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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Unique spin on life after death, with good world building. I listened to the audiobook version of "Elsewhere," and at times it was difficult to distinguish between different characters' voices.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Gabrielle Zevin, and she does not disappoint in this one. Her treatment of death is comforting and strange--it is funny (and scary) to imagine people aging in reverse on their journey back to Earth as a new baby. I can think of so many kids who would love this book, especially girls.
Spoiler
Read this after devouring author Gabrielle Zevin's "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry." Disappointingly, YA novel "Elsewhere" is nothing special.
medium-paced
I didn’t love Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, so I was hesitant going in to Elsewhere. But I’m so glad I read it; this book was a win. It made me think about life, loss, purpose, and time, all through a warm, YA-friendly lens. It’s got heart, humor, and a solid afterlife concept.
Fifteen-year-old Liz dies in a hit-and-run accident while riding her bike and wakes up confused on the SS Nile with a roommate Thandi, many elderly shipmates, and even her pop star idol, Curtis, Eventually, she pieces together that she’s died and is sailing toward Elsewhere, the afterlife where there’s no sickness, you age backwards until you’re a baby again, and then return to Earth. It’s a huge concept, and Gabrielle Zevin makes it work.
I was so pulled in. Liz’s journey from confusion and grief to acceptance and love is quietly moving. She gets to know Betty, the grandmother she never met, obsesses over observing what’s happening in her old life, finds a career matchmaking dogs to new humans (animals and humans can converse, and dogs have 300 words for “love”), and builds a new life in elsewhere. I loved the cover of my copy, featuring a snow globe, which is pulled from Betty brings Liz to a souvenir store and insists on buying something for her and Liz selects a snow globe with SS Nile.
In elsewhere, there’s an Observation Deck, where you can drop coins into machines and view your loved ones still on Earth for a few minutes at a time. Liz becomes obsessed with it, especially watching her family and her best friend Zooey. It’s comforting… until it isn’t. There’s a sharpness in realizing life is moving on without you, and Liz’s fixation keeps her emotionally stuck. The detail that Zooey didn’t attend her funeral hit especially There are also touching scenes where she checks in on Amadou Bonamy, the man who accidentally killed Liz (they also meet in the Elsewhere).
There’s also the Well, a forbidden underwater portal through which the dead can attempt to contact the living. Liz makes multiple attempts to get through the well, and eventually her elsewhere love interest, Owen, succeeds in contacting her brother, Alvy. Later, Liz herself braves the well again after receiving an actual message in a bottle: an invitation to Zooey’s wedding including an apology that she couldn’t attend Liz’s funeral. That scene is bittersweet and beautiful.
Speaking of Owen, their relationship is sweet and subtle, and made more complex when Owen’s former fiancée dies and joins him in Elsewhere. With the love triangle in place, Liz tries to “early release” (be sent back to earth before her aging backwards time is up), but Owen stops her so she remains until the book ends as she becomes a 7-day-old infant, ready to be reborn.
The tone is simple — it is a YA book, and it reads like one — but the ideas and feelings are huge, warm, and impactful.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated