 |
| Picture credit: Mine! |
So I’m
going to change the way I do book reviews.
Turns
out, at least this year, my choices of what to read have been pretty
stupendous, because ever since I’ve started writing reviews I’ve read books
that I thought deserved five stars. Call me soft or just really good at
choosing good books, but it doesn’t help you guys if I rate every book the same
way.
So! Rather
than rating every book on a number of stars, I’m just going to tell you guys
what I did and didn’t like about it and whether or not I recommend it. Fair? I
thought so. To sweeten the pot, if you still want a numeric rating, you can
friend me on Goodreads, where I will still be handing out the sparkly golden
stars.
Onto
the review!
I’ll
start off by saying that I don’t normally read sci-fi, so if you’re not a
hard-core sci-fi lover, don’t give up on this one yet—in fact, Across the Universe is the first
sci-fi-ish book I’ve read in years.
So if I
don’t read sci-fi, why did I pick up this book? Truth be told, the cover had a
lot to do with it—it caught my eye on the shelf and I picked it up and liked
the summary, and the first chapter. Not only that, but I read Beth Revis’ blog
and she seemed like a pretty cool author. Plus she interacts on both Twitter
and tumblr which is a pretty nice bonus if you ask me.
So
what’s the book about, you ask?
From
Goodreads:
“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.”
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.”
I really enjoyed this book. I was worried that it might be too
spacey for my tastes (since, as I said, I don’t often read sci-fi), but Across the Universe had me hooked. There’s a murder mystery, romance that isn’t overdone (which, I have to say, is pretty
refreshing) and some memorable characters. The only thing that bothered me was
the dual-POV—the book is told both from Amy and Elder’s alternating first
person POV, which was a little difficult to adjust to at first, but I actually
enjoyed it later on. In fact, the dual POV really made the ending particularly
fantastic stylistically, in my opinion.
Oh, and have I mentioned the twists? There aren’t many books that
have surprised me like Across the
Universe did, and I can count on one hand how many book surprised me more
than once (Across the Universe, of
course, being one of them).
Mystery. Romance. Twists. I highly recommend this one. It’s a
great read and I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel.
So
I’ve got to ask—what are you guys reading right now?
