Book Review for "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis

Find it here on Amazon!

"Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends--and planet--behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.

Someone tried to murder her.

Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest's rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship's cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again."

As I usually do I picked this book up used because of a combination of cover art and book description. Using Amazon, I found that it was rated 4-Stars out of over 450 reviews. 

You can find a full description of this book on Amazon by clicking this link. 

I just put this book down after finishing it, though I admit that it took me some time. It was a combination of several different typical sci-fi plots. There is very little action, though the book isn't slow, per se. There isn't any real dead periods in the book and each and every chapter gives a little more insight into the plot, though it is quick to give another plot hanger to make you keep reading. 

Though it is classified as Sci-Fi and its title suggest that it is about a trip across space, little of the plot truly revolves around any science fiction. Instead, it is actually a whodunit mystery that happens to take place on a ship traveling across the Universe. 

The book is narrated by two different characters: Amy and Elder. Considering that there are only 6 characters who have anything to do with the plot, it felt like the writer was giving a lot away by sharing both perspectives. Out of those 6, really only 3 of the characters are developed in any capacity. 

Though the writer tries to subtly give away hints throughout the book, the clues were fairly clumsy and I had the plot solved very early. At some points, I already knew what the next earth-shattering clue would be before it was ever given. So early that I thought "surely there would be a wild ending". But there wasn't. It was totally predictable and  I spent more time trying to figure out how I could be duped in some crazy plot twist on the next page than assuming I had it figured out. 

That isn't to say the book isn't worth reading nor that it was boring. Sadly, what kept me reading was the hope that I wasn't right in nailing the plot in the first 50 pages. It kept me excited enough to read it in its entirety, though I was totally let down in the end. Since half the battle is being entertained, I have to award it 2.5 Stars.