Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Published Date: January 11th, 2011
Pages: Hardcover, 398 pages 
Age Group: Young Adult 
Publisher: Razorbill 
My rating: 4.1/5


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. 

With these words, the story of Across The Universe begins, we are taken to a whole new world, and I don’t mean this literary, I mean it in the sense of what makes a world to all of us, it being our family, friends, or the four walls keeping us safe that we call home. Across The Universe is by far one of the best sci-fi novel I have read, and in all the imaginary world, a story never felt so real, in all of the impossible, I had never seen such possibilities, and in all the secrets and lies, there had never been so much truth. I’ll start the Review:

When I got my hands on Across The Universe, I was eager to start, wondering where Beth Revis would take us, what would she show us, and whom would she allow us to meet. I’ll admit, the first 100 pages or so, where kind off slow. In this pages she introduces us to the characters and the situation, but what did kept me captivated, was the wonderful world she created, inside metal walls. The way Beth Revis describes Godspeed, was rich, enjoyable, and didn’t seemed forced at all.

In the next hundred pages (200-300) the story starts to build up, you have a more clear vision of everyone, you become suspicious, wary of everyone around you, and you start to see the truth –or at least you think you do. Believe me, you’ll never guess. And as for the last hundred pages. . . I finished in two hours, not one second, did I kept my eyes away from the pages. I was always guessing, sure I had everything solved, that I knew the truth, and every time something happened, I would look at another character with accusatory eyes and point at him as the one to blame. A few more pages, and I had another one to blame, and I would have sworn each time, that I had it right. It wasn’t until the very last pages that I saw, really saw. And Oh. My. God. I’m still speechless, my fingers fly on their own over my keyboard, searching for the appropriate words to describe it, to describe everything. I can’t. You just have to read it and see by yourselves.

The Characters: I had never sympathized with a character as much as I did with Amy and Elder. Amy was just. . . real, you know? She always saw the truth, and fought to have it, to discover it, and to share it. I’ve read a lot of books with characters like Amy, that fight for what they believe in and will do anything, at any cost to make things good, right. But they are never real. Amy was real. She was scared as hell, and still fought, she had been hurt unimaginably, and she still fought, and I really wish to one to stand in a situation like Amy, where being selfish, is easier than being good. But by doing so, you destroy the dreams of the people you most love. And Elder, future leader of the ship, who wants to do the right thing just as much as Amy, but, like any human being, quivers and doubts about his decisions. What if? He felt the temptation to quit and leave things as they were, to continue with a lifestyle he had always known, and to keep secrets, if only because its safer. But, like Amy, he discovers that the truth must be told, or at least a good part of it, no matter how hard It is, or if it means losing someone you loved. And both get into a journey where they slowly start to discover, what the truth is, and not just facts, but the meaning behind the word. Truth.

Across The Universe kept me on the edge of my seat. Wondering, heart beating, and breathless, and touched points of deep importance, that we need to keep always in our heads. Maybe I seem exaggerated, maybe a lot of you didn’t or won’t feel the same as me. But I’ll tell you this, I’d give anything, to go back just a few minutes in the past, and read the last pages again, and feel the awe I felt, and for me, that's enough.

It blew away all my expectations. A story of love, murder-mystery, unimaginable dangers, deep secrets, and breathtaking truths, Across The Universe is a must read, and must be in every bookshelf.

And the thing that rings in my head right now?. . . nothings gonna change my world. . .