Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Penguin, 2011. ISBN: 9780141333663.
This novel follows 17 year old Amy and 16 year old Elder. Both of the characters are very different from each other. Seventeen year old Amy is going to a new planet known as Earth but in order to get there she has to be frozen for three hundred years. Fifty years before Amy is due to land on the new planet she is violently awoken as an attempted murder victim. Now Amy is on board an unfamiliar, unusual and mysterious ship that is taking a whole world of people to a new planet. Nothing on the ship makes sense to Amy. How will she survive if nothing makes sense to her?
On the other hand sixteen-year-old Elder is getting ready to become the leader of the ship. Getting ready to become leader is no easy task for Elder because he has a lot to learn about the ship and about the people on it. He also has to catch a murderer on board the ship. Will Elder succeed and become the leader of the ship?
The style of writing that the author has put in to this novel is unusual. It is told from Amy and Elder's points of view, but in different chapters.
There are a lot of great themes in this book and these are just some of the main ones: murder, friendship, differences, and love. These themes are the strongest throughout the novel.
The characters in this compelling novel are very different from each other with some of the characters being human as we know it and some of them being manipulated to keep them quiet on the ship. These are just some of the characters that we meet during the novel: Harley, Eldest, Doc, and Steela, who are some of the main characters.
This novel is set in space two hundred and fifty years from now.
I think that this is an amazing novel and I would recommend it to teenagers who like reading fantasy novels.
Emily Madden