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.
Review:
I kind of had no idea what I was getting into with this book…It comes off as so innocuous, with a snow globe on a rather empty book cover. Yet, it’s on so many Best YA lists. My brother gave it to me for Chanukah one year, and I decided to give it a chance.
It’s not the happiest of books, and I almost stopped reading it because it hits you in the gut a bit too hard at moments…It’s about a 15 year old who died and where she goes after she dies. What if everyone goes to a place called “elsewhere,” where they age backward, and then return to Earth and are reborn? For people who die in their 80’s and later, that’s great. But for a 15 year old who never gets to experience prom, driving, getting married, falling in love? It’s kind of a BIG disappointment. She becomes obsessed with watching her family and best friend. She lives with a grandmother she never met, who seems way too young.
This book tackles so many philosophical questions about life, death, love, family, depression, and more. It’s not a book you can read quickly. It’ s one you have to read slowly and take in bit by bit. And it’s definitely a book I keep thinking about. It’s not so crazy a concept to be impossible to me. I love that dogs and animals are in there too. And you have no idea how old anyone truly is. At one point Liz has a moment with a 4-year old (involving said snow globe on the cover) and she practically screams the kid’s head off to find out if the child is really a child or is actually an adult, now going backwards as a child.
But, there are happy moments too. Liz develops a friendship with the lead singer of her favorite band who also dies on the same day as her. She finds friends and love in Elsewhere. And her relationship with her grandmother is just wonderful. I didn’t always love Liz. In the beginning. I wanted to yell at her for being so rude to people. But, also, I get why she was so upset, and she did get much better as the book went on. While reading the book, I didn’t think I loved it that much, but after completing it, I just can’t stop thinking about it. Something about it really resonated with me. I can see why it’s on so many lists. I give it a 9/10.
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