{Review} Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill
Series: Across the Universe, #1
Release Date: January 11th, 2011
Pages: 416 (Hardcover)
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★☆☆

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 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.

Cover Impressions: It's absolutely gorgeous. It's sad that they keep doing cover changes, though. The first time I saw the newest covers was when I saw the cover of the third book, and no joke, I thought it was a placeholder at first. When I found out they were the official new covers for the whole trilogy I was like...what? I just don't get why they had to change it. The old covers were just fine.

Thoughts: Well, I'm a little disappointed.

I gave into the hype and decided to read this. I mean, dear God, the hype this series is getting is unbelievable, I just had to see what the fuss was all about. I was hesitant at first due to the very mixed reviews, some love it, some hate it, and some are just "meh" about it.

I think my feelings for it fall in the "meh" category.

So, we have Amy, our "heroine" if you will, joining her parents as frozen cargo to board the Godspeed spaceship. They expect to awaken in a new planet, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years too soon, Amy is abruptly awakened from her frozen slumber, and it resulted in her almost dying. She soon realizes that someone had tried to kill her, and if she doesn't do anything soon, her parents might be next. We also have Elder, our hero, who is the future leader of Godspeed, and is trained by Eldest, the current leader. With his help, Amy races to unravel the secrets and lies that built Godspeed, and to stop the murderer before it's too late.

I'm not one to criticize world-building, to be honest. Sure, I've read a lot of dystopians and sci-fi books, but I mainly criticize the plot, characters and romance in all of them. I guess it's because I never pay that close attention to world-building, and I'm not that critical. I usually just leave criticizing the world-building to the pro reviewers, who know what they're talking about. And besides, world-building isn't exactly a huge problem for me, to be completely honest. As long as the characters and plot are good.

Anyways, now that I got that out of the way, let's get to my main problem with this whole book. The characters.

The book is told in dual-POV style, Amy's and Elder's. I found it so hard for me to like these two. First there's Amy, who I really wanted to just slap at times. During the first to middle half, she was so whiny and kept talking about how she misses her ex-boyfriend, Jason or whatever. I kept forgetting that she's seventeen because she literally acts ten years younger most of the time. And the fact that she still calls her father "Daddy" doesn't help at all.

And then we have Elder. *sigh* This guy was horny as hell. There were parts where he was checking Amy out and wanted to basically grope her, and it made me uncomfortable.  And I just couldn't really find any likable traits about him. As for the "romance" between the two, it was close to non-existent, really. They barely even spend much time together. They kissed once or twice. The cover and the blurb made it seem like the romance was a huge part of the book, but for me it was really just an annoying mosquito that won't go away.

I didn't like the other characters, either. I thought Eldest was a pretty basic villain. The only characters in this whole book that I liked were probably Harley and Steela.

The plot was a little predictable at times, but there were some parts that kind of surprised me. I mainly gave this book three stars because it never exactly bored me, and I read pretty quickly. But the chapters are really short, so that's probably mostly why I read so quickly. There are about eighty or so chapters total.

At the end there's a pretty big twist, one that I actually didn't expect at all. Did the ending make me want to continue the series? Sure. I'd like to see what happens.

I don't think this book is bad at all. I just don't think it's as amazing as most people say it is. I didn't like the characters and wasn't all that impressed with the story, and the romance was just a nuisance. But it was a quick read and it didn't bore me, at least.

I'd recommend you give the book a try, though, I guess. Maybe it's just a matter of taste. You might even love it, who knows? But for me, this book is just another addition to my "meh" shelf.

P.S. I hated the annoying swearing. -_- "Frex" and all. But I'm glad it wasn't as constant as the annoying swearing in Glitch by Heather Anastasiu. That was a nightmare.