Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Publication Date: January 11, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Series: Across the Universe #1
Young Adult
Pages: 416
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance

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.

*Won from Anna @ Literary Exploration*
-Singed by Beth when I attended the Breathless Reads Tour at Books of Wonder-

I likey. I likey a lot. The cover did me in. And a big thanks to Anna and her giveaway because without it, it would have taken me ages to go out and buy the book. Jumping into this book after reading dystopian after dystopian was a wonderful change of pace and scenery. The writing and the characters had a certain air about them that made me enjoy the book a whole lot more.
The beginning blew me out of the water. The whole explanation and viewing of being frozen was both beautifully descriptive and eerily haunting. The thoughts that go through her mind while she's panning in and out of consciousness for years and years, the ideas of being alone with only your mind and memories until you are released from your frozen slumber sent chills down my spine. If I had the choice to go through such a painful experience and end up being alone, in a container, with just me and my thoughts, I'd go insane. God bless Amy for such a brave and sad choice.
During the duration of the book, while Amy is out of her chamber, the reader gets a good look of what is actually going on throughout Godspeed. Lies. Murder. Mating. And let me tell you the mating scene with all the inhabitants was the weirdest, freakiest, and scariest thing I have ever read. Not expecting something like that to happen. Oh, and Hartley was my favorite character. The end. He was just a beautifully crafted character with emotion and flaw and his actions were heart wrenching.
Final Summation: A glorious debut novel that left me wanting more. Beth Revis's ability to craft and describe was absolutely beautiful in this tragic tale woven with lies, murder, and romance. This is a novel that should be picked up and read immediately.
First Line: Daddy said, "Let mom go first."
Story: XS
Cover: XS