Elsewhere

by Gabrielle Zevin

After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."

• ISBN10: 0312367465
• ISBN13: 9780312367466
• Publish Date: 15 May 2007 (first published 9 September 2005)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[jeannamichel]

I’ve never read anything by Zevin but this premise was so wild not to pass up. When a young teen is killed in a bicycle accident, she goes to Elsewhere, where she must age backwards until she is a baby to return again to Earth. It is an amazing idea. However, I didn’t connect with the characters and the romance turned out to be bittersweet. I’m looking forward to reading more from Zevin in the future but this one was just okay.

[Bianca]

Oh, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that's not how it works. A human's life is a beautiful mess.

[clementine]

I'm doing a bunch of rereads right now, since I have all these books sitting on my shelf that I might as well read. I don't remember when I bought this book, but I think I was 13/14 - younger than Liz. Now, I'm older than her.

I was nervous going into this one because I remembering adoring it when I was younger, and I didn't want it to be ruined. Luckily, it was not ruined, and I still absolutely loved it.

The premise of this book is incredibly inventive, and Zevin does it justice. The writing isn't stunning, but there are some really nice passages and it has an overall lyrical feel to it which is quite pleasant. The characters seem fully fleshed out and real, even though many of them don't really have much "screen time" as it were. I absolutely love Curtis Jest, and he isn't really a main character. Aldous Ghent was also fantastic, and his whimsy reminded me of both The Phantom Tollbooth and A Series of Unfortunate Events. None of the romance feels forced or unnecessary; it's just really nice and heartwarming. And, in general, I found this book to be quite emotional, but in an understated way, so that none of it is contrived.

It's not perfect; it's a first novel, and I think that's pretty obvious in places. The writing can be a bit clunky at times (although like I said, it's generally quite nice). The opening chapter is actually the weakest part of the entire book, and I think might turn some people off reading it. But in general, I think this is a very lovely book.