Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)

by Beth Revis

[Katie King]

**3 Stars**

To be completely fair, I have read this book before (so nothing was a surprise) and I finished it over a month ago (so it's been a while). Oh, college...

Across the Universe is the story of Amy and Elder, two teenagers from completely different circumstances, on a spaceship traveling 300 years to a new planet. Elder is the ship-born leader-in-training. Amy is the "non-essential" daughter of two brilliant minds, all cryogenically frozen, destined to help on the new planet. But what happens when Amy is woken up 50 years early?

I have a weird relationship with this book. On one hand, I really love the concept (reminds me of Wall-E) but on the other hand, it was poorly executed. Almost all of the major plot elements were given away in the very beginning. For instance, the first-Elder-gone-bad idea was great, but making him a creepy, antisocial librarian with scars where his com should be? It could not have been more obvious. I'm surprised that passage wasn't just highlighted for the reader's ease. I'm the type of person that never picks up on those "obvious" hints, and even I could tell he was some type of antagonist.

Another example of this would be the mind-control aspect. Amy feels weird when she drinks the water, the mating season, there's a random, suspicious access point to the entire ship's water line that Elder can get to... to me that all screams THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE WATER.

Another problem I had with this book is the romance. Elder saves Amy when she gets woken up, and then they just casually decide to be together forever. I didn't feel any sort of connection between them other than the fact that Elder kept repeating that Amy was different and Amy kept repeating that she was different. Then throw in the fact that Amy is obsessed with her womanizing ex-boyfriend and waking up her dad from cryo-sleep and you've got to wonder why exactly Elder likes her.

This review has been mostly negative so let's talk about some positives. Like I said, I liked the entire concept of the book. It's a great idea and the blurb really sells it. Even if the blurb didn't, the cover alone sells this book, I'm sure. Anyways, building a spaceship to find a new planet and develop a new Earth with people frozen 300 years ago is cool. Finding out that it's been over 300 years and there's a massive cover-up to keep the population under control was crazy. I love mysteries and watching Amy and Elder try to figure it out was great. Amy was like the perfect "non-essential" because she came across as your average angsty teenager. Amy's friend Harley was fun, but I really felt bad for where he ended up.

This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't a fantastic book either. I, by far, enjoyed it more than I didn't enjoy it. The problem was it could've been SO much better. Make things a little harder to figure out, make the romance feel a little more real, cut down on Amy's whining...easily 4 stars.