Amanda reminded me that I should be blogging some of the memorable books that I’ve been reading lately. And there have been a few, if you like Y.A.
One of the best books I have read recently has been Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin. It is about a girl who wakes up one morning and finds herself on a boat to “Elsewhere.” She finds out eventually that she has died in a car accident (days before her 16th birthday) and “Elsewhere” is where you go after one has died. Elsewhere is very much like Earth, except that you begin to age backwards in time from the time you die. So Liz (the girl’s name) finds herself struggling with the fact that she never reached her 16th birthday (let alone adulthood) and will never experience some of the important milestones one reaches as they age.
Despite the seemingly dark subject matter, the book is very funny and fun to read. Actually it is really hard to put down. Liz falls in love, finds her calling, and meets her grandmother for the first time on Elsewhere. She is able to make contact with her family and realizes that revenge is not the answer. The best part about this book is that it is VERY well written. Which I like very much.
Blatherskite 
4 responses to “Elsewhere”
awesome, thanks for the recommendation, Moni! put it on hold at my PL 🙂
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[…] I finished working on my course syllabus late yesterday so I spent the last of my Sunday hours curled up in bed with this book. I had reached about a quarter of the way through when I climbed into bed but I knew, just a few pages on, that I would press on until I hit the back cover. Elsewhere is one of those books that takes ahold of you, burrows in, and refuses to allow you to stop turning the pages. It’s about Liz, a fifteen year-old girl who gets hit by a car while riding her bike to the Mall to help her friend Zooey pick out a prom dress (YA? You guessed it). Most of the narrative takes place in Liz’s afterlife (”elsewhere”) where she is forced to confront what it means to have her life end abruptly (”I’ll never get my driver’s license, never go to Prom, never get into college” etc.) and never see her friends and family again. It’s smart and funny and paints as interesting (and inviting!) a picture of the afterlife as I’ve ever read. Thanks for blogging about this book, Moni! And keep the YA recommendations coming. […]
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I had a problem with the premise that God is whoever people believed Him/Her/It to be…that just cannot be true. Maybe that’s why there is no God in the book, and no personal God for Lizzie. It is a Godless afterlife, which is perhaps why reviewers like it so much, since it is more politically correct, even though it does make every cherished religion appear a lie. In this setting, if there were only reincarnation endlessly, what would happen when the earth ended? That would be the end of everything. Teens and kids like the book without even realizing what it might be doing to them.
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I don’t think it’s doing anything but entertaining them. Teens are generally mature enough to know when they are being entertained.
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