Book Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

I realize I did a book review yesterday, but this book is so fresh in my mind I have to write my review now.

YA Science Fiction
Release Date: January 11, 2011

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.

Isn't that cover awesome? I love it. Now, let's get on with the review. I'm not going to lie. This was one of the strangest books I've ever read. Like, ever read. I've never read anything like it before. I don't read a lot of science fiction, and this book threw me for a loop! There were so many crazy things that happened that I didn't even know what was going on at some points. Some of the stuff was just so bizarre. The whole Season thing was weird. I'm still not sure what to think of that. All I know, is that I'm so glad society isn't like that here!
The characters were very well written. Amy acted just like I would have had I been her age. You can't just adapt into a whole new culture in one day. She was whiny at times, cried a lot, and was so insistent that something on the ship was not right. I thought she was very real. Elder was a great character as well, and I hope to see him grow a little more in the next book. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Overall, the book was brilliantly written. I was sucked in from the first page, and I had to find out what happened at the end. Some of the secrets I never saw coming. I say... great job to Beth Revis. I still prefer fantasy, but this book made me want to read science fiction a little more now. ;)
*This book does have some "human mating" topics that may be a little much for younger readers. Just a heads up. :)