Across the Universe by Beth Revis

photo from Goodreads

Amy joins her parents on Godspeed, a ship headed for a new planet where her parents and ninety seven people like them will colonize a new planet. They are cryogenically frozen and will sleep for three hundred years while the ship travels to this new planet. However, she is awoken fifty years earlier than anticipated due to someone who is trying to kill her. She then meets Elder, and together they work to unravel the secrets of the ship.

I am not a massive sci-fi fan. That title belongs to my mother. But this book was awesome.

What the plot summary doesn't tell you is that the point of view is divided between two characters- Amy, the girl who is cryogenically frozen and Elder, the boy who will inherit the leadership of the ship. This is good because there's a couple chapters where Amy frozen and there really isn't a lot going on on her end. However, because of this we get the best of both worlds- a familiarity with the world with Elder and the awe of seeing it for the first time with Amy.

This a very plot-driven book. Though may lag towards the beginning, especially with Amy still frozen and we really don't get why we're reading through Elder's point of view. And the plot is complicated. Like, I finished the book and I have no idea where this trilogy is going to go. There are a couple "Surprise!" moments, which are good. I'm excited to see how this story arc expands.

My only concern is that I felt the characters were a little- uninteresting. Which was okay, because the amazing plot more than makes up for it. I really couldn't connect with either of the narrators, though they were both written excellently. I liked them both all right, but I don't have any I adored. While there was some character development, I'm hoping that there will be a little more in the next book.