YA Sci-Fi: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Series: Across the Universe #2
Publisher: Razorbill
Date: January 20, 2012
Format: hardback
Acquired: purchased from Fireside
Read: because I loved the first one so much!
Pages: 386
Reading time: two days

From GoodReads: Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. 

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

My review: A Million Suns comes quite close to living up to my love of Across the Universe. And, really, it's hard to live up to the amazing, Lord of the Flies- and Huxley-esque awesomeness which is the first book of Revis' trilogy. But A Million Suns succeeded in breaking my YA reading slump and re-introducing me to why YA novels can be so good.

As promised, there are a ton of surprises in this second installment. I'm really not exaggerating when I say a ton. Some authors would fall apart over all the plot twists, but Revis keeps the plot tight, coherent, and exciting. The twists are unforeseeable, but they never come off as seeming unbelievable as may happen in other fast-paced books. After the last 100 pages of Across the Universe, though, nothing came across as totally shocking the way I expected, and my overall impression of the novel was that it was slightly rushed from all the constant action. Whatever. The writing, development, and overall sequence of events are more than enough to compensate. I was also pleased that the tradition of calling up some societal and ethical questions on the side was continued. I can't wait to see what Revis throws at us next!

Is anybody else thrilled that the romance between Amy and Elder is important to the story but doesn't override it?