Across the Universe by Beth Revis + Fun ATU Related News/Links!

Summary/Cover Image from Author's Website:

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 awake 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 a 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:

Across the Universe...there is so much to say about this book, but I don't think whatever I say will justify just how spectacular, amazing, and unique this book is.

When I first heard about this book in early 2010, I had a feeling it would be a really good book based on the premise alone. But Across the Universe has so much more going for it than just a really fantastic premise. Because it also has an amazing execution of that said premise, even better writing, spectacular world building, and last but certainly not least, fully developed characters who were so uniquely their own people. There is seriously so much to love about this novel and nearly nothing to truly dislike!
 
Across the Universe begins in a world much like ours. A world that is about to change the lives of many people because of one thing and one thing only: Godspeed, a spaceship that will take humans to a new planet to develop their own society. Thanks to her parents' intelligence and jobs, Amy is one of the people who will be frozen in time, so that she, as well as everyone else, will be able to be woken up 300 years down the road when Godspeed finally lands on the new planet. Though, just when everyone is 50 years from waking up from their deep slumbers, Amy is woken up and nearly dies because of it. Now Amy is on a spaceship 250 years into the future with people and a world so unlike what she left behind. And then there's Elder, a boy who may just hold the answer to her past, as well as the key to her future, if she'll let him in. But can she trust him? And is there more than meets the eye to Godspeed? Only time and more pages will tell in this highly addicting addition to YA!
 
One thing I will say about this novel is that Beth Revis definitely knows how to spin an exceptional story. Across the Universe is filled with so many twists and turns and nail biting moments that I, the reader, never truly knew how everything was going to end. And that was one of the things I loved most about this novel, because unpredictably makes me a very, very happy reader.
 
Another part of this book I enjoyed was the characters. All of them were extremely well developed and fully three dimensional. I especially liked how Beth split the book into two perspectives (Elder and Amy); because it gave you a story that showed you the side of somebody who has only know the ship all their life and someone who's actually experienced life on Earth. It put a unique spin to this book, one I fully enjoyed. And talking about these two main characters let me tell you some more about them! Elder is destined to be the next leader of Godspeed, but don't think that means he has a big ego because he certainly does not. Instead Elder is someone who while appears to have everything together on the surface, truly questions how he'll ever be able to control his people and get them to their destination. The aspect I liked most about Elder was his heart and generosity, especially how it was shown through his relationship with Amy. Amy is a girl who's just as scared and lost as Elder is on the inside. She's a girl who's afraid of her future, but also brave enough to face it head on and change everything on the way. I truly thought she was a fantastic lead character, and I loved how easily Beth was able to bring to life the emotions Amy, as well as Elder, had. I have to admit I was even close to tears in some scenes, which is something that almost never happens, no matter how sad a book may be.

Last but not least, I loved Revis' writing! If I hadn't know prior to reading Across the Universe that Beth was a debut novelist, I truly would never have been able to guess, because her writing is like candy, smooth and sweet with layers and layers of the good stuff. As mentioned before, she did a great job at bringing to life the emotions of her characters, and I also loved how she never shied away from bringing you both the good and bad sides to the life aboard the spaceship. And talking about the spaceship, I loved the way that she brought it to life right along with the characters and plot with her descriptions.

In all, Across the Universe is by far one of my favorite books of the year, if not ever, and this one book that I'll definitely be raving about up to and past it's release date. Because its as simple as this: this book is pure gold! And I simply can't wait for the sequel(s)!

Grade: A+

Across the Universe is now out!

Source: unsolicited review copy provided by Penguin

Book Trailer:




Beth Revis’ Exclusive Author Video:



Still not sure about Across the Universe? Well, head on over to io9 (http://www.io9.com) sometime between 11:11 AM Eastern to 11:11 PM Eastern on 01.11.11 (which is today) because they will be posting a 111 pg excerpt. Cool, right? :)

Other Links:

Penguin Teen Website/Facebook Fan Page/Twitter
Across the Universe Website/Facebook Fan Page
Beth Revis Author Website/Blog/Twitter

Also, be sure to check back here later today, because I'll be sharing with you guys what my favorite part of ATU website is once it officially goes live! So the site is officially up, and let me tell you, it's AMAZING! My favorite part is being able to explore the ship; you all must check it out ASAP.