Revis, Beth. Across the Universe. New York: Penguin Group, 2011.
Summary: Amy and her family are being frozen and stored on a spaceship destined for a new inhabitable planet a three-hundred-year's journey away. She and her family are part of a program designed to optimize life on the new planet and populate it with people. Rather than arriving and waking up on schedule, however, Amy is de-thawed early. Amy only survives her awakening because Elder, the boy who will take over as leader of the ship when the Edlest passes away, discovered her in time. Now she must live on the ship with its inhabitants, doomed to be older than her parents when they are unfrozen. Onboard the ship, all of the inhabitants looks the same, and act the same. Differences are the first cause of disorder, so they have been gotten rid of. Amy's unfreezing was not an isolated accident, though. There are other unfreezings, and some are not so lucky to survive. Together, Amy and Elder seek to apprehend the murderer aboard the ship. What they find and piece together reveals the corrupt leadership of Eldest and a ship that operates on lies. They must battle Eldest and the murder in order to restore the peoples' choices.
Dystopia: Across the Universe was a very satisfying dystopian novel containing all of the elements that tend to show up throughout the books. Referring to the list I have made in this blog, all five typical elements of dystopian novels show up in this book. Eldest, the current leader of the ship, insists that the reason all of the members of the ship look the same and because there was a plague that decimated the members of the ship. In reality, there were uprisings on the ship in which people died. Since then, a system has been in place where differences have been genetic removed from people, and "medicines" are put in to the water to keep the ship members complacent. All the current members of the ship are unaware of these realities and truly believe that a plague wiped out the ship. The members blindly follow the rules set by Eldest because of the drugs in the water, and are genetically modified to be competent in their assigned tasks. This dystopian society remains unchallenged by the ship members until the heroine steps on to the scene. When Amy is unfrozen and found by Elder, she realizes that the ship is corrupt because of her experience back on earth. Along with Elder, she seeks to expose the corrupt nature of the society. This novel contains all of the elements found in The Giver, Ashes, Ashes, and Fever Crumb.
This novel also shares an interesting theme/element with Ashes, Ashes. In each novel there is a plague that wipes out the population and causes the dystopian system to be put into place. Although the "plague" in Across the Universe is fake, it is interesting that those who are in power in these two books have gotten there because of a tragedy that has ravaged the population. Additionally, in While I Live, the system in place is because of war. The threat of another plague causes the members of the society to blindly follow the leadership of the society leaders.
Another interesting aspect of this society is its use of drugs and medical procedures to keep its members complacent and dull their critical thinking. This will keep show up again in the Uglies series which I will blog about in the future, but it reminded me of Brave New World. Eldest, in Across the Universe, introduces the drug Phydus into the ship's water supply. This is similar to the use of Soma in Brave New World.
Overall, this was a very satisfying novel. I really enjoyed finding all of the classic elements of a dystopia, and watching Amy and Elder figure out the true nature of their society, just like Winston did in 1984. The novel itself is well written, and I like the switching back and forth between Amy's perspective and Elder's. This way, I got the story from the outsider heroine and the ship member who was turned on to the truth. I would definitely recommend this book for a slightly older audience (high school) and it should appeal to both genders and many readers due to its elements of science-fiction, mystery and romance.
-Zach O
Ano
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