Review: Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Reviewer: Taylor

Title: Elsewhere

Author: Gabrielle Zevin

Published: May 2007

Source: Bought

Series: No

Pages: 227

Rating: 3/5

 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.

Summary taken from Goodreads

My thoughts:

This story was very cute. It seemed like more of a middle grade read to me, which is totally fine. That just meant I flew through it even faster and was able to enjoy the simplicity of the story. The story follows a girl named Liz who dies at age 15. She wakes up to find herself on a ship on her way to "elsewhere." She finds out that elsewhere is where you go when you die, and when you get there, you begin to age backwards. Once a baby again, you go back to earth to be reborn and become part of a new family.

I loved being able to escape to a world after death. It was so interesting to me to imagine it. It was surprisingly very similar to our world. 

One of the drawbacks to this story (which may come with it being a more middle grade book) was that there was really not too much action or plot. I mean, sure, things happened, but nothing BIG. nothing that wowed me.

Sometimes, I liked our main character- sometimes, not so much. She was stubborn and refused to accept her new life for so long. But, i mean, who can really blame her? 

Final thoughts?

While this book wasn't action packed, it still was a fun look into a world of life after death. It definitely held my interest and was very entertaining.