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?
I’ve been wanting to read Elsewhere ever since reading Zevin’s Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac which I found surprisingly addictive. In-between I read her more adult novel, Margarettown – a book that I still don’t really understand and still bugs me to this day. With this in mind, I was a bit apprehensive to finally start Elsewhere, Zevin’s most notable work.
Elsewhere is enjoyable and sweet, not at all as hard hitting as I thought it would be based off of reviews or subject matter. Very quirky, it reminded me of films like Big Fish and Pleasantville, and would make an enjoyable read in the sunshine. We follow Lizzie as she enters the afterlife and learns life doesn’t simply end when you die. It’s made me hope Zevin knows something the rest of us don’t, because Elsewhere sounded pretty delightful to me. It also really made me want a dog. Like, I really want a dog now.
3 and a half stars.
Elsewhere is enjoyable and sweet, not at all as hard hitting as I thought it would be based off of reviews or subject matter. Very quirky, it reminded me of films like Big Fish and Pleasantville, and would make an enjoyable read in the sunshine. We follow Lizzie as she enters the afterlife and learns life doesn’t simply end when you die. It’s made me hope Zevin knows something the rest of us don’t, because Elsewhere sounded pretty delightful to me. It also really made me want a dog. Like, I really want a dog now.
3 and a half stars.
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