I'm going to apologize in advance to all the people who are going to get real mad at me when they read this. Sorry!
I read a lot. Like, a lot of lot. Just this summer alone, I've read 30 books. So I get around. I've run the gamlet of emotions when it comes to books. From the good to the bad. Few books have made me as utterly and compeltely angry as this book has. I mean. I can't even. The one star I'm forced to give it feels extremely generous.
I will start by saying I enjoyed the first book. Across the Universe was bad ass, and a new kind of ideal. I'd never run into a YA book set in space. And I loved it! I love dsytopians and all the bat shit crazy things that the correupt government throws thecitzens way. Really, I do! But that being said, things steadly went down hill until Shades of Earth arrived (which, feels like a ploy on 50 Shades of Gray, but who am I to say?).
Where to start?
CHARACTERS
Why did all of the decent characters have to die? Honestely, sitting through Amy and Elder moan and whine through the entire novel. And yes, all they did was whine. Elder would whine about Amy's father taking control (for good reason. You're a sixteen year old boy. Pipe the fuck down and let someone actually trained in weapondry and battle tactics lead this one, okay?), the fricken flying birds, Amy talking to Chris, ect. Amy complains that daddy isn't giving her enough attention, (briefly) how does she feel about Chris, she can't see Elder, daddy is mad at her. Like, it never ends.
And can I just say, I hate the Elder-Amy pairing? Like, I despise it. Revis makes it seeming like "omg TRUE LOVE!!!!!111one", and even throughs in the obligatory YA love trainge with Chris in an attempt to prove this. But here's the thing, that's not love. If anything, it's closer to Stockholm Syndrome than an actual relationship. Elder wakes her up, knowing damn well that this isn't the time, for no other reason than his desire to bone her. He does it to the point where she's almost killed. Then he estentially leaves her to the wolves where almost everyone but him treats her poorly. The few people who are okay with Amy's exsiatance off themselves or die on some horrible way, leaving Amy's only option for positive social interaction Elder. Her relationship with the people on the ship also servers to effectively isolate her from her own people once they had woken up.
True love, right.
In relatriy Amy doesn't have a choice BUT to love Elder. A part of her probably feels indepted to him for treating her kindly. That, and he's the only age approtraede person on the shuttle. Yes, Chris was there, briefly. And yes, Amy does go through this train of thought that she only cares for Elder because he's her age. But then she dismisses this because she knows Chris now, and hey, she doesn't love him.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Amy, you are a supposedly smart girl. That's what Revis tries to tell me anyway. You've known Chris for a fucking week. Not even, and you're already ruling him out? I know YA authors expect the reader to buy into the ideal of love at first sight, but that is bullshit. You can't make a judgment about love and who you're going to spend the rest of your life with based off of a week.
And that really awkward sex scene? Like, really? Amy, dear, you walk out of your mother's laboratory, while you were supposed to be helping her, with someone your parents don't trust, with crazy aliens clearly attacking y'all to bang Elder. Seems legit. In any normal world, mummy and daddy would have followed, demanding that you get your ass in line and have walked in on that.
Which, speaking of her parents. For a military family they certainly haven't disciplined Amy well. At all. I enjoyed her mother's character, a lot, and her father too. I feel like Revis killed them off to allow Elder to finally rule, and to let the two of them to sleep together. Just my theory though.
THE SCIENCE
Oh God, the science. Can we please talk about the horrible atrocities that Revis committed with the science? That point was what bothered me the most.
Revis tries to paint genetic engineering as a terrible thing, without a full understanding of how genetic engineering works. Spoiler alert, Revis, what you had happen to Amy? Impossible.
Amy is injected with a vaccine that turns whomever is injected into a super human freak without a mind of his or her own. Doing so rewrites that individual's DNA, turning them into something other than human. This is down within, say, five minutes.
Let's break this down. It's impossible for increased strength, eyesight, etc. to occur from a vaccination. Just... The human body does not work that way. There is nothing that can occur to that degree with the vaccination. Perhaps, if it's something like supplements and vitamins and a person is malnourished their capabilities can improve marginally, but not to that degree. One wrong point.
The vaccine also shuts down the person's senses and turns them into mindless drones. This, I can buy that some substance can effect the brain and turn people agreeable and mindless to everything. I'm not sure I buy that it's a permanent treatment, but I can let that slide. Anseathia, for example, creates a somewhat similar effect (not being aware) and hypnosis proves that people can be influenced (NOTE: Hypnosis though is voluntary and has limits, still), so I can buy the science in this one. One possible point.
Okay, the genetic code of the person being completely transformed. Just no... High school biology, not possible. Once a person is formed, especially a full grown adult, their genetic makeup cannot be so radically changed. True, cells can mutate and start growing on their own, such as with cancer, but not even the badest cancer can completely change every single cell in the body.
Also, the rate of infection is impossible. Even a disease like rabies, or the flu can't effect a human and overtake their immune system in five minutes.
The space travel was sketchy.
OTHER PLOT HOLES AND FRUSTRATIONS
I'm going to keep this short, because I'm tired of typing and talking about this book.
Amy's poor logic. The Financial whatever attempted to trick the Godspeed crew into taking the vaccination with accusations that the Centari sun made people sick. Amy, of course, blindly jumped on who wrong this was, because of course, she knew better. Amy, sweetie, just because you've been someplace for a week doesn't mean you know everything. It's entirely possible that the sun could have been deadly, just slower and causing onset diseases (see: melanoma, which is also a sun born illness. SCORE FOR SCIENCE.)
Also, Amy's sassiness at the end? Like, unwarranted. I kinda wished that the aliens would laid down the hoe down showdown smack down on her and put her in her place.
And Elder somehow surviving that impossible crash?
And Amy going all emo when she thought he was dead, including the dramatic line along the lines of "I won't feel anything again, ever". Ummm, okay.
The cover on this was was terrible. I was hoping for something as beautiful as the first two.
All in all, I'm happy to be done with this book.