Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

First in the Across the Universe trilogy

3.5 stars


To see the spoiler review, go here.

Amy is seventeen years old when she’s frozen alongside her parents in a cyro chamber to go to Centauri-Earth. She’s cargo deep in the bottom of the spaceship the Godspeed and expects to awaken three hundred years into the future. She finds herself woken up fifty years too soon and in a completely different world. Elder is in line to become the next Eldest, the leader of the Godspeed. He starts to question Eldest the more he gets to know Amy. As secrets of the Godspeed become to unravel they must find who is killing the frozen and how to stop Eldest from becoming more a dictator than he already is. I have quite a few problems with Across the Universe. When I first came across this book I thought it would be an amazing read. I bought this book, but I didn’t have as such high hopes as I used to once I bought it. This book sat on my shelf for a while. I finally decided to pick it up recently. I don’t know what made me pick up or why, but I felt compelled to read it. I have a huge problem with the characters.

The main female character is Amy. I feel detached to Amy. I can care less about her and her hobbies. She doesn’t even know her own self what she likes to do when she’s asked by the doctor on the Godspeed. Amy is just boring. Not only is she boring, but I also find her to be a complete bonehead. She’s just so boring. I did like her more towards the ending, but I’m starting to think it was only because the story was starting to become more interesting. Amy herself is like a bland sack of mashed potatoes.  
 

Just so boring.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 6.5

The main male character is Elder. Elder is just as dumb and boring as Amy. Elder doesn’t even act like a teenage boy. I know these people are completely from the ones on Earth and they also (view spoiler) but I still think he would be more teenagery. I find it very odd that when he found Amy naked all thought about was her hair. I don’t think the guys at my school are like that. If I found a hot frozen guy I definitely wouldn’t be looking at his hair. I did also like him more toward the end, but he still doesn’t really seem well human.(view spoiler)

Swoon Worthy Scale: 7

The Villain- I actually predicted the villain the minute he wasn’t introduced and then I even predicted his connection to Eldest. I may have predicted the villain, but there was a few twists that I still didn’t still see coming.


Villain Scale: 7.5

I did like Harley. He was probably one of the only characters worth anything and of course he didn’t get a happy ending. Or maybe he did. That’s the only other character I’m going to talk about. The rest aren’t bad they just aren’t worth it.

 Character Scale: 7

Now time to address all of my other problems. First let’s start with these slang terms. The biggest slang term in this world is frex. It’s probably one of the dumbest slang terms I’ve come across. I think Revis is trying to make this world more believable with stupid terms and it’s just not working out. Do you remember how in Mean Girls when Gretchen Weiners started the slang term fetch and then Regina George constantly brought her down for it and then used it eventually? That isn’t going to happen. Frex is not going to become a curse word and neither is chutz. By the way, what is the exact meaning of chutz? It’s used in so many different contexts I’m not sure what it even means. Revis, you’re not going to create new slang and curse words. You’re not fetch. You might be if you had your own Regina George though.


Amy took forever to wake up. This book was almost a hundred pages of Amy sleeping and Elder’s alternating POV doing stupid stuff around the ship. It was a pointless weight. The synopsis made it sound action packed. It’s not. Even the climax isn’t all that climatic. By page 131 I wanted to DNF this book, but I didn’t because I bought this book. I’m glad I didn’t DNF it though because it did improve.
This book did have upsides. I liked when they went on their very own Mystery Inc. hunt for clues.
 


I had rolled my eyes at first but the book picked up there a little bit. I do also like the concept of the Godspeed and its world. It’s so different and off from what you would usually expect. That ending though… it was really good. Some of it I had expected, but there were a few unexpected twists that I really enjoyed. I will probably pick up the sequels because I am interested in Elder and Amy’s future.


Cover Thoughts: I don’t have the cover that’s featured on Goodreads. I have this cover.
 
The one featured on Goodreads is this one.

I like my cover a lot more than the first one.