Across the Universe

Review Time! For those who don't know the 2011 Debut Author Challenge is up and running and this is my first review! Back in August I was lucky enough to receive ARC of Across the Universe by Beth Revis for review from Penguin. This was a huge deal because unlike the US we don't have alot of ARC distributions. Anyway, Beth was also one of Debutantes from by Debutante Event so you can check out her posts - HERE and HERE.

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 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.

The Short Story ? - I don't know what to say but that this debut blew me away! Across the Universe was everything I thought it would be and so much more. It was simply beyond this world ( haha get it? My bad pun strikes again...) Refreshing, original, romantic, you should read this book.

The Long Story ? - Honestly, I'm not that big of a fan of sci-fi. I don't enjoy space travel and every time I pick one up I can only think of Buzz Lightyear and Star Wars. So when it first arrived in the mail I was still unsure whether I wanted to read it or not SO I pulled out my laptop and did a google search on the book. The keywords Romance, DYSTOPIAN and 2011 Debut convinced me that - I HAD to read this book.

I decided I wanted to read this book closer to it's release date so last week, I pulled out my ARC, put aside my prejudice against space travel, forgot abut Buzz Lightyear and Star Wars and just read this book. I read and read and read until there was no pages left and that's when I released I actually enjoyed this book.

I love books with - a) romance b) no love-triangles c) original plots and d) cute boys. Across the Universe had romance, no love - triangles, a SUPER original plot and cute boy ( singular, I think I'm in love with Elder, I'll fight Amy for him).

What's the best part of this book? The Romance for sure. It's so different from anything I have read. I can count on one hand how many times Elder and Amy even touch but the change between perspectives, giving readers a glimpse of both character's thoughts was enough for me to go 'awwww how cute'. To make it  even better there was not a single love-triangle. The biggest literacy letdown in YA fiction for me in 2010 is way to many love-triangles. Why can't we just have soul mates or true love? It makes it so much easier to read, you know it's going to be a happy ending.

Beth Revis, I salute you for your admirable courage to take Dystopian to a whole new level. What is Dystopian?  The protagonist lives in a controlling society and then rebellion happens. (  That's my 11 words description on a increasingly popular genre) However, when there's murder involved? Wow, that's when it turns from interesting to exciting.

The pace of this novel I felt was a bit slow for me, I like my novels fast paced with not a single boring moment but the excellent characterisation was enough to make it up for me. The physical and emotion characterisations of the characters couldn't have been created more perfectly. I couldn't help but admire Amy strength and courage. Nor could I help myself when I fell in love with Elder.

Across the Universe had changed my judgement about space travel novels, given romance a whole new definition and taken Dystopian to a whole new level. Addictive, romantic and to be enjoyed by all. Across the Universe is a 2011 must read. Rating 4.5/5

Badass Bookie xx