Genre: Young-Adult, Science-Fiction
Pages: 386
Series: Across the Universe #2
Release Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
A year and a half later, I finally read the sequel. Yay! Though keep in mind, just because it took me a while, doesn’t mean I didn’t like the first book.
The ending of Across the Universe left is with lots of revelations, like who really woke Amy, and a dead Eldest. Now, Elder is the leader of a ship with too many secrets still, and one that might be very far from reaching its destination. Even with years of training, he doesn’t know what to do. Besides, the training was given by Eldest and we all know how good a guy he turned out to be.
In the beginning of the first book, the Elder we were introduced to was naive in so many ways. He was just a kid. But he grew up a lot. In this novel, he grows up even more. He learns truths about many more things and he learns how to be a leader, and what it means to be one. Honestly, the progress we’ve seen with him is beautiful and I was so proud of him. Amy… she’s still a complicated story. She’s grown as well, but not nearly as much as Elder. I no longer hate her though. Instead, I’ve kinda accepted the kinda person she is.
You see, if there’s one thing I have to give Beth Revis credit for, with Amy, is the consistency. Amy is a flawed person. She has trouble seeing beyond her own concerns and when things don’t go her way, she gets angry, she yells, and then storms off. But she’s learning, very slowly, that there are other people around whose lives, choices and opinions also matter. That’s definitely a step in the right direction.
As for the story, I can’t tell you much. It’s about Elder and Amy trying to figure out what’s really going on with Godspeed. And with Eldest gone, that might actually be possible. But in-between that, there’s also the factor that a sixteen-year-old has to lead over two thousand people and those people have very recently been taken off a drug that made them docile. Meaning they’re getting their first taste of freedom. Not to mention, they’re all older than the man (or boy, really) whose supposed to lead them. It’s a clusterfuck alright. But one that I liked reading about. The author did a very good job with it.
The romance, I’m still not totally onboard with. I feel like the only things that attracted Elder to Amy was how different, how animated and loud, she was. Which makes sense since almost everyone else he knew was on drugs, and older than him. That doesn’t mean I don’t have hope for them. The ending of this novel made me very excited, and hopeful, for the future of the series. Finger crossed!
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