Book Review: Elsewhere

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

SUMMARY: 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? (from the inside flap)

OPINION: This book may sound kind of strange, but it is gorgeously written and very moving. (Yes, it made me cry.) Elsewhere is told from the point of view of a dead main character, much like The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold or The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher. A main difference, however, is the story's focus on living the afterlife. This book creates a unique perspective on death by remaking heaven into a place where new decisions can be made. In Elsewhere, you age in reverse, but can still find satisfaction in family, friendship, work, and recreation. It is a very cool imagining of life after death, and it is suprisingly uplifting. We have the book and the book on CD, so you have no excuse for not reading it!