yabooktwins: Across the Universe Review/Thoughts/PO

Four things I LOVED about this book

The first chapter
The back to back narrative between Amy and Elder
Beth Revis' ability to bring science fiction to life (med patches!)
Amy's maturity level and moral

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to wake up on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, Amy's cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed. Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir. Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

My booktwin and I were reading YA novel after YA novel. I saw the cover of ATU on Amazon.com and thought it was so beautiful. I didn't purchase right away because I felt like I should save it for later, kind of like a special treat for myself. I even refrained from reviews and summaries because I wanted to be totally thrown into the story.

I started reading ATU at work during my lunch break...BIG mistake. I was enthralled and terrified during the first chapter, I gulped every word and thirsted for more. I couldn't believe I only had an hour to read it, I wanted nothing more than to leave work early so I could continue reading.

We meet Amy (real time) before she is to be frozen. We get a glimpse into her life as a teenager, she talks about her boyfriend, best friends, school dances and some aspirations.

Reading about the freezing process was incredibly detailed, I could picture it in my head so clearly that I gagged a little when one of the tubes was being forced down her throat. But, the part that really freaked me out was when she realized that she was going to be awake for 300 years.

Since I hadn't really read anything about the book, I was able to raise all kinds of questions and fortunately, most of them were answered.

Unfortunately, I can't detail anything more without revealing certain points, but let me tell you, the twists keep on coming. There were some things I was able to guess but in the end, Beth really got me! We were given all these important puzzle pieces throughout the book and put everything together in the end.

When Amy wakes up, the the length of time on the ship is short but it is packed with story and characters. Whenever I see a koi fish, I'll always think of this book.

The only downer that I have is that I wish there was more interaction or scenes with Amy and Elder, well that and 'The Season' scenes. I can understand 'The Season' because it was totally pertinent to the story and plot, I was just taken aback a little, but not like, 'that is so inappropriate!' more like, 'if I had a twelve or thirteen year old child, I would maybe think twice about letting them read it', but I'd definitely wouldn't mid if they were further along in high school.'

All in all, I enjoyed this book and I'm really looking forward to its sequel, 'A Million Suns,' out early next year! This was a great read!

4 out of 5 Sparkling Stars