The Body Electric by Beth RevisPublished by: Self Published on October 6, 2014
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction
Pages: 482
Source: NetGalley
Book Details
Rating: ★★★★
The future world is at peace.
Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift—the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother—to help others relive their happy memories.
But not all is at it seems.
Ella starts seeing impossible things—images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience—and influence—the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love—even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing...
Someone’s altered her memory.
Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.
So who can she trust?
I LOVED The Body Electric! It was exactly what I needed to get excited about books again. The Body Electric was riddled with government conspiracies, science experiments, and secrets! ALL OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS!!
You know what one of my favourite things is? When there’s a huge plot twist in the book and YOU TOTALLY DIDN’T SEE IT COMING!! It hits you by complete surprise. BUT… In hindsight, you can look back and pinpoint all the little hints that were dropped. So on the one hand, the twist isn’t completely out of nowhere, it’s just that you didn’t pick up on all the little breadcrumbs. THAT TOTALLY HAPPENED IN THE BODY ELECTRIC!! It’s one of my favourite things ever in books because I love being surprised, but I want the twist to make sense. Beth Revis nailed it.
Another fabulous thing about The Body Electric was how it subtly tied into the Across the Universe series. It was set in the same universe, but a different time and place. I adored the subtle connections.
There was one small lull in the book in like the third quarter. It was around the time when we KNEW something was going on, but we didn’t have the answers. I felt like Ella spent so long searching for these answers and I was getting a bit frustrated that we didn’t have them yet. I was chanting to myself, “Come on, come on, come ON!” But then when answers did come, it was pretty epic!
The romance in The Body Electric was kind of meh… I just wasn’t super excited about it. But the romance was extremely mild and far from the focus of the book, so I guess that was alright.
I definitely recommend you check out The Body Electric series, whether or not you’ve read Across the Universe. You certainly don’t have to read that to understand this book, but if you have read it then you’ll really enjoy all the subtle references. It a thrilling, intense book that will get your heart racing!
The Verdict
Finally read the synopsis for this and dang, it sounds AWESOME. I’m so glad that you thought it was!! I love a good plot twist, so the fact that you didn’t see the big one coming is also so exciting. Despite the meh romance, I’m totally looking forward to this one. I haven’t finished the Across the Universe series yet but I’m sure I would also enjoy those subtle references.
Lovely review, Ashley! Totally going to be picking this one up.
I didn’t read your review since I haven’t read the book yet, but I caught the first line and it got me excited!!! I absolutely LOVED the Across the Universe trilogy, so I hope this one is just as good. 🙂
Hell yeah, I love plot twists like that. So happy this one was great. I am reading it in January.
Wow, this sounds pretty amazing! I love stories like this, so I’ll be adding this to my TBR!
I really hope to read this one soon! 🙂 First enjoying my holiday break 😛
This sounds really interesting and up my alley, especially the memories and dreams aspect. I think I need to read it!
Yay, this sounds almost as good as Across the Universe itself! Revis really knows how to spin a revolutionary tale! I’m glad you enjoyed it, Ashley. Will try to find time for this one in my jam of books. Also, I would be delighted if you would like to enter my first ever giveaway, since it’s Christmas and all: two high fantasy ebooks. Hope you decide to enter 🙂
Great review 🙂