Review: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)

Author: Beth Revis
Series: Across the Universe, #1
Publisher: Razorbill
Release: Jan 11th 2011
Source: Purchased
Pages: 416 (ebook)
( Amazon | Goodreads )

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, 300 years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end 50 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.

Set against the backdrop of space with a tinge of mystery, Across the Universe is the first book in Beth Revis' bestselling sci-fi dystopian trilogy and undoubtedly has one of the most intriguing premises among YA novels. I mean, seriously, who wouldn't love a story using a spaceship as its center stage? Though despite the inspiring originality, Across the Universe failed miserably to capture my attention. Not impressed. That is all I have to say about this book.

The story begins as Amy, one of our protagonists, is cryogenically frozen inside a box. She, along with her parents, are put to sleep through their 300-year journey to a new planet and to be revived upon arrival. But the plan goes way off course. Amy is awakened 50 years early, but by whom? Barely surviving the reanimation process, she finds herself surrounded by metal walls and bizarre human beings who resemble empty shells more than living souls. Shattered by the realization that she would never reunite with her parents again, Amy finds comfort in Elder, the future leader of the spaceship Godspeed. Together, they must uncover the secrets buried on this ship and fend for the people they love the most.

Honestly, I would probably enjoy the main plot line a lot more if not for its plodding pace. For me, Across the Universe isn't at all interesting until the last 30% of the book, which is really the saving grace for the two and half stars you see here. It is only when the underlying intricacies of Godspeed are revealed that I find myself truly engaged with the story, though, by that point, I'm more intent on validating my speculations rather than actually caring about the characters. Speaking of which, the arrangement of the mystery in Across the Universe is neither complex nor subtle, leaving the ending extremely easy to predict and thus much less entertaining.

Although Beth Revis spent a lot of time in the beginning to lay groundwork for the characters and their backstories, somehow they all fall short of impressive. Amy in particular annoys me a great deal when she whines on and on about how she is never going to see her parents again, which by the way happens more frequent and lengthy than necessary. I do have hopes for Elder though, considering the challenges he must face with how things left at the end of this book. If I were to ever pick up the next installment in this series, it would only be for Elder and for Godspeed.

My Rating: ★★☆ (2 and 1/2 stars)