Gabrielle Zevin

Elsewhere

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It's quiet and peaceful. You can't get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere's museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe's psychiatric practice.

Elsewhere 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 again 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. And now that she's dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not 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?

This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

lily

«The Great Jimi Hendrix said, Everyone loves you when you're dead: once you're dead, you're made for life.' Or something like that. But he's probably before your time."

I was in 8th grade when I first read this book and I guess it left a big impression on me at that age that I tried finding the book for months by googling it by the cover (blue book with a snowglobe). 

It’s still a lovely short read for a YA book and just an interesting way to think about life after death. It’s sad but happy. 

I was in 8th grade when I first read this book and I guess it left a big impression on me at that age that I tried finding the book for months by googling it by the cover (blue book with a snowglobe). 

It’s still a lovely short read for a YA book and just an interesting way to think about life after death. It’s sad but happy. 

Pretty mid to be honest, I feel like it was a little childish probably because we're in the mind of a 15 year old. I feel like it would have been better if perhaphs they were 17, or a little more mature. I didn't really like the main character to be honest either. Another thing about this book is just it's so point blank. Like I get it's a YA book, but it's very much "she got angry and started to cry" "she felt sad" like it's just not very ambitious with its terms, but then randomly, out of character, Liz will just start using the randomest of terminology and I found it odd. The book wasn't unenjoyable, I LOVED the concept so much, I feel like I could read a couple sequals about other characters, and also follow maybe liz into her new life, because the idea of being Elsewhere was really clever. 

The romance I did not find believeable at all, only because I imagined Owen as 22 years old the whole time, despite him being "17".  

It was a read, I guess. Not sure if I'd recommend?

surtified™

Pretty mid to be honest, I feel like it was a little childish probably because we're in the mind of a 15 year old. I feel like it would have been better if perhaphs they were 17, or a little more mature. I didn't really like the main character to be honest either. Another thing about this book is just it's so point blank. Like I get it's a YA book, but it's very much "she got angry and started to cry" "she felt sad" like it's just not very ambitious with its terms, but then randomly, out of character, Liz will just start using the randomest of terminology and I found it odd. The book wasn't unenjoyable, I LOVED the concept so much, I feel like I could read a couple sequals about other characters, and also follow maybe liz into her new life, because the idea of being Elsewhere was really clever. 

The romance I did not find believeable at all, only because I imagined Owen as 22 years old the whole time, despite him being "17".  

Corny, Dry but Unique

It was a read, I guess. Not sure if I'd recommend?



After enjoying Tomorrow X3  & The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry  by Zevin, when I saw this one on a table in a bookshop recently, I just knew that I had to pick up and copy and take it with me on my Holiday and I loved diving in and out of this one whilst traveling and I loved getting lost in the story each morning before starting the day’s adventures.

Liz is a little lost and confused when she wakes up on a cruise ship with someone she has never met before but then she remembers that she was hit by a car as she was riding her bike to the mall; A couple of days later she is taken to the observation deck to watch her own funeral. The boat eventually lands in Elsewhere where dead people get a day younger every day until they are taken down the river back to Earth to be reborn. In Elsewhere, Liz meets up with the grandmother she never knew and struggles with the fact that she won’t be turning 16, getting her driver’s license, or going to college. Instead, she’ll turn 14, then 13 and then 12. Again. Liz nearly drives herself crazy watching her family’s grief.

This book is Liz journey to coming to accept the cards that she has been dealt and learning to just enjoy what time she has. She finds her avocation counselling dogs who have arrived to Elsewhere and she then starts to make friends. I found the idea of Elsewhere to be a new take on the afterlife and Zevi’s wonderful writing really help to bring this to life in a style that I have come to love over the years!

Zevin manages to address the subject at hand in a serious manner without getting too heavy or melodramatic, but also not getting too light and fluffy.

Ian Brakspear

After enjoying Tomorrow X3  & The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry  by Zevin, when I saw this one on a table in a bookshop recently, I just knew that I had to pick up and copy and take it with me on my Holiday and I loved diving in and out of this one whilst traveling and I loved getting lost in the story each morning before starting the day’s adventures.

 

Liz is a little lost and confused when she wakes up on a cruise ship with someone she has never met before but then she remembers that she was hit by a car as she was riding her bike to the mall; A couple of days later she is taken to the observation deck to watch her own funeral. The boat eventually lands in Elsewhere where dead people get a day younger every day until they are taken down the river back to Earth to be reborn. In Elsewhere, Liz meets up with the grandmother she never knew and struggles with the fact that she won’t be turning 16, getting her driver’s license, or going to college. Instead, she’ll turn 14, then 13 and then 12. Again. Liz nearly drives herself crazy watching her family’s grief.

 

This book is Liz journey to coming to accept the cards that she has been dealt and learning to just enjoy what time she has. She finds her avocation counselling dogs who have arrived to Elsewhere and she then starts to make friends. I found the idea of Elsewhere to be a new take on the afterlife and Zevi’s wonderful writing really help to bring this to life in a style that I have come to love over the years!

 

Zevin manages to address the subject at hand in a serious manner without getting too heavy or melodramatic, but also not getting too light and fluffy.

Sarah Sammis

** spoiler alert **
           Once the ship lands and Liz is picked up by her grandmother (and namesake) the novel settles into a predictable schmaltz-fest. Despite her understandable grief at being dispatched at a young age and being forced into a second childhood before she's even reached adulthood, we the reader are supposed to accept Grandma Betty's rose-tinted view of death. We're supposed to see Elsewhere as some utopia with a guaranteed HEA (reincarnation).

Nope. Not for me.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2022/comm...

Jeannette Ordas

If I knew what I was getting into, I would have been a bit skeptical - especially after the first chapter. BUT. But, I tore through this book and loved it. Not a five star read but close.

Megan Snodgrass

3.25

Perfectly fine book. It’s a cool concept and some of the themes they deal with are life’s (well I guess death) greatest existential questions. I think it’s a great book for younger kids or teenagers pondering about life and what happens after death. I think maybe I just read too many books on death, etc that this just felt a bit light to me.

Reymarck Esaguirre

I will not reread it because of the trauma it made me, but the book is so damn good. It slaps you with the cold topic of coming into terms with your death. So far the most depressive book I've read.

ashley hopkins

I knew from the beginning I would end up unhauling it which is why I decided to read it.
I wasn't expecting anything great, but in its own right, it was ok. It gave me the Curious Case of Benjamin button vibes with the whole aging backward thing.

It is nice to see that Liz finally understands and enjoys her "life" in elsewhere.

Elsewhere is where 15-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 again and returns to Earth.

Lisa Collins

3.5 stars

I’ve only read a couple books about an “afterlife”. Every book I’ve ever read or heard of had Heavens and Hells and in-between worlds where the main character tries to fix things or come back to life. That’s all fine and dandy, but I was excited to come across Elsewhere and see that it’s about a world that’s not too different from how things work on Earth. Well, maybe except for the fact people die on Earth, arrive at Elsewhere on a cruise ship, and start getting younger from the age they died at. Wait, what?

The concept of Elsewhere is so unique. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything else like it and I was bursting to read it from the moment I read the description. It certainly was an interesting story to read, but honestly I was a tad disappointed by it. Maybe I was expecting too much, but there was something about the overall book that sort of flopped. It was entertaining enough, but I feel like the book was so fast paced it almost felt rushed. There would have been no complaints from me had things been slower and maybe more in depth. Oh, well.

As for the characters: I didn’t really like the main character, Liz, all that much. I mean, I didn’t dislike her, but she acted like a childish fifteen year old a lot of the time. And quite right too, considering she was a childish fifteen year old. I also was pretty apathetic about her love interest. Whatever. I really loved Liz’s grandmother and a guy named Curtis Jest. It’s unfortunate they were lesser characters, because I think the story would have been better with more of the both of them. In fact, there’s an even lesser known character (than Curtis and the grandmother) that I liked more than the main. Again, there wasn’t anything particularly bad about Liz… I just wasn’t exactly rooting for her.

For the most part: I liked this book, but my expectations were for something better than what I eventually got. I wasn’t completely impressed by Elsewhere, but it was a good and enjoyable book and worth the read.

Emily C Peterson

Interesting concept, but just so strange that it was hard to accept

Audrey Bunten 

I absolutely LOVED this book!! It had great characters, especially Liz! I couldn't put it down!

Mahasin S Ameen

There are fundamental (non-religious) problems I have with this book that caused me to be a bit wigged out.

Also, I totally called it.

Elad Schulman

This book was weird. The idea of the story is very original, and what made me want to read this book so much. That, and Gabrielle Zevin also wrote 'Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac" which I really enjoyed. Although I did enjoy "Elsewhere", I felt like it was lacking in a lot of areas. The relationships that the main character, Liz, develops felt a little plain and missing the main idea. The plot didn't really have any plot twists, just mild bumps. Overall, I wouldn't say that I REALLY enjoyed this book, but it was different, for sure.

Erin 

This used to be my favorite book for the longest time. I don't even know how I got ahold of it. I wouldn't say it's my favorite now, mainly because I've read many books I've liked more since, but it still feels as if this holds the title. I think the premise is super cool. There may be more concepts of "heaven" books out there, but for now, having not read them. I am in awe of this ageing backwards concept. And the relationship between the two main characters is so cute. I especially liked the fact that the concept of death was not at centre stage here, despite everyone getting to Elsewhere by, well, dying.

Caitlin Berger

This book fell a bit flat for me. At first I was really into it, and the story is great. But I found it a bit juvenile; I don't know if it's meant to be read by people younger than me, but I just felt some parts or some of the writing felt kid-ish. I wish she had gone deeper with the story, made it more mature, because at times it just wasn't. It's still a good book, my exceptions were just not met in the end. :(

Robi

Alyssa young

In this delightful novel death is a begining, a new start. Liz is killed in a hit a run accident and her 'life' takes a very unexpected turn. At nearly sixteen she knows she will never get married, never have children, and perhaps never fall in love. But in Elsewhere all things carry on almost as they did on earth except that the inhabitants get younger, dogs and humans can communicate (at last) new relationships are formed and old ones sadly interrupted on earth are renewed. Full of the most ingenious detail and woven around the most touching and charming relationships this is a novel of hope, of redemption and re-birth. It is a novel that tells of sadness with heart-breaking honesty and of love and happiness with uplifting brilliance.

Elsewhere

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