Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill
Pub. Date: 1.11.2011
Genre: Sci-Fi YA
Keywords: Spaceship, Murder, Mystery, Drama, Space Odyssey
Description (from 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, 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.

Beth Revis had me totally and completely transfixed by her debut, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. I've always had a soft spot for science fiction, and YA is sorely lacking in this department, so, understandably, I was pumped when I first heard about this novel... Still, nothing could've prepared me for just how epic it was going to be!

I feel the need to mention that this is one of those hyped novels that actually lives up to the hype. This was so, so rewarding for me. There's nothing worse than looking forward to and daydreaming about a book, then finally having it in your hands and realizing that it isn't at all what you thought it was going to be. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE ended up being all I expected and more. 

This debut is a bit of everything, without being overwhelming. Fans of romance, mystery, dystopia, and sci-fi will all find familiar elements within ACROSS THE UNIVERSE's pages. That said, these elements are all seamlessly interwoven, so if you're usually not a fan of sci-fi or romance or whichever genre, you'll still enjoy this book. 

As the story unfolded and history and secrets were revealed, I found myself entranced by life upon the Godspeed. The population upon the ship live such caricatures of real life and they're totally unaware... it's actually quite disturbing in a can't-look-away-because-it's-so-sad-and-horrible-and-what's-going-to-happen-next? kind of way.

I really liked that there's a map of the spaceship included on the book's first pages. I didn't try to figure out what everything was when I first started reading, but, as the story progressed, it was helpful to be able to flip to diagram and keep track of where things were the action was happening on the ship. 

I'll definitely be reading Revis' next installment! She dishes out the perfect mix of drama, romance, mystery, and creepy science to keep my eyes glued to the page. And, semi-secretly, I'm hoping that ACROSS THE UNIVERSE starts a sci-fi YA trend... I'd definitely be a supporter!

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Review copy provided by publisher.