Elsewhere: A Novel
From the New York Times best-selling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry comes Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere, a moving, often funny young adult novel about grief, death, and loss that will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.
Is it possible to grow up while getting younger?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? Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is a Time 100 Best Books of All Time.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
The premise of this book is that when we die, we go to Elsewhere where we age backwards until we reach babyhood, at which point we are returned to Earth to live another life. It's an interesting idea that is unfortunately applied inconsistently here, to the detriment of the story. In some cases, the aging backward is portrayed as being only physical level, with emotional maturity at least staying constant, if not increasing as the years go on. As the main characters return to young childhood, though, they are portrayed as both looking and acting their "age." This discrepancy wouldn't have bothered me so much except that relative age becomes an issue in the relationships between some of the characters.
Interesting idea of what happens when we die - after we die, we go to a place called Elsewhere (on a ship...) where we age backwards from the age we died at and then are sent back to earth again to be "born" again once we are babies. If your aging backwards happens to overlap with when a loved one dies and arrives, you may be one of the lucky ones who sees them in Elsewhere.
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
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
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.