Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

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.


(I know that I never posted an appetizer for this book, but that is because I was about halfway through this book when we developed the idea ;P) 

This book was.... interesting. I'm not going to say it was good, because even now that I've finished reading it, I am still unsure if I truly enjoyed it. From the cover I thought it looked like your average sci-fi romance novel, maybe like Divergent or Delirium, but once I started reading I realized that I was totally off base. This book is disturbing, to say the least. It is blunt, and Beth Revis is definitely not afraid of details. The main thing I found disturbing was the way the Feeders (townspeople) were raised, and governed. Which kind of brings me to the first question Rachel wants me to answer...

1. Is there a character that drove you insane?  

Why yes! Indeed there is! The character that drove me nuts from beginning to end of this story was Eldest. The tyrannical leader of the ship Godspeed. I think the main reason that he irked me so much is the fact that he goes against almost everything I believe in. He is constantly lying to the Feeders, and using unethical practices to fuel his ship the way he wants to. For example, he manipulates the Feeders so they only ever want to have sexual relations during their "mating season". He treats them like wild animals, when that is not what human beings are. This and other inhumane actions have been going on for so long, that the people have forgotten what normal humans are like. They are convinced that this manipulated, savage though completely controlled way of life is normal. It just really gets to me, how oblivious the Feeders are, and that Eldest takes full advantage of them without even giving it a second thought. SCREW YOU ELDEST. 

2. What was your favourite part about this book? 

Like I said before, I'm not even totally sure if I liked this book, so I don't think I even have a favourite part... To be honest, when I think back on it, this book was kind of depressing. I know this review probably won't make you want to read this book, (unless you like sad books about people getting manipulated) but hey, not all books will be awesome, so not all reviews should be awesome. Right? I won't do you the injustice of lying, just to produce a good "that-book-was-amazing!" review. Even though I didn't really have a favourite part, there were some aspects of the world that interested me. Since this book is set many years in the future, and the characters are living on a spaceship far from Earth, they are clueless when it comes to their past. I found it interesting how their perception of human history is very warped and skewed compared to ours. For example, the people on the ship believe that Adolf Hitler was a great hero. Another interesting tidbit, is their food. The livestock on the ship to begin with are deformed and unnatural looking compared to what we have on Earth. The cows make weird screeching noises, and the food looks, but does not taste exactly like what can be found here. Everything is just slightly less real than Amy (the protagonist) remembers it from before she was frozen. 

3. If you had to live in this book, what sort of role would you want to play? 

Oh my gosh! Rachel you are torturing me here! I definitely would NOT want to live in this book, it would be awful. But if I HAD to.... I guess I would want to be a part of the rebellion that Amy attempts to start against the tyrant Eldest. I most definitely would not want to be a clueless Feeder, so even though knowing more would have it's disadvantages, I would rather be in the know, than oblivious. 

4. Who would you recommend this book to? 

Not my mom. Hahaha! I know for a fact she would NOT like this book... but hmmm.... I think I would recommend this book to my friend Lael. She, like me, is really into spacey, sci-fi things, and I think she might find this book interesting. 

Overall, I think this book was decent, not my favourite piece of fiction, but not a complete waste of time to read. It gave me a different perspective on the way we are treated as human beings, and our rights today in modern day society. Maybe we aren't as free as we think we are.... 

I give this book a rating of: 2.5/5 



keep readin' it write!
Megan