Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Penguin Group (2012)
Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
Length: 417
Synopsis: Amy is about to leave everything behind. Her parents have signed on to help develop a colony on a far distant planet, a colony so far away that they will have to spend 300 years cryogenically frozen aboard their starship in order to survive the journey. While they and the other "essential" personnel travel in blocks of ice, the ship is crewed by generation after generation as they hurtle through space. But somewhere along the line, something has gone wrong. The power structure of the waking crew has changed; now they're led by Eldest, the most senior member of the population, and his teenage successor, Elder, is being groomed to take his place. But Elder feels that something is not quite right within the ship; Eldest is keeping secrets, and when Elder stumbles across one of the biggest, a room full of frozen people, he'll do whatever it takes to get answers, even if it means asking the girl in the block of ice.
My Rating: 4 Stars
My Opinion:This, put most simply, is a good book. The opening scene was enough to leave me a bit shell-shocked, in the best possible way. From there, the story launches into a disconcertingly dystopian society that continues to reveal hidden depths of distortion as the book progresses. It's a quick read with an engaging plot and moderately intriguing characters, though they did seem a bit flat at times. The story is driven not by character development or growth, but by the swiftly unraveling though delightfully tangled plot. I did find that I was occasionally confused about the age of the characters. There was no change in vocabulary between Eldest and his teenage protege, leaving Eldest with turns of phrase that seemed out of character, particularly in a society that's been artificially stratified by age. Given the chance to continue in this series, however, I certainly will!
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