Across the Universe

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

When she is seventeen, Amy volunteers to be cryogenically frozen, along with her parents. Their frozen bodies are placed upon the ship Godspeed with the expectation that they would awaken 300 years later to inhabit and colonize a new planet after Earth downward trajectory seems unchangeable. What Amy could not foresee was awakening 50 years early on the ship inhabited by those who seem to live by a strange code all their own.

However, her awakening quickly turns into a sinister plot as she realizes that it was not a simple mistake or computer malfunction - it was attempted-murder. And Amy is not the only one at risk. As she works closely with Elder, the ship's next leader, Amy races against the clock to figure out who is trying to kill all of the frozens on ship before it claims her family. As she struggles to understand the new world she is thrust into, she finds one more thing she wasn't expecting - a new love.

As this book unfolds in dual narration, I found myself more and more immersed in the characters and the plot. I found it a very compelling and page-turning read. The characters are very different; however, everyone on board Godspeed seems obsessed with how to make themselves as similar as possible. You constantly get the feeling that something isn't right with the ship and its inhabitants, but Revis keeps you guessing until the very end.

The characters are excitingly real, enhancing the premise that although things may look the same on the surface, there is always something different deep down in all of us.  The interactions between Elder and the others on board add a complexity to the story line that kept me riveted. Amy brings much needed diversity to the ship, which challenges the inhabitants in many ways. Elder cannot seem to reconcile the developing feelings he has for Amy while trying to come to terms with the trials that her differences cause between him and Eldest, and the changes she brings out in others. The one character veiled in mystery just spotlights this seemingly unimportant character.

The only problem I have with Across the Universe is that Revis introduces certain plot elements that do not seem to matter in the grand scheme of the story. For example, early on, she introduces that Amy's cryogenically frozen status is not normal, but this premise is abandoned as meaningless as soon as she is awakened. It begs the question as to why it is introduced at all, other than to continue Amy's part in the dual narration.

Overall, I give the book four out of five stars.