Title: Elsewhere
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Fantasy YA
Format: Paperback
Length: 271 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: 9th September 2005
My Rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
Killed in a hit-and-run accident, Liz’s ‘life’ takes an unexpected turn. She knows that she will never marry, have children or maybe never even fall in love – but in the land called Elsewhere, things carry on pretty much as normal.
My Review:
The first time I read this book I was 15, and it became my favourite at the time. I decided to reread it this year to see if I still loved it as much as I did.
I did.
Fifteen-year-old Liz has found herself in Elsewhere after dying in a road traffic accident. After travelling there on the SS Nile, she discovers that she will age backwards and then will be sent ‘down the river’ back to earth, reincarnated.
I liked the idea that it isn’t heaven or hell but reincarnation. You age backwards until you’re a baby and sent back to Earth. I love that everyone ends up in Elsewhere. It’s unique.
Understandably Liz is pissed, she wants her old life back. She doesn’t want to age backwards. She just wants to go home to her family and friends. The first half of the book is about Liz coming to terms with being dead. She spends her first month addicted to the Observation Decks (ODs), watching the people she loved back on earth. It takes her a while but eventually, she adjusts to life in Elsewhere.
Zevin did an amazing job with this novel. The characters are well developed and the story is so beautiful. I loved the fact that animals have their own language (Catus and Canine) and some people (like Liz) are naturals at the language. My only problem with it is I felt that after she decided to stay it all seemed to rush by really quickly. I would’ve like to know more about her life in Elsewhere.
“Maybe that’s the thing. Maybe Earth’s not far at all.”
Liz snorts. “That’s a pretty thought, Esther.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Esther smiles. “I think of it like a tree, because every tree is really two trees. There’s the tree with the branches that everyone sees, and then there’s the upside-down root tree, growing the opposite way. So Earth is the branches, growing up to the sky, and Elsewhere is the roots, growing down in opposing but perfect symmetry. The branches don’t think much about the roots, and maybe the roots don’t think much about the branches, but all the time, they’re connected by the trunk, you know? Even though it seems far from the roots to the branches, it isn’t. You’re always connected, you just don’t think about “
