Elsewhere

Basically, the concept of this book is really interesting, but somehow I couldn't classify it as YA because in the whole it sounded too childish and predictable. It's a pity, because I think that it could have been developed better (especially the relationships). Beyond that it has been a smooth read, so I think that 3 stars can be enough.

Honestly, I did not like the beginning of this book. I found the concept grating against my belief system in a world too similar to reality to suspend disbelief, and I felt myself feeling sorry for almost all of the characters. I got to about 40% and almost stopped, considering giving it 2-3 stars/DNF. But I stepped back from it, read a few other books, and came back, deciding that I should give it a final shot, because Zevin hasn't let me down yet. It finally gripped me about 50% in, and I started crying at around 70-75%, and couldn't stop till I finished it. I haven't cried like that in a good long time. Thanks for making me feel, Gabrielle Zevin.

To sum up the book: Liz is just 15 years old, doesn't even have her permit yet let alone unable to go to prom. But all that changes one day when she realizes that won't happen in her lifetime, well on earth at least. Liz learns that being dead is something different, but more so when you go to Elsewhere: a place is neither here nor there.

Okay this was like Benjamin Button but instead with humor, a 15 year old girl, and everyone is dead. This book had me thinking a lot about “what if..” this were real. How cool would it be to age backwards and then start all over again on earth as a baby. I could live life different just like Liz did and more.

What compelled me to read more was the fascination of Elsewhere in general. The idea of how Canine is a language and people can talk to dogs or how money doesn't exists but you can buy eternims which are tokens that can be used on observation decks through telescopes to see what's happening back on Earth. I won't say much more about what goes on in this place, but there is mentions of famous people, including a gardener named John Lennon.

Anyway, my only issue was how Liz handle things. I know she was dead. In shock and upset. But she was a little too over dramatic sometimes early on about how she felt. Then again she was depressed from dying at 15, I think I would be too if I died that young. But I do feel that there is not correct way to grieve in general, so to each their own in how they much feel towards death. Also she was mostly upset about how she never will get to love or learn to drive or even have sex or so many other things. I totally get how that kind of fear or sadness or both can harp on a teens ability in Elsewhere to heal or in real life.

I do have to say that I'm enticed by death or all things in regards to that subject with literature. It's such a mystery and at times it's not. So this new take on how we die and then go to a place as magnificante as Elsewhere is kind of enlightening. If this place were real, I would most certain hope for the ability to fluently speak the dog language, cause they also have pets end up in Elsewhere too! Be cool to see some of my old cats or even my old dogs, talk to them, even take care of them too.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was very different from most books I've read in the last 10 years and I'm hoping to find more as unique and entertaining as Gabrielle Zevin's has done with her novel.

Generally quite sweet young adult book with interesting themes around death and loss.

Another one with a weird age gap relationship between a teen girl and an adult man that goes entirely unexamined, though, which I am definitely not a fan of. The reverse ageing plot point seems to brush it under the rug, like the older man looks like a 17 year old boy therefore it's fine, but they still have their memories and the totality of their experience in their heads, so how is it not creepy for someone in their mid 30s experience-wise to be interested in a straight up teen girl? It's even mentioned at one point that while they're 9 and 11 in elsewhere, they would have been 22 and 41 on earth. But then they also do seem to regress into actual childlike mental states when they're little kids, so I don't really get it. Like their maturity level reverses as their age does, but they keep all their memories, and what is maturity if not the collective learning you gain by experience?

The concept just ended up a bit muddled, for me, but maybe I'm just thinking about it too much. As a young adult novel (which I have to say, I don't usually read) it examined the themes well enough.