Book 1 in the New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Gallactica and Prometheus!
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SURVIVE ABOARD A SPACESHIP FUELED BY LIES?
Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends–and planet–behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed‘s scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.
Someone tried to murder her.
Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed‘s 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest’s rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.
Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship’s cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed‘s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.
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Sexual Content - 3/5
3/5
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Violence - 2/5
2/5
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Language - 2/5
2/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 2/5
2/5
Summary
I started reading Across The Universe having no idea what it was about and having never read a single review of it, which is a rarity for me. I was pleasantly surprised. The setting was a fresh idea- after a while, you get sick of reading books set on planet Earth. Godspeed was like its own planet instead. I also loved the two narrators- at first it was hard to adjust, since Amy's chapters were so short and Elder's were long rambles about technological things that had me wondering what was going on. Soon after Amy wakes up, however, the narratives became more balanced and Elder's character got a lot cooler. This book read like a murder mystery, but instead of traipsing around the backstreets of [insert large city name here] the mystery got solved while people went up and down gravity tubes and threw themselves into space and messed around with cryogenically frozen people. Much more exciting. My favorite thing however, was the romance. Why? Because there was HARDLY ANY. While I love a steamy romance, I am always on the lookout for a book that is 3% romance, 97% explosions and gunfire. And with Across The Universe, we have a winner. There was literally like twelve pages of actual romantic activity. Of course, Elder made some hilarious prurient jokes concerning Amy, but mostly the focus was more on the mystery. Which is totally fine with me. In all, I felt like this would be a good read for someone who loves sci-fi but wanted a little change of pace (hence the murder mystery part) while still getting some futuristic action. This was an interesting book and a fresh breath of YA air.
Violence-There was a little violence but nothing shocking. Some punching and general fighting.
Language-The language was cleverly disguised by Elder's alien accent but you still knew what he meant. The f-bomb is truly a universal profanity.
Sexual-This book talked a lot about sex. Kind of. There was a lot of conversations about sex, and a lot of witnessing people have sex. There was also an attempted rape.
Drug & Alcohol-The use of complacency drugs is a major theme in the book but people don't actually know they're taking it so technically it's not abuse.