A Bookanista Review: Across the Universe

To those of you that stopped by yesterday, I apologize that I had no post/vlog as I'd intended. I've been battling a nasty bug, but even so I was up until 3 AM working on the vlog, In the end, technical difficulties got the best of me.  And just as I was starting to feel better, I've had a bit of a relapse. Still, I wanted to post my review of Across the Universe, as it was released this week and because it's awesome, but my apologies in advance if I flu-ramble. I will try not to infect you with my cooties.

Also, be sure to stop by and see what the other Bookanistas are highlighting this week!

Elana Johnson and LiLa Roecker celebrate the release of Across the Universe with giveaways

Christine Fonseca gets lost in Nightshade

Shannon Messenger raves about Like Mandarin with an ARC Giveaway

Jamie Harrington thinks the outlook is good for The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball

Shelli Johannes-Wells celebrates Harcourt winners

Michelle Hodkin, Carolina Valdez Miller and Shana Silver travel Across the Universe

Scott Tracey gets some Clarity

Myra McEntire is In The Fort with Beth Revis

Megan Miranda falls head over heels for Fall For Anything

Bethany Wiggins is living for Three Quarters Dead

Jen Hayley worships Unearthly

Carrie Harris flips for Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Kirsten Hubbard goes crazy for Delirium

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

by Beth Revis

Goodreads summary: Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

My review

I picked up ACROSS THE UNIVERSE thinking that it would be a sci fi novel. And while it was--complete with all sorts of cool futuristic spacey technology, I discovered it was so much more than that. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is like STAR TREK meets THE GIVER bound together by a delicious romance (and lets face it, all the best books will have a delicious romance). Already, I know this will be one of the best books of  2011 for me. I read this book straight through in one day without stopping. Every chapter had me by the throat.

While AtU is set so far in the future, on a spaceship with cryogenically frozen bodies no less, the learning curve is actually not that huge.  Beth does some really cool things with language, as well as with structure that really helps to pull you into this futuristic world without you even realizing it, weaving in details of this world and its history into the narrative in  a masterful, unnoticeable way. For writers, there's a lot to be learned in the way of technique. For readers, it's like taking a trip aboard the Godspeed, albeit one full of secrets and lies.

The mystery is one of the most exciting aspects of the book, as Elder and Amy uncover clues  bringing them closer to answers--and to the murderer. But AtU is more than just a mere mystery, or a mere dystopian--more, even, than a simple combination of genres. It's a powerful book that says so much about right and wrong and that muddy space in between. It questions what it means to be human, to love, and to fight tooth and nail to protect that which you love.  It highlights issues of leadership, war, and "true" history.  AtU offers the reader so much to think about without being preachy or obnoxious, asking readers to come up with their own conclusions about the choices and sacrifices they would make to preserve the things most important to them.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a book rich with complex emotions and conflict, but fast paced and gripping. You won't be able to put it down.

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I will make a tremendous effort to post that vlog tomorrow!