Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

13 reviews

annaluzia's review

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mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I have so much to say about this book and most of it is BAD. 

There is unnecessary and way too descriptive sexual assault happening
with a rescue from a male character...

Some other things as well that I'll put in the content warning tags! 

It was still an enjoyable read in terms of easy writing style. But that's what the half star is for, my opinion of the book got worse with every single chapter I've read. Insta-love happening, really non complex characters and plot, easy to see plot twists, unrealistic things happening and readily excusing the horrible stuff one of the main characters does are the main reasons I did not like the book. 

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beccaruthe's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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lisbet's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

While YA Dystopian SciFi is pretty much my favorite kind of books, this book has one major hurdle in the plot that keeps me from loving it.
When I watched the movie Passengers, I could not get past the fact that Chris Pratt’s character woke Jennifer Lawrence’s character without her consent - an irrevocable decision that couldn’t be undone and robbed her of the life and future she had chosen. This book uses the same situation to set off the plot, and that is something that cannot be glossed over. However, the author doesn’t dwell on this at all, and doesn’t allow Amy the anger and other emotional and relationship fall-out of that discovery, and in my opinion that is a huge cop-out on the author’s part. This is largely responsible for my not being able to give the book a higher rating.


But even when you overlook that, there are still issues that keep this book from being great. For me another huge flaw is how the author approaches the topic of sexual assault.
The attempted gang rape of the female protagonist (and its aftermath)  is completely glossed over.  Most infuriatingly of all, the leader of the assailants is not dealt with or punished in any way what-so-ever and completely disappears from the story afterwards. WTF?


One thing I’d love for the author to have explored in depth is Amy’s nightmares and dreams while she was in stasis. What caused them? Why did she have them if no one else who’d been in stasis before her hadn’t?

Some of the things I enjoyed was the discussion about what separates and defines sane vs. crazy, and the multitude of problems (both logistic and moral) of generational ships.

Like much YA SciFi, this is light on the science and there’s not much explanation for why the people are traveling across the universe to a new planet? Are they the only ones leaving earth? Are others going to the same planet? Other planets?

While I did have some problems with the book, I am planning to read the next book in the series

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