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bookishvice's review against another edition
5.0
My faith in YA books has been restored.
Thank you, Beth Revis <3
Thank you, Beth Revis <3
nicksquiggles's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Loved this story, I wasn't sure really what to expect, and considering that I love The Across the Universe trilogy so much, I didn't think it would really meet the expectation I'd set for it. But it did, the twists are turns in this story are awesome, and it did a great job of making me doubt what I believed to be true about every character, and that was cool.
Can't wait to read more of Beth Revis' writing, definitely one of my fav authors :D
Loved this story, I wasn't sure really what to expect, and considering that I love The Across the Universe trilogy so much, I didn't think it would really meet the expectation I'd set for it. But it did, the twists are turns in this story are awesome, and it did a great job of making me doubt what I believed to be true about every character, and that was cool.
Can't wait to read more of Beth Revis' writing, definitely one of my fav authors :D
golden_lily's review against another edition
3.0
Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews
The Body Electric was a really challenging book for me. I liked a lot of the ideas, but I found the execution very lacking. The twists aren’t just telegraphed, they’re explicitly revealed halfway through the book. Yet, the story continues to try and build tension by asking questions that have already been answered. “What is Ella?” The boat scene made that clear. The lab scene made it clearer. When she laid down on the medical table, crystal. But still the big climax contains as “shocking” flashback. I felt hammered over the head. And yet, the initial reveal did have great impact and kept me reading, though I’d been planning on stopping at the end of the chapter.
Over the course of the book, I made a pro/con list to help me with this review, but I realized that it said all I wanted to. So I give you, Pros and Cons of The Body Electric:
Pros:
WOC main character
WOC LGBT best friend
Memento-style clues to prior life
Cool futuristic city
Impactful initial twist - well written
Exciting action scenes
Interesting premise with the dreamscape
Female MC vs female villain with no male interference
Villain with three dimensional motivations
BEES
Cons:
Underdeveloped main character
Fridged WOC LGBT best friend
Memento plot dropped out of nowhere?
Derivative world building
The forced kiss between MC and LI
The romance. The whole thing.
Easily guessed twists - and a lot of them
Government reveals their big secret for no reason
Government reveals their big secret in front of rebels who could easily be recording
Muddled climax, layers of reality not well explained
Very little conclusion
NOT THE BEES
The Body Electric was a really challenging book for me. I liked a lot of the ideas, but I found the execution very lacking. The twists aren’t just telegraphed, they’re explicitly revealed halfway through the book. Yet, the story continues to try and build tension by asking questions that have already been answered. “What is Ella?” The boat scene made that clear. The lab scene made it clearer. When she laid down on the medical table, crystal. But still the big climax contains as “shocking” flashback. I felt hammered over the head. And yet, the initial reveal did have great impact and kept me reading, though I’d been planning on stopping at the end of the chapter.
Over the course of the book, I made a pro/con list to help me with this review, but I realized that it said all I wanted to. So I give you, Pros and Cons of The Body Electric:
Pros:
WOC main character
WOC LGBT best friend
Memento-style clues to prior life
Cool futuristic city
Impactful initial twist - well written
Exciting action scenes
Interesting premise with the dreamscape
Female MC vs female villain with no male interference
Villain with three dimensional motivations
BEES
Cons:
Underdeveloped main character
Fridged WOC LGBT best friend
Memento plot dropped out of nowhere?
Derivative world building
The forced kiss between MC and LI
The romance. The whole thing.
Easily guessed twists - and a lot of them
Government reveals their big secret for no reason
Government reveals their big secret in front of rebels who could easily be recording
Muddled climax, layers of reality not well explained
Very little conclusion
NOT THE BEES
carolinevaught's review against another edition
5.0
Original posted on: acrossthebookiverse.blogspot.com
This is a joke, right? I'm missing the last one hundred pages, this isn't really a standalone, surely there's more, because this isn't fair. A story such as this needs to have more than 460 pages dedicated to it!
In the future, nanobots are a daily occurrence. Everyone has them, a part of everyone's life, especially when your name is Ella Shepherd and your parents are famous scientists. Ella's father is dead, killed by a terrorist attack on the lab he was working in and her mother has a disease called Hebbs Disease, which is fatal and causes the brain to deteriorate. Her mother has developed a way for people to relive their best memories, but everything changes when theory becomes reality. Ella can walk through people's memories, something that was only thought to be theoretical. Her life is throw into chaos and it certainly does help when a mysterious boy shows up. Ella isn't sure who to trust. Can she trust the mystery boy that has attachments to her father, but seems to have secrets? Can she trust her government? Can she even trust herself?
I've read one book by Beth Revis before The Body Electric, and I loved it, so my expectations were pretty high. My expectations were met. Ella is such an interesting character. She has layers of emotion and strength, but as the story progresses we also see her fears, which (I shall not spoil anything) I find very understandable considering the circumstances. I would have loved to see more interaction between Jack and Ella at the end of the book and every time they were together I did a mental happy dance, but at the same time made me want to throw the book at the wall, because it. Is. So. Frustrating. There's almost always action going on, so I just kept flipping the pages. All of a sudden the book was over. How did that happen? The science alone is enough to keep my mind constantly interested, but the twists just throw a little extra something that makes me crazy. I still want more, I can't believe this is just a standalone, this world has so much that it could offer and I hope we see more of it in the future.
Side note: Across the Universe reference, don't think I missed you, I saw you and I love you.
This is a joke, right? I'm missing the last one hundred pages, this isn't really a standalone, surely there's more, because this isn't fair. A story such as this needs to have more than 460 pages dedicated to it!
In the future, nanobots are a daily occurrence. Everyone has them, a part of everyone's life, especially when your name is Ella Shepherd and your parents are famous scientists. Ella's father is dead, killed by a terrorist attack on the lab he was working in and her mother has a disease called Hebbs Disease, which is fatal and causes the brain to deteriorate. Her mother has developed a way for people to relive their best memories, but everything changes when theory becomes reality. Ella can walk through people's memories, something that was only thought to be theoretical. Her life is throw into chaos and it certainly does help when a mysterious boy shows up. Ella isn't sure who to trust. Can she trust the mystery boy that has attachments to her father, but seems to have secrets? Can she trust her government? Can she even trust herself?
I've read one book by Beth Revis before The Body Electric, and I loved it, so my expectations were pretty high. My expectations were met. Ella is such an interesting character. She has layers of emotion and strength, but as the story progresses we also see her fears, which (I shall not spoil anything) I find very understandable considering the circumstances. I would have loved to see more interaction between Jack and Ella at the end of the book and every time they were together I did a mental happy dance, but at the same time made me want to throw the book at the wall, because it. Is. So. Frustrating. There's almost always action going on, so I just kept flipping the pages. All of a sudden the book was over. How did that happen? The science alone is enough to keep my mind constantly interested, but the twists just throw a little extra something that makes me crazy. I still want more, I can't believe this is just a standalone, this world has so much that it could offer and I hope we see more of it in the future.
Side note: Across the Universe reference, don't think I missed you, I saw you and I love you.
shelvesofsecrets's review against another edition
3.0
It's been a few days and I'm still trying to sort out how I feel about this book. The concepts introduced are interesting, but they are pretty out there. What I mean is this is some pretty hard-core science fiction, even without spaceships.
I found the story interesting and engaging and I did want to find out what was going on. Some things I thought were obvious to the reader long before Ella figured them out, but others took me by surprise.
I think my biggest issue was Ella herself. I just couldn't connect with her. I think it was because in the beginning, she fought so hard against what Jack was telling her, even though it was pretty obvious that something didn't add up.
One thing I really did like were the small references to the Across the Universe series. This is by no means a sequel, but I liked seeing the little hints that let us know that this takes place in the same universe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I feel pretty neutral about it. I will still read anything Beth Revis puts out though!
I found the story interesting and engaging and I did want to find out what was going on. Some things I thought were obvious to the reader long before Ella figured them out, but others took me by surprise.
I think my biggest issue was Ella herself. I just couldn't connect with her. I think it was because in the beginning, she fought so hard against what Jack was telling her, even though it was pretty obvious that something didn't add up.
One thing I really did like were the small references to the Across the Universe series. This is by no means a sequel, but I liked seeing the little hints that let us know that this takes place in the same universe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I feel pretty neutral about it. I will still read anything Beth Revis puts out though!
ledlight's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
colecordium's review against another edition
3.0
* Originally posted on Books and Starlight *
* This book was given to me from the author as part of the blog tour in an exchange of an honest review. *
God help me, green is my least favorite color on the whole world, but somehow I love this cover. It actually captures the book's dreamlike feeling, and the actual dreams that are a big part of Ella's life. I love those butterflies and the silhouette is so beautiful.
First of all, this was my first book I read from Beth Revis, since I haven't had a chance to meet with her Across The Universe series, even though that one is on my tbr since forever probably. So I was a Beth Revis virgin until The Body Electric.
I found it a bit hard in the beginning to get into this story. There were a lot of world descriptions that I found really long and maybe half of it would have been enough. But the world actually was really nice and I loved the essence of it. The world building was really nice, little details at a time, so we didn't get overwhelmed with it. I loved the technology and all these futuristic nanobots and androids and everything else this dystopian world came with. I always wonder when I read a book like this or watch movies with upper technology, that if they can imagine, why can't they make it real? I would totally love to live in a futuristic city.
The storyline actually wasn't the most original, because you know, corrupt government, rebels and whatnot.. we've seen this before but it doesn't mean the book was any less enjoyable. There was quite an action in it, which I love in books.
I loved the writing style too - except those long descriptions - it was very easy to read and follow through. There weren't any metaphors or poetic style writing, or words I didn't understand or had to look up in the dictionary, so this was really positive for me.
What I had most of my problem were the characters. The main characters I couldn't connect with and the minor ones weren't really that big part of the book. Ella was a bit distant for me and somehow, seemed indifferent, yet she was more real than the characters I've read lately and that was what I found the main reason I kept reading it. Jack was another story, I think I just couldn't get to know him at all. I found their romance a bit lacking too and for me, romance is very important in books, otherwise I can't enjoy them as much.
While it didn't become a favorite of mine, I think I am going to do a re-read when I finally get to read Across The Universe, because I've heard there are quite some Easter Eggs in it from that series. And if you didn't know before: I LOVE EASTER EGGS. Those are my favorite EVERYWHERE. I live for them. So yeah, I am definitely going to read The Body Electric again.
I would recommend this book to lovers of science fiction, who doesn't mind that all of it is summed up in one book - since this is a stand-alone novel - and doesn't mind a focus being more on the world that on romance.
* This book was given to me from the author as part of the blog tour in an exchange of an honest review. *
God help me, green is my least favorite color on the whole world, but somehow I love this cover. It actually captures the book's dreamlike feeling, and the actual dreams that are a big part of Ella's life. I love those butterflies and the silhouette is so beautiful.
First of all, this was my first book I read from Beth Revis, since I haven't had a chance to meet with her Across The Universe series, even though that one is on my tbr since forever probably. So I was a Beth Revis virgin until The Body Electric.
I found it a bit hard in the beginning to get into this story. There were a lot of world descriptions that I found really long and maybe half of it would have been enough. But the world actually was really nice and I loved the essence of it. The world building was really nice, little details at a time, so we didn't get overwhelmed with it. I loved the technology and all these futuristic nanobots and androids and everything else this dystopian world came with. I always wonder when I read a book like this or watch movies with upper technology, that if they can imagine, why can't they make it real? I would totally love to live in a futuristic city.
The storyline actually wasn't the most original, because you know, corrupt government, rebels and whatnot.. we've seen this before but it doesn't mean the book was any less enjoyable. There was quite an action in it, which I love in books.
I loved the writing style too - except those long descriptions - it was very easy to read and follow through. There weren't any metaphors or poetic style writing, or words I didn't understand or had to look up in the dictionary, so this was really positive for me.
What I had most of my problem were the characters. The main characters I couldn't connect with and the minor ones weren't really that big part of the book. Ella was a bit distant for me and somehow, seemed indifferent, yet she was more real than the characters I've read lately and that was what I found the main reason I kept reading it. Jack was another story, I think I just couldn't get to know him at all. I found their romance a bit lacking too and for me, romance is very important in books, otherwise I can't enjoy them as much.
While it didn't become a favorite of mine, I think I am going to do a re-read when I finally get to read Across The Universe, because I've heard there are quite some Easter Eggs in it from that series. And if you didn't know before: I LOVE EASTER EGGS. Those are my favorite EVERYWHERE. I live for them. So yeah, I am definitely going to read The Body Electric again.
I would recommend this book to lovers of science fiction, who doesn't mind that all of it is summed up in one book - since this is a stand-alone novel - and doesn't mind a focus being more on the world that on romance.