Week 3 Review: Elsewhere

From Goodreads:
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.

My Review:
Oh, this was such a great book! It was different in that the characters were all dead, except quick glimpses of the still living. And how they aged backwards until they were babies, and then were sent back to become some new baby back in life, well, that was very different! And a bit sad. Especially with this one, where Liz was young enough to go into a new life, and the guy she'd met at Elsewhere when trying to contact her brother, was just a bit older then her and didn't really remember, except a slight nagging feeling, but he was a toddler, and couldn't really do anything. So yeah, that was sad. But she got to live an afterlife for a good few years!

I really liked the uniqueness of this book, it was different, fresh, and beautifully written, and the setting was just a bit fantastical, the characters were different, and odd, and had their quirks, mourning their lost lives, and their left behind loved ones, or just plain strange, they developed new lives, and yeah.

Liz really grows up in this book, even as she ages backwards, because she goes from really doing nothing with her afterlife by just watching her family live their lives, to getting a job that she really enjoyed, and forgiving the guy who ran her over accidentally. And yeah, that was really sweet to read!

This was a really good book, so I hope you guys check it out!

Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Read: January 17th, 2012
Source: Library
Reason Why: A YA Journey for FtBRC book, and it sounded interesting!
Publisher: Square Fish
Published: January 1st 2005

5/5 Hearts

4/5 Books

4/5 Stars