Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
Pages: 398
Format: Paperback
Published March 3, 2011 by Razorbill
Originally published January 11, 2011
Goodreads // Amazon UK

AMY
has left the life she loves
for a world 300 years away.

Trapped in space and frozen in time, Amy is bound for a new planet. But fifty years before she's due to arrive, she is violently woken, the victim of an attempted murder. Now Amy's lost on board and nothing makes sense - she's never felt so alone.

Yet someone is waiting for her.
He wants to protect her -
and more if she'll let him

But who can she trust amidst the secrets and lies?
A killer is out there - and Amy has nowhere to hide...

Across the Universe is a truly fast-paced and mysterious science fiction romance with elaborate world building. Does that sound like too much to you? Well, I too was surprised at how much was craftily woven into this fantastic novel. Beth Revis even managed to pull off (fantastically, I might add) alternating point of views between Amy and Elder, the boy destined to become the ship leader's successor.

If I had to pick my one favourite aspect of this novel, it would have to be the world building. Life on the ship was so skilfully peppered with a seriously original setting aboard an enormous spaceship headed for another earth-like planet. Food is grown to the book and population is controlled through calculated hormonal urges. There are a lot of creative ways the ship inhabitants have to survive without knowing about the frozen people in the levels below. I cannot praise it enough! 

The characters of this book were really well suited to each other. Amy stuck out like a sore thumb not only with her red hair and pale skin while everyone else had brown hair and olive skin, but she awoke on the ship with the thoughts of someone from the old earth. Having been woken up too early, she is the only one who remembers life on earth and isn't afraid to tell people how life should be. Elder is a genuinely sweet yet defiant character. With Amy's influence, he's able to see the wrong in the status quo aboard this ship and will stop at just about nothing to correct it. Their romance was slow and sweet and truly believable.

What kept me from giving the book five stars was the murderer. As the mystery of the frozen people murders was such an instrumental part of the book, I was disappointed with the murderer. I felt like it was obvious the whole time who was doing it, but I was still intrigued as I felt we were still kept in the dark about why the murders were happening in the first place.

This book is a definite must read to anyone into science fiction. I think it would even suit those put-off by other science fiction books before, as it does have a strong dystopian aspect and romance. I can't wait to get a copy of A Million Suns, the second book in this series!