Review Detail

PREFACE:
Beth Revis' sci-fi trilogy is one you cannot escape in the YA world. I tried to read it and stopped not that far in because I just wasn't feeling it at the time. I gave it another chance recently and am very glad that I did because the hype is not for nothing.

WRITING:
Revis writes with a fluidity that is easy to read without being too simplistic. Despite this being a sci-fi novel, she does not load it down with jargon yet she still gives enough to show how language has progressed in the future. I thought the changes and evolution of terms made sense and added to the believability of the story.

SETTING:
Even though this story takes place on a space ship hundreds of years in the future somewhere in space, I could visualize everything. Granted, I would still need a map to get around, but what the characters saw I could imagine with ease because Revis does a great job of world-builiding, making it feel foreign but not too much so by using familiar images and words to get the point across. I think what astonished me most about the ship, Godspeed, was that there were no windows to see outside the ship. Revis used this as a plot point and I thought it clever.

CHARACTERS:
I really liked the two main characters Amy and Elder. Amy, put in the position she's in, freaks out appropriately and I was always entertained and rooting for her during her freak outs. She really impressed me with how she stood up for herself and dealt with the problems she faced. She could have let it make her crazy, and sometimes it seemed to, but she tried to keep the bigger picture in front of her, which showed her compassion and selflessness.

Elder too was a great character, and I most enjoyed his internal struggle over being good versus being a good leader. I also thought how cool it was that he was so taken with Amy despite being taught that differences were bad. I can't wait to see where he takes things in the next books because he has the opportunity to grow and even change in ways that could be good or bad.

The other characters were interesting because they were different from what I expected. The ship was more like a hive with a few unusual worker bees than what I've seen in things like Star Trek or Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, which led me to expect a community or a crew, not drones (yes, I realize my sci-fi knowledge is extremely limited). The characters that made up the supporting cast (I consider the drones the background cast) ranged in so many directions that it was definitely hard to know who to trust.

DOWNSIDE:
There were only a couple downsides to this story and the first was at the beginning. Until the action began, it just seemed like the scenes were setting up the world and the characters, which they were. I understand why it was all there I was just ready to get to the meat of the story, which it did before too long.

The other one regards a scene in the book that is just extremely difficult get through. I was cringing and gritting my teeth during that whole part and was very glad once it was over.

COOL STUFF:
The main character is a redhead named Amy. I am a Whovian who adores Amy Pond. Insta-love for me right there.

This book made me so ridiculously tense, which is bad for my heart but great for my mind because I love action and mystery, so that made it more enjoyable (once I could breathe). I also loved finding out all the crazy stuff about what was really going on the ship and was horrified, which is good (for me, not the characters). I had not anticipated life on Godspeed to be as it was and it was just awful so I was just like Amy in wanting things to change.

VERDICT:
Across the Universe is a great read and different from what I'm used to in the YA sphere. It had great characters and came complete with action, mystery, and with being set in space, it had a kind of claustrophobic atmosphere that makes you feel the suspense and danger right along with the characters. This is definitely a book to check out and I cannot wait to dig into the next installment, A Million Suns.

*9.5/10*