Across the Universe

Okay, so I haven't been posting many book reviews here lately.  My bad.  Let's change that, shall we?

I recently finished Across the Universe, by Beth Revis.  This YA sci-fi/murder mystery/dystopian novel is nothing short of an amazing debut for Revis.

Due to poor and depleting conditions on Earth, Amy and her parents, along with 97 other of Earth's inhabitants, are cryogenically frozen in order to survive the 300-year journey aboard the spaceship Godspeed, so that they may colonize a new "Earth."  But Amy is awakened 50 years too early, almost dying in the process. As she comes to learn about life on the ship, she realizes that humans have changed: they all seem to be mindless drones or in a mental ward.  But not everyone is either dumb or crazy; someone is methodically unfreezing the colonists and leaving them to die as they thaw - and her parents could be next.

While I could figure out most (but not all) of the plot twists pretty easily, I still thought this was a great YA book.  It's told by two narrators (Amy and Elder, the ship's leader-in-training), using an every-other-chapter method.  This was actually quite helpful, because not only did we have the viewpoint of Amy, who would think and act as we do, but we see what life aboard the ship is really like to someone who has always lived on it: Elder. I liked Revis' writing style, and the story itself is original and engaging.  If you like YA, sci-fi, or dystopian views of the future, you should check this one out.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars.