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sarahkhan27 's review for:
Across the Universe
by Beth Revis
Amy and her parents have made the decision to leave behind planet Earth aboard the spaceship Godspeed. They are cryogenically frozen and will sleep for 300 years until they reach their new planet. But before their scheduled reanimation time, Amy is abruptly "unplugged". Eldest, an old dictator who rules the ship, hates Amy immediately and believes she will ruin everything. But Elder, next in line to be ruler, thinks differently. He's enchanted with Amy and wants to know more. But what neither Elder nor Amy realize is that something is very wrong aboard Godspeed. And when the truth begins to unravel, it will change everything.
I LOVED IT!!! An AMAZING story! Beth Revis has impressed me beyond words. WOW. Okay. Time to talk coherently now. :/
Her writing was great. It wasn't one of the best (Maggie Stiefvater, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling) but it was really, really good. I enjoyed it. I don't read for writing to begin with so I didn't care that it wasn't stupendous. But it was good. Really good. Did I say that already?
Another thing to mention before I dive into the plot is the jacket design. WOW. This is probably the best-looking book I've seen in a very long time. I always take off the jacket when reading a hardcover book but I kept this one beside me, constantly looking at it every so often. It was just SO beautiful! :O Why can't every author get their book to look this good? I mean, I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover but it looked SO pretty (texture! color! inside blueprints!) that I'm sure subconsciously that's one of the reasons why I bought it. Which brings me to my next point:
I bought it. Hardcover. Without reading it first. It was a complete impulse buy. So was Delirium (Lauren Oliver). I bought the two books together. I loved them both. Maybe I should impulse buy more often. *glances at her empty wallet* Maybe not.
But I'm SO GLAD I DID! The plot was just...amazing. Incredible. Awesome. I've mentioned in reviews before that I need an author to impress me. I need to read a book and then have something happen that I never saw coming and then for it to have some sort of marvelous conclusion that I could NEVER have come up with myself. Ever. And then I love the book. That is exactly what happened here. Beth Revis is a genius. I am so beyond impressed. I love how she came up with a billion things about the future and how she described each bit and left an impression in my mind. I love how she described the process of being cryogenically frozen. It sounded so...believable. :| It sounded real. I believed it. And isn't that when you know a book is good? When you completely, entirely believe it? The plot may sound far-fetched (spaceship, future, planet, blah, blah) but she wrote it so realistically that I couldn't help it, I believed her.
At the same time, this book isn't realistic fiction. It is sci-fi, and I love sci-fi. But it's also action, adventure, mystery, suspense, EVERYTHING. It will definitely be on my list of Top Ten Favorite Books. I was initially worried that the book would take one of two paths (neither of which I would've been happy with). It ended up taking neither and doing something completely on its own. Perfect.
I have two qualms however. One qualm is that this book scared me MUCH more than I ever expected it to. It's not a horror book, but there was a lot more suspense than I thought there'd be. It's marketed more as a YA/sci-fi/romance book. But wow, I had to read it in a room with other people, with all the lights on, and THEN have my sister escort me to my room because it was 3 a.m. and everybody else was asleep and I was terrified of the monster in the closet that was going to eat me. No joke. :| However, don't let that keep you from reading it! Truth be told, I am a chicken and am trying to get over fear of my own shadow SO the fact that I was scared doesn't say much. :P I think I was as spooked as I was because I didn't see it coming.
My other qualm is the lack of romance. I know, I know, I say this ALL the time. But let me make this different: I didn't mind the lack of romance. I would've loved more, sure, but I can see why the author did what she did. This is only book #1 in a trilogy. There's got to be something to build on, something more to happen in the other books. So while I was disappointed by how much the back of the book speaks of romance and how very little there actually is in the story, that's okay. It's okay because the plot twists made up for it.
This book also made me realize something else. It's when a story lacks something impressive that I start to depend on romance. It's when there are no mind-blowing plot twists or amazing characters or seemingly unsolvable mysteries, that I start to think, "Uh. Ok. I don't care anymore. Can they kiss now and get it over with?" And then they usually don't. And then I'm disappointed. And then I go on Goodreads and rant about how I wanted more romance. But maybe what I really wanted was a better book overall. More romance is a good distraction though! :P
So even though Elder and Amy's relationship left a lot to be desired, I loved everything else so much that I didn't care. They can get married and live happily ever after in books 2 and 3. :P Book #2 "A Million Suns" is already out. I might devour it over break. That means I have to go and impulsively buy it though. Oh no. :|
GO IMPULSIVELY BUY THE SERIES!!! :D :D :D
I LOVED IT!!! An AMAZING story! Beth Revis has impressed me beyond words. WOW. Okay. Time to talk coherently now. :/
Her writing was great. It wasn't one of the best (Maggie Stiefvater, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling) but it was really, really good. I enjoyed it. I don't read for writing to begin with so I didn't care that it wasn't stupendous. But it was good. Really good. Did I say that already?
Another thing to mention before I dive into the plot is the jacket design. WOW. This is probably the best-looking book I've seen in a very long time. I always take off the jacket when reading a hardcover book but I kept this one beside me, constantly looking at it every so often. It was just SO beautiful! :O Why can't every author get their book to look this good? I mean, I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover but it looked SO pretty (texture! color! inside blueprints!) that I'm sure subconsciously that's one of the reasons why I bought it. Which brings me to my next point:
I bought it. Hardcover. Without reading it first. It was a complete impulse buy. So was Delirium (Lauren Oliver). I bought the two books together. I loved them both. Maybe I should impulse buy more often. *glances at her empty wallet* Maybe not.
But I'm SO GLAD I DID! The plot was just...amazing. Incredible. Awesome. I've mentioned in reviews before that I need an author to impress me. I need to read a book and then have something happen that I never saw coming and then for it to have some sort of marvelous conclusion that I could NEVER have come up with myself. Ever. And then I love the book. That is exactly what happened here. Beth Revis is a genius. I am so beyond impressed. I love how she came up with a billion things about the future and how she described each bit and left an impression in my mind. I love how she described the process of being cryogenically frozen. It sounded so...believable. :| It sounded real. I believed it. And isn't that when you know a book is good? When you completely, entirely believe it? The plot may sound far-fetched (spaceship, future, planet, blah, blah) but she wrote it so realistically that I couldn't help it, I believed her.
At the same time, this book isn't realistic fiction. It is sci-fi, and I love sci-fi. But it's also action, adventure, mystery, suspense, EVERYTHING. It will definitely be on my list of Top Ten Favorite Books. I was initially worried that the book would take one of two paths (neither of which I would've been happy with). It ended up taking neither and doing something completely on its own. Perfect.
I have two qualms however. One qualm is that this book scared me MUCH more than I ever expected it to. It's not a horror book, but there was a lot more suspense than I thought there'd be. It's marketed more as a YA/sci-fi/romance book. But wow, I had to read it in a room with other people, with all the lights on, and THEN have my sister escort me to my room because it was 3 a.m. and everybody else was asleep and I was terrified of the monster in the closet that was going to eat me. No joke. :| However, don't let that keep you from reading it! Truth be told, I am a chicken and am trying to get over fear of my own shadow SO the fact that I was scared doesn't say much. :P I think I was as spooked as I was because I didn't see it coming.
My other qualm is the lack of romance. I know, I know, I say this ALL the time. But let me make this different: I didn't mind the lack of romance. I would've loved more, sure, but I can see why the author did what she did. This is only book #1 in a trilogy. There's got to be something to build on, something more to happen in the other books. So while I was disappointed by how much the back of the book speaks of romance and how very little there actually is in the story, that's okay. It's okay because the plot twists made up for it.
This book also made me realize something else. It's when a story lacks something impressive that I start to depend on romance. It's when there are no mind-blowing plot twists or amazing characters or seemingly unsolvable mysteries, that I start to think, "Uh. Ok. I don't care anymore. Can they kiss now and get it over with?" And then they usually don't. And then I'm disappointed. And then I go on Goodreads and rant about how I wanted more romance. But maybe what I really wanted was a better book overall. More romance is a good distraction though! :P
So even though Elder and Amy's relationship left a lot to be desired, I loved everything else so much that I didn't care. They can get married and live happily ever after in books 2 and 3. :P Book #2 "A Million Suns" is already out. I might devour it over break. That means I have to go and impulsively buy it though. Oh no. :|
GO IMPULSIVELY BUY THE SERIES!!! :D :D :D