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| Photo credit: Goodreads |
As is my general MO with book reviews, I like to start with the Goodreads summary, and so here it
is:“The future world is at peace.
Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift—the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother—to help others relive their happy memories.
But not all is at it seems.
Ella starts seeing impossible things—images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience—and influence—the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love—even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing…
Someone’s altered her memory.
Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.
So who can she trust?”
Right! So as I’ve mentioned before and will probably mention again, Beth Revis is one of my all-time favorite YA Sci-Fi authors. I very much credit Across the Universe for showing me I actually really like YA Sci-Fi and dual POV. Anything she writes is basically an instal-buy for me, but you can imagine how excited I was when I won a signed, limited print edition (aka: VERY excited).
While I did find the opening to be a little on the slow side, the rest of the plot more than made up for it. I generally expect action, explosions, swoons and lots of twists from Revis, and in those respects, The Body Electric did not disappoint. I was expecting some sort of Inception-type elements, which were definitely present, but the twists in the book went so beyond what I was expecting and I really enjoyed the direction the book went in.
The Body Electric is very Sci-Fi with a fascinating futuristic world set in Malta (which was totally fun to read about) with ties to the Across the Universe series that were really fun to come across. Between cyborgs, androids, nanobots and more, I was totally immersed in The Body Electric’s otherworldy-yet-not-unrealistic setting. As a bonus, the protagonist is a PoC and there are several PoC secondary characters, which was really nice to see.
I did notice that there were quite a few filter phrases throughout the work (which, to be honest, is more of a peeve I only notice because I’m a writer), and I did feel that the villain near the end bordered on a little too unequivocally evil—I tend to prefer my villains to be more nuanced and, at best, even somewhat sympathetic. But those flaws in no way ruined my enjoyment of the novel. I’m giving The Body Electric 4/5 stars, and I recommend it to those who like YA Sci-Fi rife with plot twists.
I can’t wait to see what Revis comes up with next!
What have you been reading lately?
Twitter-sized bites:
.@Ava_Jae gives 4/5 stars to THE BODY ELECTRIC by Beth Revis. Have you read this twisty YA Sci-Fi? (Click to tweet)
Looking for a twisty & exciting YA SF read? Check out THE BODY ELECTRIC by Beth Revis. (Click to tweet)
6 comments:
For me, it was the middle where I became ungrounded--there were so many twists happening, that I didn't get the time I needed to settle before another wild change swooped in and altered everything. But overall, I did enjoy the book and the world Revis created. I LOVED the concept of the reveries. This was the first of Revis's books I've read. I now have ACROSS THE UNIVERSE on my birthday list.
That's so interesting! The twists were what pulled me in (although, I write Sci-Fi, so maybe that's why I found it easier to roll with the punches?). At any rate, I thought the reveries were totally fascinating, too. And if you liked TBE, I think you'll really like the ATU series. :)
No, I haven't written any Sci-Fi myself ... I haven't even read much Sci-Fi, to be honest (thought the lovely authors Kaufman and Spooner are changing this). So perhaps I just need to expose myself to more of the genre. Any other recommendations?
The SHATTER ME series by Tahereh Mafi is excellent (dystopia, which is a SF subgenre), THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey is an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat type book as is THE MURDER COMPLEX by Lindsay Cummings.
Some Sci-Fi on my TBR that I haven't read yet but want to include:
DREAMLAND by Robert L. Anderson (which you may especially like since you loved the reverie aspect)
SALVAGE by Alexandra Duncan
NOT A DROP TO DRINK by Mindy McGinnis
RED RISING by Pierce Brown
THE EDGE OF FOREVER by Melissa Hurst
ZEROBOXER by Fonda Lee
THE UNHAPPENING OF GENESIS LEE by Shallee McArthur
So that's a good start, I think. ;)
Thanks so much! DREAMLAND especially sounds interesting, and I've had my eye on RED RISING as well.
You're so welcome! There's a lot of awesome YA SF out there. :)
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