Elsewhere: A Novel
A TIME MAGAZINE BEST YA BOOK OF ALL TIME
Beloved by generations of readers, Elsewhere is an original, moving novel about love, loss, and the meaning of it all from the New York Times–bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry.
Is it possible to grow up while getting younger?
Welcome to Elsewhere. The beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick, and you’ll never turn even a day older . . .
This is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth yet completely different. Here, Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby and returns to Earth.
But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. Now that she’s dead, though, Liz is forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has never met before. And it isn’t going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in
reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
A book that transcends genre and category, Elsewhere is a modern YA classic.
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Community Reviews
Another charmer by Gabrielle Zevin. Where do we go when we die? Zevin tackles this question with silly but heartwarming ideas of her own.
There was some good imagination here. While Elsewhere is actually a pretty dull place that largely mimics Earth (aside from talking dogs and getting to choose a job you love rather than one you just have to do for money), there were some neat things such as how you could watch your loved ones, how you could possibly communicate with loved ones, the aging backward process. You can't die in Elsewhere, so you would know exactly when you were going to be sent back to be born again. It really takes the guesswork out of when your time is up. Although I can't decide if that would be comforting or if it would just give me more anxiety.
Unfortunately the execution is pretty floofy. The characters were flat, the humor(???) was not...humorous, and everything that happened was just so convenient.
2ish Stars
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