Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Across the Universe

The world building in this book was really good, you can tell the author put a lot of thought behind it. But the characters not so much. All of the characters were incredibly lackluster and lacked true depth.
The focus on the ships inhabitants mating ritual was very odd, you can tell the reader was supposed to find it disturbing that everyone was just loosing their inhibition and having sex just out in the open, but it was more silly than anything. The author then decided to throw an unnecessary SA scene in there that held significance to the character for what felt like about 5 or so pages before they moved on.
Overall this book had potential to be good but it just couldn't get there.

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booklover1776's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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deldc's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

3.85!

i won't give much details bec i feel like i'd be spoiling a lot 😆 but i have just a few things to say:

this book has spoken volume on many things which you should look out for when you read this. i liked beth revis' writing. the way it pulls the reader into and float in its deepness -- ironically, like the universe. definitely one of the books that leaves you thinking, not just about the book's direction but also about the question it's asking. (hmm) i was fascinated by the conflicts and the way it invites the reader to investigate, and think about their own stand. for others, the plot might be considered predictable, but for me, i was just really enjoying every part -- the confusion and the thrill of it all. i also find it unique how the diversity of the characters were intended. it showed how complex it is to be human regardless of origin.

for reference:

if you liked Passengers, Never Let Me Go, or even playing Among Us (lol) you might enjoy this.

but then, i believe this can be an important book that everyone might want to give this a try :-)

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megyeager's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.25

I really loved the plot twists throughout this book. Some of them I fully anticipated and some of them were a bit out of left field, though if I read it again, it would track with the story. This is very much a YA novel, the interactions of the two main characters is clearly how teens act. That being said, I'm not a teen and I think if I were a few years younger, this book would have been a bit more monumental in my development. The circumstances that brought this book to me make it special, and I don't want to forget it.

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andatherrin's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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applejacksbooks's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Okay, so like this was my first post-vacation read and it wasn't terrible. There's enough of a plot to keep the story going and I know it's the first book in a series, but overall the story felt kind of just alright.

Pros: characters are all pretty likable except the one we're really not supposed to like. It flows really well and there wasn't a point in which I was like "okay let's get this over with." And it was like the only book that seriously caught my interest.

Cons: "daddy" iykyk. This is just a personal "ick" of mine, but I loathe anyone over like 5 years old using that word and Amy (the MC) used it probably like 300 times too many. Everytime she used that word it really took me out of the story.

I think anyone who likes stories set in space similar to that Chrispy Ratt and JLaw movie that came out a few years back would definitely be interested in this one.

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martamae77's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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rinku's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I thought Across the Universe only had an interesting premise and I would never imagine that I enjoyed the book as much as I did. I originally gave the book five stars, but I’ve lowered my rating to 4.5 stars since the story was a bit too predictable for my taste.

The story follows two POVs; one of them is Amy’s. Amy and her parents were conservated with cryo-tanks on the spaceship Godspeed to arrive at a new planet to live there. Things don’t work out as planned and Amy is woken up too early and there’s no way to freeze her again – such a horrible fate and the scene of her waking up was able to portray this horror so well. The second POV follows Elder who’s designated to take over the command of the ship one day. I think those POVs were a great choice to see the contrast between someone who spend their whole life on the ship and someone who just wants to go home and criticizes the ship more. The POVs were just changed at the right points and made the story even more exciting.

What makes the book furthermore great is the claustrophobic and kinda creepy atmosphere at Godspeed. The writing style is great as well and has vivid descriptions of places and emotions. I especially loved the great portrayal of Amy’s emotions. Also, the lore and world building were interesting as well and I’ll hope to hear more of it in the next books.

Some points of the plot were quite predictable though, like the fact that

Orion was the bad guy and the former Elder, Harley would kill himself and what happens with the old people at the ship – this last reveal was still creepy

. Even though it was partly predictable as well, I enjoyed the ending:

First, it is dramatically revealed that the ship will take much longer to arrive at the planet than Amy thought and that she will probably never meet her parents again. Then, like I’ve mentioned, we get to know that Orion was the former Elder, and Elder kills him. I wondered though how no one noticed before that Orion couldn’t be located. The final reveal shocked me as well: Elder woke Amy up because he was so obsessed with her. I feel terribly sorry for Amy, and I wonder how she’ll deal with all of this in the next book

Other interesting topics are thematized as well, like racism, classism (only rich people can use the cryo-tanks and there’s a big divide between the social classes), reproductive medicine or gen manipulation. I still have two critiques when it comes to topics in this book: First, I found the wording that “only crazy people live in the psychiatry” not so great and second, there was an attempted rape that was absolutely not necessary for the plot.

I honestly hope that the Across the Universe series won’t end with a happy ending. I just don’t feel like it’s fitting for the story, but I fear it will since it’s a YA book. Until then, I’m excited to see where the series will take me next!

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