Friday 16 January 2015

Blog Tour: The Body Electric by Beth Revis



Hi all today as part of The Body Electric blog tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours, I get to share my review of this fascinating book, before that here's what the book is about.



Publisher: Scripturient Books 
Publication date: October 6th 2014
My rating: 3 stars
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.

The Body Electric was a really different read to what I was expecting it to be, it actually made me want to stop and think that all this could actually happen in real life. It was at times quite scary thinking about. Imagine being able to relive one of your favourite memories. It would be brilliant to be taken to this special memory you’ve had especially when you’ve had a crap day, but imagine being able to do this with a person that was special to you, but no longer around anymore. This is what Ella’s mum offers at her Reverie Mental Spa, not only is this a great way of connecting with loved ones, but Ella’s mum hasn’t got long to live herself, she’s suffering from Hebb’s disease and so being able to relive those memories that she shared with her husband is important to her. However not everyone see’s the Reverie Mental Spa this way, there’s a lot of people out there who want to use this to their own advantage, and use it to control other people.

This whole idea of entering in other people’s dreams reminded me a lot of the film Inception, a film which I’ve seen countless times and totally love. Because reliving memories is one thing, but being able to enter someone else’s dreamscape and experiencing it too is scary, especially when you’re able to gleam information from it for your own advantage, or even influence what happens in that dream. Ella soon discovers this is something she is able to do, so she doesn’t want to share this with everyone, she knows what they will do with that information, but she discovers it’s a way she can help her mum when she’s too weak to relive her memories. But soon enough other people discover what can be done and approach Ella to do the same, they say it’s for the greater good, but when Ella finds herself in too deep is there anyone Ella can really trust? 

I enjoyed this concept that Revis presented us with in The Body Electric, delving into people’s memories wasn’t as clear cut as everyone assumed it would be, being in some one’s mind and trying to make sense of everything whilst at the same time trying to remember that this wasn’t real life could be a real struggle. But I really liked Ella as a character, so if I was in her shoes I would probably do the same thing, especially if you’re told that you’ll be helping a lot of people out by doing it. I wish though that Ella thought things through before accepting, I know Ella had people who she couldn’t trust guiding her, and so it would seem like what she was doing was the right thing, but I’d wished she’d listened to somebody else more and earlier on. I really liked Jack, I understood that what he was saying was a lot of take in, but when you’ve actually stepped into his memories and realised he’s actually telling you the truth, don’t you think that you should try and trust him? I may be slightly more based towards Jack because I think he was able to win me over really early. He was a sweet guy, and you could tell that his feelings for Ella were genuine; I just wished that Ella was able to believe this sooner. 

The Body Electric had so many things going on, that it could be a lot to wrap your head around, but I enjoyed the fast pace, the rebellious androids thrown in the mix, the thrill of the chase and the constant questioning of who we could really trust going on in the story. Also throw in a swoony character who had me firmly in his corner, I really ended up enjoying The Body Electric. Revis has created an exceptional story in The Body Electric that I look forward to binge reading more of her work soon.




AUTHOR BIO: Beth Revis is the NY Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe series. The complete trilogy is now available in more than 20 languages. A native of North Carolina, Beth’s most recent book is The Body Electric, which tells the story of what was happening on Earth while the characters of Across the Universe were in space.




16 comments:

Giselle said...

Great review, Jasprit! I loved Inception, too! Woot for fellow fans! Though I love almost everything with DiCaprio he's just awesome. This book sounds like a lot of fun, too, and the whole dream aspect def sounds like something I would find fascinating. I'm glad you liked it! :)

Anonymous said...

I wasn't the biggest fan of the only book I read by Beth Revis, but I kind of pushed this one aside, but it sounds really good. I like the idea behind the story. Although it's a shame that the character wasn't always as bright. Still, I'm glad you liked this overall.
Wonderful review, Jasprit!

Tanja - Tanychy said...

I have seen this one around a lot, but haven't got to read it yet. While the movie Inception is one of my all time faves, I'm not sure I'd feel the same about the book. I don't like the sound of the characters here. Great review, Jasprit :)

Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings said...

Wow. Cool concept. I would love to be able to revisit my grandparents in good memories. Sigh... I have hard so many great things about this author, and I have been wanting to try her. I really should check this one out.

Unknown said...

Already planning on reading this book! I love Ms. Revis's work! The Across the Universe series is one of the best sci-fi novels on my top ten list!

Carina Olsen said...

Amazing post Jasprit. <3 Adore your review. But aw. I'm so sorry you didn't love this book :( I really loved it, hiiih. <3 And yess. Jack was all kinds of amazing. I loved him from the beginning :) Though I am still heartbroken over those lost memories. SOBS. But I still loved this book so much. <3 And I'm so happy you managed to enjoy it despite some issues :) Thank you for sharing sweetie. <3

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Sounds interesting overall. I find dreams to be quite fascinating!

Melanie said...

Fast paced novels are totally my thing and I've been wanting to read something by Beth Revis for a bit now! I have to get to this one ASAP.

Fantastic review as always, girl! <33

Keertana said...

I'm definitely drawn to the concept of these novels, though I wonder if I'd enjoy the execution or struggle with it since it does seem confusing. Still, I'm glad you were able to get behind these characters, Jasprit, and ultimately enjoy this novel. Wonderful review, dearest!

Rashika said...

Ahhhh why cannot the girls trust the sweet guys who are obviously trying to tell them the truth instead of the other fishy people who obviously have something up their sleeve?? :P I don't understand that.

I read Allie's review for this one the other day and she wasn't too impressed and that made me sad since I had been looking forward to reading the book but I am so glad for your review because even if I don't love it, I figure I'll still like it. Especially if it also reminds me of Inception ;)

Fabulous review, hon <3

Rashika @ The Social Potato

Unknown said...

Amazing review, J! I think if I read this I'll feel the same way about Jack - I am always predisposed to trusting the love interest right away, so I get frustrated when the MC holds back for SO long, which I've heard multiple times she does in this book.
The concept sounds really interesting though! I may have to check this one out.
Thank you for sharing. :)

Pooja. S said...

Sounds like it gets right under your skin. I like fast paced novels and I've been wanting to read Revis's Across the Universe series too.

Mary @ BookSwarm said...

She's a really talented writer! I haven't read this one, though I'm not quite sure why. It's SciFi, which is right up my alley but...yeah. Like the premise.

Lauren @ Love is not a triangle said...

I keep hearing great things about this book. I love the idea of entering dreams and memories! Though your review makes me a little worried that I'll also have trouble connecting to the heroine. I tend to get frustrated when they aren't trusting people that I have started to trust, so I get your sympathy towards Jack. But still, I'd like to try this out sometime.

Danielle said...

Lovely review, Jasprit. I adore the concept of this, dream walking and being able to relive memories is a real interest of mine to read about so this sounds like right up my street!

Diamond Cronen said...

I had no idea this had dream walking in the plot. how cool! Well, if done right. like you said it can be weird if they don't explain the details right like those time traveling books! I'm gonna be reading this one soon so I'm interested to see what I will think of it. I have heard some good things about it…i see you didn't rate it super high though? so i am not sure what i'll think :D Great review!
-Dee's Reads

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