns, it’s a thrilling, fast paced read that had me flipping the pages well into the wee hours of the night. I loved the characters and the setting. Revis knows her way around words, using them as brush strokes and the page as her canvas. I can’t wait for more from her in the future, I’m a HUGE fan! What’s up next for the author? How about the sequel – A Million Suns out 2012! I will be waiting and excited to read the continuing Sci-Fi story.

FTC Disclaimer: I DID pay for this book, and have NOT been compensated at all in any way or means for reading this book and or writing this HONEST review.