Seventeen-year-old Amy Martin is about to embark on a journey that will take her to a whole new world. Literally.

Along with her parents, she is cryogenically frozen and placed upon the spaceship Godspeed with ninety-seven other frozen people from Earth. The ship is traveling to a new Earth-like planet on an exploratory mission and it will take three hundred years to get there - hence, the freezing.

But Amy is unfrozen fifty years too early, by an inhabitant of the ship intent on killing the frozens. Not only has she lost the chance to be with her parents again, but she also has a murder mystery on her hands that Elder, the sixteen-year-old future leader of the ship (and boy she develops complicated feelings for), may be involved in.

The first chapter of Across the Universe is horrifying. It is not that anything bad happens, but that the whole process described is just scary and nothing I would ever want to go through, except for maybe…maybe if I were in Amy’s position.

I feel like Across the Universe is very character-driven (which is not a bad thing) and I say that because I did not find myself taking many notes on the plot. I felt like this 2011 debut was all about introducing readers to the characters and life on the ship. There are a lot of characters, but only a few sentient ones that really drove the action: Elder, Eldest, Amy, Harley, Orion, and Doc. Elder is the indecisive, inexperienced future leader and Eldest is the tyrant who still manages to keep things from falling apart. Orion is the mysterious record-keeper and Doc is the doctor with no bedside manner. Harley is the creative artist with a different way of seeing the ship and he was probably the coolest and my favorite character. Amy is the one from Earth who sticks out like a sore thumb and who often came off as child-like despite her seventeen years.

As for the story, it was good. I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of twists that kept me on my toes as well as lots of horrifying revelations. It was like thing after thing happened or was revealed and just when I thought there could not possibly be anything else to throw me a loop, there was - and I loved it.

I really felt for Amy. Even though she seemed very young at times, she still handled herself rather well. I would probably have gone off my rocker if I were in her situation.

Across the Universe is the beginning of a twisty, mysterious, imaginative science fiction trilogy.

Recommended for those sixteen and older who enjoy young adult fiction, particularly science fiction and dystopia. There is a lot of sex in the book that is not super graphic but graphic enough. There is also attempted rape, some violence, and no language but in context it is not gratuitous. For mature readers.