BETH REVIS; Across The Universe

Author: Beth Revis

Novel: Across the Universe

Release date: 11 January 2011

Category: Fantasy, dystopian society

Blurb: 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.

Review: I love books that make me feel something whether its happiness, sadness, anxiety, or hope. That’s why I finished Across the Universe in one reading, because I felt an overwhelming anger. I hated the way Amy was treated when she was awoken early. I hate the fact no one would listen to her or try to understand what she was going through. And I really hated the fact that she was separated from her parents, by 50 years. It was, of cause, a wonderful hate I was feeling, constructed with the amazing words of Beth Revis. This book fired me up until I wanted to scream and laugh all at the same time.

The other thing I really liked about this novel was the dystopian society. At the start it wasn’t completely obvious what was wrong; I didn’t even realise it was dystopian until half way through. This strategy allowed me to learn along with Amy, the newby on board, what was really happening behind the locked doors. I could definitely relate to Amy. Not only did she inspire really emotion in me, but we shared the same views of the world, coming from the same time as we did.

And then there was Elder. Born on the ship, he is apart of the dystopian society without really knowing it. Again, I was able to learn with Elder and experience ‘behind the locked doors’ with someone who I wasn’t like, someone who had been apart of all the mess for this entire life. The chapter flicking between the two characters really worked, enabling me to link with two very different people, from different times, from different backgrounds and with different beliefs.

Having said all that I'm giving this book five out of five.

And from now on I will watch Beth with anticipation.