Synopsis: 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.

Review: I think it’s worth starting this review off by saying that I don’t consider myself a “sci-fi chick”. Typically that is. Across The Universe is definitely a sci-fi book, but I don’t want people to put off this read as long as I did because of that factor. Because honestly? It’s so much more.

The first chapter drew me in. Amy and her parents have the opportunity of a lifetime. They are to be cryogenically frozen, their bodies stored in ice for 300 years aboard a space ship. The plan always was that when the ship landed on their destination, they would be the first inhabitants. They are carefully selected for their skills in science, leadership and development. Amy is nonessential. She goes ahead because both of her parents do.

When she is woken up out of her sleep in a violent manner earlier than expected, Amy is forced to deal with some harsh realities. Her parents aren’t with her, she’s on board a ship, the people are strange. Life as she knew it has changed forever.

The one thing Amy feels she can know for sure is the trust she feels for the boy that was there from the beginning. Elder. He is destined to be the next leader, and he is instantly drawn to Amy right from the start. Together, they try and solve the mystery of who is killing the cryogenically frozen bodies on the ship.

I just cannot put into words how amazing this story was. Honestly… right from the very start, I was so drawn in to the story. It was unlike ANY book I have ever read before, and I think just based on that factor alone, I was made a slave to the book. After every chapter, I just had to keep going. And the cliffhangers? OMG. In ONE respect I am truly happy I only waited until now to read the book, since I have A Million Suns (the sequel) waiting for me. I don’t know that I could have gone a year with the way the story ended. lol

The book was written from the perspectives of both Amy and Elder, each chapter alternating perspectives which meant we had a really well balanced understanding of what was happening from both perspectives. There really was two storylines happening - the ship itself and how everyone was under the ruling of Eldest, and the love story developing between Amy and Elder.

The characters were written with such thought and depth. I really care about Amy in particular… I really empathised with her fragility and how lonely she felt, being so different and so singled out. She’s going through enormous loss without her parents and she feels as though she has no one to run to and no where to go. It’s tragic. Elder is the one hope she has for happiness.

There are not one but TWO massive twists in this book. The good old “double tap” twist. Did.Not.See.Coming. It was amazing. It made the story even more clever!

I really don’t have anything more to say… I can’t. I just think that if you’re one of the people out there who’ve not read Across The Universe yet, go out immediately and remedy this situation! :)

Rating: 5 out of 5

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