Across the Universe
Ratings98
Average rating3.6
DNF - PG 88
Why?
I admit, I have a very low tolerance for anything skeevy. Especially skeevy in the ‘he could be a sexual predator' kind of way - and at the very least, Elder is skeevy. Even if he hasn't hit sexual predator level yet, he's at least plain skeevy.
My eyes devour her body, then drift back to her breasts. The ice is a little foggy there, teasing me, but I can see enough to know they're lush, even if they're frozen, I imagine that if they were warmed up...
This about a frozen, unconscious girl that he'd never seen before. But I pressed on.
The girl's chest moves up and down, but that is the only sign of life she's willing to give. Funny how different her body looks outside the ice. She seems smaller, weaker, more vulnerable. The ice was her armor. I want to protect her now, cover her curves instead of run my fingers over them.
Do you also want to keep her in your basement? It's like he can't decide if he want's to be a rapist or a possessive jackass. (Here, Elder, take both!) But the plot is finally starting to move, so I pressed on - until two pages later.
“I want Daddy,” she whimpers, and even though I know that she's more woman than girl, she seems very much like a child now.
... I will wash and never be clean. Shudder
If these quotes don't bother you - or you can't figure out what I'm making such a fuss about - by all means, read the book. Now, I'm off to find something that's more feminist than this. ... And less skeevy.
DNF 33%
Alright, I might have been feeling lackluster about the book and went to read reviews– accidentally spoiled the book but really, I kinda knew a lot of what was going to happen and I wasn't too surprised. I agreed with most of the reviews about how the pacing is slow and the characters don't seem to have much depth.
So, I decided not to go on. I do wish I knew some of the more deeper details but, I don't care enough to keep listening. Listening to Amy talk about her new life makes me claustrophobic and putting myself in her shoes... I'd rather be frozen again even if it meant I might die–heck I probably wouldn't have gotten on the ship in the first place....
Anyhow, I LOVE the cover which is why I wanted to read it and I thought the concept was really cool but, the execution left me wanting.
Across the Universe, is a fascinating sci-fi journey that explores the haunting question: what would mankind become if isolated on a spaceship?
Amy is the only original survivor from Earth (aka: Sol-Earth) aboard Godspeed. Along with Elder and the secrets surrounding random reanimated cryogenic murders, what is the real truth that keeps the voyage going and everyone acting like the movie characters from “Pleasentville”.
First off I like to say that I love the cover of the book! Duelside = awesome! I adore the architectural design of Godspeed and fascinated by the amount of time and energy that went into making the blueprint. That alone made me want to read the novel even more.
The opening chapter. It is intensely detailed and not for the faint of heart. From the preparation, to the vulnerability from Amy and her parents, it is a scary scenario, yet leaves the reader dying to know how it turns out for those aboard the ship.
The parts of the book that really shocked me was what they call “the season”. The gripping moment when amy is fighting for her survival against another young man on the ship. It left me distrurbed for awhile and it was a little to real, because most women/young girls know their attacker.
But what made it really fearful was the way everyone but those in the hospital were behaving. The drone like thinking to the pattenrs of behavior it reminded me of such horror classics as, “Children of the Corn” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, those horrowing empty eyes say it all with the people on the ship.
As for the characters, I really enjoyed the unraveling of Amy and Elder. It was odd, yet intriguing at the same time. Sort of like she was the yin to his yang as they say. For every new age moment that was placed in the book, really made for conversation with Amy and Elder. She was always confused and a little freaked out by how much had changed in 300 or more years since she was frozen.
Beyond the book, I'm a big fan of sci-fi stories and this one is surely amazing. I can see why the hype of the novel existed.
Overall, this spine-tingling adventure in a futuristic environment is a read not to be missed.
(FYI: It had the vibe of the movie “Alien” written all over the beginning chapter of the book.)
The jumping between two main characters was very confusing. The rape scene was way too much. The ending was super projected and predictable... Would not recommend.
I really want to give this book just one star, but I realise I made the mistake of thinking this might be some deeper, more skilfully written work. In fact, it is just another rather shallow, YAF book and probably does not warrant receiving my full ire.
Okay, round two. :)
So, I found this cool sci-fi book and thought it would be cool to read for a couple reasons. 1) It's sci-fi 2) It had a cool concept. And 3) The characters sounded interesting.
Well, to make a long story short, the book sort of did that. It was a good book; just not great. The concept was pretty cool, but a little confusing towards the end of the novel (I'm not going to tell you why, sorry). The romance in the story was kind of inevitable/predictable, but it was sweet and realistic (even if she is way older than him). It didn't seem rushed at all. And I liked the characters... For the most part at least.
Amy- She was a cool heroine, I guess. She doesn't seem as fit for the role as other heroines in other books, however, in my opinion. In addition, she cried a lot, which I sort of understand. I mean, nothing is how she imagined it, but still. I found myself wanting to punch her in the face, and knock some sense into her at some parts. Just saying.
Elder- I really liked Elder. I liked Elder more than Amy. Sorry. Elder was just a really neat character and had a neat background. There were multiple conflicts revolving around him, including his everlasting arguments with Eldest. Furthermore, I really liked Elder's friendship with Harley, as sad as it was.
In conclusion, this book was worth the read. It had a cool plot, characters, and was very entertaining. Granted, It wasn't amazing, but I will definitely be reading the second book.
This book was so heartbreaking! But so good. A good exploration of how lies and secrets can never last and the longer they are held the bigger the devastation once revealed. Very good!!!
A gratifying read with a great plot. There was some sloppy writing and the antagonist was a little bit to easy to pick out, but the idea of this book was a knock out. Looking forward to reading the next one.
Didn't really get interesting until page 300 ... and then it was over. Too much world building and way too much overly obvious early exposition. Can't imagine reading the sequel because the character profiles and motives seemed vague and undeveloped to me. 2.5 stars
Full review at SFF Book Review.
Another one of those over-hyped YA books that have no substance.
There are a lot of things wrong with this and since I just wrote a long review on my blog, I don't feel like going into detail again here. It was just a bad book. It's insta-love, the characters are flat and incredibly stupid, there was not much plot to begin with and what little there was turned out to be badle written. The narrative doesn't work.
After finishing this, the book goes on my stack of books that have been churned out because there was a hype going on and the marked wanted more of the same. Lazy writing, no real story to tell, and the blandest characters on and off Earth do not make a good book.
The two star rating is based solely on the first chapter - which was good - and some sparks of ideas that could have been good, had the author (or her editor) put a little more work into it. Instead, I suppose all the money went into marketing to make all the young girls run out and buy yet another piece of bad YA literature.
Pretty much lived up to my expectations. I got into it at the end, but had trouble connecting with it in the beginning. I liked the sci-fi aspects and the slow world-building descriptions of life on the ship. I'll probably read the sequel at some point.
Strong beginning, but got pretty bad quickly. Terrible plot holes, leading to a twist that makes a liar out of the narrative.
Half Audio-Half Read
Seventeen year old Amy Martin has been frozen along with her mom and dad. They've been put on a ship named Godspeed and are headed to a planet which is 300 years in the future. Imagine her surprise when she is thawed out and instead of being on the planet she's still aboard a ship full of mystery and secrets.
ONE WORD... WOW!
8 mins into the audio book and I was literally saying WOW! By the end of the book I was at a million WOW's. Beth Revis has one heck of an imagination. I don't want to give any details from the book because I believe it would all be a spoiler. All the new words used, the world created on Godspeed, the past and the future, all of it is so brand new that it would be an injustice to mention any of it in a review. You have to experience it for the first time when you read the book.
This ship is full of mystery and secrets and I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I think one of the things I liked most about the book was that it wasn't predictable at all.
I will say ONE thing...My new word is FREX! ;-)
Ms. Revis you have done a wonderful job and I am in awe of your creativity. I've already started the second book and I'm already at “WOW” and “No frexing way!”!!
Until next time Y'all!
My thoughts
Cover: The cover is ok. Precisely how I imagined Amy. However the Hardcover is my favorite.
Book: A bookish friend gifted and ordered AtU[Across the Universe] for me at the bookdepository.Thanks Shelaugh
amy was on earth
Now she's frozen.Cryrogenically Frozen
She should be asleep but she's not.Mostly wake in cold frozen lifeless body. She wants to scream but can't. And almost 300 years onboard Godspeed. But out of nowhere she's thawing,alive again and unfrozen. What?? why?? how??
BUT
wink
Him telling her that her that he did it, unfreezing her.Keeping a secret is never good. I hope Amy can forgive him
Other characters
Sad he died. Knew you died, knew you not how you were going to die.Did not see that coming. Feeling emotionally right now typing this.But glad the wonderful Mrs Revis thought you up.He I feel a bit better i'll get to know more about your girlfriend who sad died as well in book two and maybe more about you
DUDE DUDE,OMG REALLY
Other noteworthy characters
This is an 100% honest review
Amy and her parents decide to go into frozen sleep in order to travel aboard a spaceship to colonize a remote planet. But things don't work out as they'd expected, and Amy is awakened during the journey, before the ship arrives. Amy finds herself in a new, surprising, frightening world aboard ship, a world controlled by a mysterious leader named Eldest with his student, Elder.
I read all 300+ pages in one sitting. It's a popular genre now, the YA dystopia, and this book is quite typical of that genre, with a scary world that feels like an exaggerated version of our world, with scary leaders who stretch and warp the truth for their own ends, with strong young rebels who fight to restore goodness to the scary world.
I really enjoyed this book. I was worried that it might be too spacey for my tastes (since, as I said, I don't often read sci-fi), but Across the Universe had me hooked. There's a murder mystery, romance that isn't overdone (which, I have to say, is pretty refreshing) and some memorable characters. The only thing that bothered me was the dual-POV—the book is told both from Amy and Elder's alternating first person POV, which was a little difficult to adjust to at first, but I actually enjoyed it later on. In fact, the dual POV really made the ending particularly fantastic stylistically, in my opinion.
Oh, and have I mentioned the twists? There aren't many books that have surprised me like Across the Universe did, and I can count on one hand how many book surprised me more than once (Across the Universe, of course, being one of them).
Mystery. Romance. Twists. I highly recommend this one. It's a great read and I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel.
I don't think it's possible to read a book with a Beatles-esque title and be disappointed. For the author's first novel, I didn't think this book was too bad; I absolutely loved her combined concepts of cryogenics, space travel, and dystopian society. The setting was very creative and well done, definitely nothing like I've ever read about before. Aside from the good points, I thought that the mystery of the murderer was a little too easy to solve, the characters could have been more developed and consistent, and the ending....Well, the ending wrapped up way too quickly, and wasn't quite what I was expecting. I don't know if the author has a sequel in mind, but if not, it was kind of an abrupt finish. Overall, a pretty good read.
Jeg var rett og slett hekta fra første stund. Det var mye som skjedde hele tiden og den var utrolig spennende til tider. Historien fenget meg også veldig, siden jeg synes det er veldig spennende med verdensrommet, framtiden, nye planeter osv. Alt var veldig detaljert og godt beskrevet, så det var lett å føle at man var ombord på Godspeed sammen med Amy og Elder. Og når den store hemmeligheten kom ut, så følte jeg også at jeg var berørt av den. Utrolig bra! Et lite trekk for at av og til var litt forvirrende med stadig skifting mellom Amy og Elders synspunkt...
I had such high hopes for this book and it does not disappoint. ATU is very enjoyable. The real star of the novel is not Amy, who is okay or Elder (who is wonderful) but the world that they live in. First, the world is a ship-one that is racing across the universe to a new planet. I found myself getting more and more uncomfortable as the story evolved, and I am not usually claustrophobic. They (the inhabitants of the Godspeed) are truly cut off from EVERYONE. No calling Houston with problems, that's for sure.
And there are some major problems in this world! So much of the story is layered-secrets piled on secrets. Some of them are shocking, others you can kind of see for yourself, and the pages just could not turn fast enough.
This is an excellent read and I could not believe it was a debut novel. Revis has chops.
I have two teeny tiny issues. Really, they are minuscule, but I have to mention them. One, the book features a large amount of sex. It is not between the main characters and the sex is there for a reason, but it is like a death knell for me using this book with my Teen Book Club. Sorry. Violence-okay, Language-getting squeamish, but sex is a no-go. Oh, well, we'll have to pick another title.
Second, Amy. I like Amy. I don't love Amy. I realize this is a series and I am just hoping that Amy grows and grows. I hope she grows up. She's seventeen and still calls her father “Daddy” all of the time. Granted, she has just been through a traumatic experience, so I am being very forgiving here, but my concern for the future is that Amy needs to put the teddy bear down, grow some, and become the co-leader Elder needs her to be. I want Amy to be Essential and not Non-Essential any longer.
So, now the countdown begins for the sequel. I need one of those star date things they have on Star Trek.