Across the Universe, by: Beth Revis

       Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends--and planet--behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.
       Someone tried to murder her.

       Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest's rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead. Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship's cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

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My Rating: ★★★★☆

       This book had joined the “Ashton Had Put Off Reading It Because It Has An Ugly Cover” Club for a little while before one of my friends told me I had to read it. (Don’t judge me. We all have that club.) I had heard good things about this book in the past, but I hadn’t wanted to read it until I got that much-needed push. Thank you to Emily for recommending it to me at the time she did; I ended up enjoying it! It wasn’t what I had initially thought it was going to be, but the actual plot was so much better than my preconceived notions.
       First of all, from the way the publisher marketed this book, they made it sound like a romance novel. There’s nothing wrong with it; there are some romantic bits throughout the story, but the overall focus doesn’t lie there. Elder is the future leader of the ship who has to figure out how to lead his people and uncover the secrets and lies he’s been fed all his life. Amy is the girl who chose to be frozen along with her parents but was woken up 50 years too soon. Together they find friendship through mutual differences in the ship’s society and try to unlock the truth behind the ship. Instead of trying to force romance on the characters, Beth Revis chose to take a more dynamic approach to the story. There are tons of science fiction elements, with thriller and mystery components as well. I loved this because this book always kept me on my toes and wanting to read more.
       Another part of the book I enjoyed was how, as the reader, we got the chance to truly understand how the society on Godspeed works and how it had evolved from our current life on Earth. Amy served as our “medium” in this discovery, because she asked the questions of Elder that the reader wanted to know as well. I was interested in the discussions that Elder would have with Eldest about government and societies; I could tell Beth put a lot of time into thinking about every aspect of life aboard a spaceship meant to carry a civilization.
       One of the best things about this book was how easy it was for me to connect to it. Amy is an only child who can’t bear to be apart from her parents. Her situation is very similar to mine in regards to her family, and I could make a deep connection every time she narrated the story. Her circumstances and emotions made me physically feel something and even made my eyes water a little bit once or twice.
       Overall, this book has so many more layers than it suggests on the surface. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read it, and need a quick sci-fi book, this is the one for you.

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       Have you read Across the Universe, or are you planning to read it? Let me know in the comments!

Your in-house sci-fi lover,
Ashton

It is like a piece of my soul had been lost, empty, and it is now filled with the light of a million stars.

― Beth Revis, Across the Universe