Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They’re ready to start life afresh–to build a home–on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn’t the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed‘s former passengers aren’t alone on this planet. And if they’re going to stay, they’ll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who–or what–else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed–friends, family, life on Earth–will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME. (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads) 

• The creepiness factor.  There were quite a few things that happened in this story that were really creepy.  I like creepy–I can’t do gore (see list below).
• The mystery.  I figured a couple of things out early on, but I had so many different theories in my notes and I don’t think I ever truly predicted everything that happened in that ending.
• The descriptions of Centauri-Earth.  They were very cool and reminded me of Jurassic Park and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.  There was also a description of a device near the end of the book that reminded me of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
• The end.  I liked it, but I didn’t (see below).

What I didn’t like:

• The gore.  There were a couple of gory parts that actually didn’t get too bad, so I could handle them.  But one part–I still can’t think about that part without shivering and making faces and forcing my mind to think of something else.  Like right now.  I better move on so I can think of something else.
• I was kind of upset that this book didn’t go in the direction that I REALLY wanted it to.  I had a theory after reading A Million Suns and I really, really wanted it to happen in Shades of Earth.  I don’t want to mention what it was here, because it’s pretty spoilery for the plot of this book.
• All the question marks.  I just really don’t like this trend of using question marks when you should be using some other type of punctuation.  Revis doesn’t do it too much in this book, but in my opinion, once is probably enough.  It’s even done in the synopsis above!  The first instance in the synopsis, “The biggest secret of all?”, isn’t so bad.  But the second instance, “Because if the colony collapses?”, is horrible.  You should have a comma or colon or hyphen or something there, but NOT a question mark.  Sorry, rant over.
• The end.  I did like it (like I said above), but I wish she would have stuck with that bold, bad-ass ending.

Actually more like 4.5.  I really enjoyed this story, but not quite as much as I LOVED Across the Universe and A Million Suns.  But Beth Revis is a fantastic author and I can’t wait to read everything she writes in the future!

My review of Across the Universe by Beth Revis
My review of A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2) by Beth Revis